Jeep Bursts Into Flames, Soldiers Thanked For Preventing Wildfire

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4)- Firefighters at the Broadmoor are thanking two soldiers who helped call in a vehicle on fire before it sparked a wildfire.

The two men, Aaron Patrick and Cody Libert, were driving on Old Stage Road when they noticed a Jeep with the engine on fire. They called 911.

The flames were already spreading to the heavily forested area.

"After we got off the phone the first time, it spread so fast, it hit the gas tank... it just blew up," said one of the men.

"That had the very big possibility of turning into something that may have been maybe like Mountain Shadows or the Hayman Fire, had that not had that quick response," said Broadmoor Fire Department Capt. Fred Monroe.

When crews arrived, the fire had burned almost a third of an acre. Fire crews were able to extinguish it before it could spread any more.