CENTRAL — While Lisa Ball was on her way to work Tuesday night after the snow, she noticed something going on in her truck: smoke coming up from around the floorboard. At first, she thought it was just cold air seeping in because of the recent snow and chilled air, but then she noticed the vents weren’t blowing very well.
That’s when she says she saw flames coming out of the vents.
Less than five minutes after the flames started, Ball said the fire was uncontrollable. She escaped the truck, leaving behind her purse and cell phone behind, among other items.
“Everything burned, I lost everything,” Ball recounted.
She attempted to use an extinguisher in the vehicle to put the fire out but couldn’t get it to work. Outside the truck, she said she tried to put the fire out but plastic was melting onto her hands.
A passerby happened to take a photo of the truck on fire after Ball had left.
After she had gotten out, Ball saw a truck nearby and the people inside offered to give her a ride to work but if she had to ride in the bed of the truck. Because of the below-freezing temperatures, she said she was worried that riding in the back would be worse than just walking to work.
Fortunately, another vehicle came by soon after and gave Ball a ride to her job in their backseat.
She tells UWK she has a burn on her face and some on her hands from the melting plastic, however, she considers herself blessed from the outpouring of love and help she’s receiving from strangers.
“This sort of support has never happened to me before, I’m just, like, blessed — so blessed,” Ball said.
Her burned truck was towed and right now she’s catching rides to and from work. She is looking to get another vehicle so she can continue making her work shifts, and hopes that she can get the truck back to her home.
She is also currently without her ID or a cell phone.
“I was pretty devastated, because that truck was everything to me. I even lost my favorite shoes that I wore to work,” Ball said. The pair of shoes were still in the truck when she got out, but she did have other shoes on.
‘Divine intervention’
Micheal Haffner and his girlfriend decided to go out that same night to go eat and said it was “divine intervention” that they did. They ended up at the restaurant where Ball works and as she was waiting on them, they learned about her predicament.
“Something said, ‘You’ve gotta help her’,” Haffner said. “I literally went across the street and got $60 to just get her some money.”
He said as they talked to Ball, he could tell how dedicated she was to her job and how worried she was about being late to her shift. While she has two adult children, one of them lives out of state and recently was in an accident, too, so he isn’t able to help her very much right now.
Haffner created a GoFundMe for Ball to hopefully get her a new vehicle and the money she needs right now to replace her purse, shoes and other items.
“It’s definitely a blessing. These people are so sweet. If it wouldn’t be for them, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now,” Ball said of the couple.
Anyone wishing to help Ball can donate to her GoFundMe. She also said she wears between an 8 and 9 shoe.
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