Man rushed to hospital after he was burned in car fire at Shorewood parking lot

A man is undergoing treatment for burn injuries sustained in a car fire Wednesday.

Troy Fire Protection District Chief Paul Hertzmann said the district received a call at 3:50 p.m. about a car fire in a parking lot at Sharp Drive and Black Road in Joliet.

“When we arrived, there was a person on the ground – a male person – about 50 feet away who had significant burn injuries,” Hertzmann said.

Hertzman said the Troy Fire Protection District requested a medical airlift for the victim because of his burns. But that wasn’t granted.

“[They were] not able to fly due to the weather,” Hertzman said.

So the Troy Fire Protection District ground-transported the victim to Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet with extra personnel, Hertzmann said.

The fire itself took only a few minutes to extinguish, Hertzmann said.

The Shorewood Police Department and the Joliet Police Department were also at the location when the Troy Fire Protection District arrived, Hertzmann said.

The Joliet Police Department had first gone to the 2700 block of Harbor Drive at 2:34 p.m. after receiving a report of a missing 54-year-old man, according to Joliet police.

When gathering information at the scene, Joliet police learned the man might be suicidal and was last seen in a vehicle, according to Joliet police. Officers extensively searched the area, Joliet police said.

Joliet police said they were notified shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday that Troy Fire Protection District and the Shorewood Police Department had responded to a vehicle fire in a parking lot in the 200 block of Black Road in Shorewood. Joliet police said they were also notified that the man was severely burned.

When Joliet officers arrived at the scene, they confirmed that the victim in the vehicle fire was the man reported missing from the 2700 block of Harbor Drive.

Joliet police said the man was in serious condition when he was transported to St. Joe’s.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Hertzmann said.