The accident was reported at the intersection of U.S. Highway 30 and S Avenue, near Grand Junction.

Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams said a semi hauling hogs, driven by Travis Davis, 37, of Wayland, was southbound on S Avenue when it ran a stop sign at Highway 30.

When it ran the stop sign, it struck the trailer of a westbound tanker that was filled with gasoline, which was being driven by Jeffrey Mercer, 43, of Osceola.

There were about 8,000 gallons in the tanker.

According to the Iowa State Patrol’s accident report, Davis’ semi kept going south across Highway 30 and went into the west ditch on S Avenue, where it ended up jackknifed.

While this was going on, a gas-filled trailer detached from the truck, rolled into the south ditch on Highway 30 and caught fire, according to the accident report.

It further stated that Mercer was able to pull the cab over to the side of the road.

After the collision, a westbound GMC Sierra 2500, driven by David Reed, 50, of Jefferson, struck the debris field and went off the road into the south ditch on Highway 30.

The flames from the trailer caught the pickup on fire as well, the report stated.

Fort Dodge Fire Chief Steve Hergenreter, who was on scene with the Region V Hazardous Materials Response Team, said Mercer pulled Reed out of the burning pickup “and likely saved his life as the fire started to grow.”

“It was was starting to become an enormous fire,” Hergenreter said. “The driver of the gasoline tanker was able to pull him (Reed) out of that. It ended up engulfing his pickup truck.”

Both Davis and Reed were transported to Greene County Medical Center with serious injuries.

Mercer was uninjured.

Hergenreter said HAZMAT was on scene to help clean up the gasoline spill, as well as a diesel leak from the other semi.

They also helped extinguish the fire.

“Region V HAZMAT has 500 gallons of foam to put out a fire like that,” he said. “It was a very large, flammable liquid fire.”

He said the gasoline will have to be cleaned up by an environmental contractor.

“We decided to let it burn out as much as it could,” he said. “There’s a large area where the gas was in the ditch along Highway 30 there. It’s a big environmental cleanup project that the DNR (Iowa Department of Natural Resources) will be coordinating in the days to come.”

Greene County fire and EMS also responded to the scene.