Woman ‘Hoarding’ Gasoline Catches On Fire After Freak Accident, Police Say

A South Carolina woman who told police she was “hoarding” gasoline caught on fire after a car crash Thursday, according to police.

A deputy with the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office attempted to pull over a 2007 Pontiac G6 Thursday night after noticing the plates were reported stolen. The deputy attempted to pull the vehicle over but the driver, later identified as 28-year-old Jessica Gale Patterson, allegedly accelerated and tried to flee, according to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office.

Patterson then lost control and “completely” flipped the vehicle, police said. The car then burst into flames and “multiple explosions were heard inside the vehicle,” police said.

“As the deputy approached the vehicle, the driver … exited the vehicle and was observed to be on fire. The deputy pushed Ms. Patterson to the ground in order to put out the flames.” (RELATED: Police Arrest Man For Allegedly Drilling Hole In Truck To Steal Gas)

Patterson told police “she was transporting several containers of fuel that she was hoarding in the trunk of the vehicle,” Pickens County Sheriff’s Office said. “These containers of fuel were the catalyst of the explosions.”

Patterson was taken to a local hospital, police said.

A woman who said she lived nearby “heard a huge boom, sirens, a woman screaming” and went to check the scene.

The footage shows massive black billows of smoke emanating from a vehicle while an officer appears to radio into the station.

Several states have been experiencing a gas shortage after the Colonial Pipeline, which supplies nearly half of all gas to the East Coast, was shut down Friday by a cyberattack. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned Americans Wednesday not to put gasoline in plastic bags after video emerged showing a woman filling plastic bags with gasoline.