October 22, 2007 Miami beach , Fla
A gas station worker is being hailed as a hero for taming a raging fire where he works before firefighters arrived to finish it off. Now authorities are investigating the driver of the car that started the massive fire after he slammed into one of its pumps and fled the scene on foot.

According to authorities, the vehicle slammed into one of the gas pumps, knocked it down and hit the Chevron Gas Station structure on 71st Street and Bay Drive on Normandy Isle. The blaze erupted once fuel leaked from the pump after the automatic shut off on the gas pumps was activated.

After a raging fireball shot skyward soon after the accident, 61-year-old Luis Tamayo, the station's attendant, said he had no choice but to fight the fire himself. "I had to find a solution until firefighters arrived," he said through a translator. "I tried to do the best I could with what was available. This gas station was saved because I had three new fire extinguishers."

As for the driver, authorities transported him to Jackson Memorial Hospital after police found him with a head injury shortly after the accident. The hospital has not released his condition, and police will most likely charge him with leaving the scene of an accident.