You’re driving back from Berkeley, where you were covering the latest campus protest, when your managing editor at the Daily Dazzle calls you on your cell phone and tells you to head to El Cerrito instead. She says a runaway truck has knocked out power in El Cerrito and some neighboring cities, including Berkeley and Richmond, and caused a fire on Moeser Lane. It sounds like several people have also been hurt, she adds.

When you arrive at Moeser Lane in El Cerrito, the scene is chaotic. You start taking notes immediately. You can see a big asphalt truck, a 10-wheel hauler, overturned and smashed against somebody’s house. The truck and the house are still smoldering. The truck left a path of destruction in its wake: a snapped power pole and five badly damaged vehicles.

You talk to El Cerrito police Detective Sgt. Shawn Maples, who tells you he was among the first rescue workers to arrive at the scene. He heard cries coming from the burning truck and house, and started digging through the debris. He spotted the driver lodged between the wheels of the truck, which had flipped on its side. Maples said the driver’s legs were mangled and he couldn’t move. Maples was able to grab his hand and, with some help form Police Chief Scott Kirkland and Detective Ken Zinc, he was able to pull the driver to safety. Maples said, “We dragged him out in a heartbeat while the truck went up in flames. I just wanted to get him out of there.”

Another witness, Ruben Sharma, lives across the street from the single-story home that was destroyed in the fire. He was just about to head back to work around 1:30 when the crash occurred. He said, “ First, I thought it was a major earthquake. This is unbelievable.” His front yard is littered with bricks, broken glass, car parts, splintered wood and palm fronds.

A Honda sedan hit by the truck was so crumpled that the driver was trapped inside. Rescue workers sliced into it, peeling back the roof to free the trapped driver. A electrician’s truck that had been parked on Moeser was knocked over to the next street, Richmond. A sport utility vehicle that apparently had a man and boy inside ended up stuck in some shrubbery beside the burning house.

Later you call and find out that the driver, a San Jose man whose name was not released, broke both of his legs in the crash. He’s listed in serious but stable condition at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.