BOISE -- The smoke has cleared but stories of bravery and selflessness continue to surface despite the devastation the fire left behind.  Wednesday's wildfire raced through the Eagle Foothills and many people were forced to make the decision of whether to flee or stay with their homes.

Brenna Hertux says she owes a lot to a man she just met Wednesday, while she and her family were evacuating.  He is a complete stranger who appeared offering to help.

“It came like that,” said Hertux.

Hertux explains the terrifying moments after she and her family began to evacuate after the fire quickly surrounded her home.
 
“Everything disappeared in smoke,” she said.

Hertux's husband loaded their grandchildren and two of their horses in a trailer and left.  Hertux was going to follow, but by time she turned around to leave the smoke was too thick to see her car.  She returned back to the barn, and that's when she was surprised by a man crawling inside.

“This kid appears under my back door, under the overhead barn door crawling in saying, 'What do you need me to do? Let me help,’ said Hertux.

She says the young man introduced himself as Dakota, and together they hosed down trees and hoped for the best.

“He and I watched the flames come up to the edge and everything else was gone it was just all smoke,” said Hertux.

Hertux says she was overwhelmed by the young man's willingness to help someone he didn't know.

“It was really comforting to have somebody in there with me and he didn't have to put himself in danger and he did that for total strangers,” said Hertux.

In the aftermath of the fire, Hertux said she lost contact with the man who helped her.

“He is, I just don't know who he is, Dakota, we owe a lot to him,” said Hertux.

On Friday we were able to track down Dakota and reunite him with the Hertux.

“You don't know how much you being there with me in that almost inferno, you remember how hot and smoky it was in there? It was scary breathing it, but to know there was somebody else there with me it was a bit of reassurance, reassurance to me it's going to be OK, it's going to be OK, that we've done the right thing choosing to stay here,” Hertux said to Dakota.

“Second nature, it wasn't a second thought, I just kind of went for it,” said Dakota Essman.

“I hope there are a lot more kids out there like him. He's an example of what our youth should and could be.  He offered up whatever he could to total strangers and put himself literally in the line of the fire to help us,” said Hertux.

Dakota says he will be going into the Marines this winter.  He says he doesn't consider himself a hero and says anyone in his situation would have done the same.

EAGLE -- There are a number of incredible stories from Wednesday's fire and many of them have to do with the firefighters who risked their lives to save people and property.

Over 350 firefighters from several different agencies worked on the Highway 16 Fire.

With that, there's a lot of coordination involved in order to get ahead of the fire and put it out.

"The simplest way to take a fire is to divide it and conquer it," said Eagle Fire Deputy Chief Mark Rabdau.

That's the 50,000-foot view on how to fight a fire.  But that's not the view that fires are always fought from.

"What you try to do is, as fire is you try to look at where is it going to go. Worst case scenario, where is it going to go? So we try to plan ahead. We came down and looked at this area, we got what resources we had on hand and we pre-staged them," said Rabdau.

And that involves planning.

"It's short term planning. It's kind of spur of the moment, because you don't have an option to plan for this," said Rabdau.

The Highway 16 Fire moved west to east.  Homes dotted the foothills in between rolling hills and dry weeds.  Fire destroyed some homes and hills, while avoiding others.

"It's the weather, it's the wind, it's the topography. Everything just kind of comes together or works to your advantage or against you, and sometimes it's luck," said Rabdau.

And sometimes the right equipment proves to be the difference.

Helicopters and air tankers dropping water and retardant were key in fighting this fire.

"The helicopters, they are very accurate with their buckets, and you can work with them directly, in close proximity to your crews, because they can control them better, so hand crews work with them directly and call in the bucket strikes," said Rabdau.

While there were a few homes destroyed, the majority were saved.  Homes like Rick Green's.

"They saved these two houses up here, I can't say enough, and they were here all night," said Green.

"Best we could do at the time with what we had," said Rabdau.   

Rabdau said that law enforcement played a key role in helping the fire efforts.

Even though they didn't fight the fire he said they made it really easy for crews to get around and in front of the fire.

BOISE -- The Idaho Department of Correction says an inmate who escaped from a community work center in Idaho Falls earlier this month is now a person of interest in a bank robbery in Salt Lake City.

Joe Dee Stang, 45, escaped on July 3, and is suspected of burglarizing an Idaho Falls business and stealing a van and a handgun.

The van was recovered in Salt Lake City on July 22. 

Stang appears to be the man seen on surveillance video robbing a Zions Bank around 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

The FBI says he had what appeared to be a gun in his waist band during the robbery.

After the robbery, the suspect used a taxi cab as a getaway vehicle.

Stang is a white male, 5-foot-11, 220 pounds with brown eyes and light brown and gray hair.  He has several tattoos including the image of a dragon on his left forearm.

He should be considered armed and dangerous.  Anyone who sees Stang should call police immediately.

The Idaho Department of Correction reports Stang was serving time for burglary and malicious injury to property in Bonneville, Bannock and Bingham counties.

EAGLE -- Some families in Eagle came very close to also losing everything in Wednesday’s Highway 16 fire.

Some amazing stories have emerged about the lengths some people went to to protect property and even lives.

Former firefighter Jeff Smith just happened to be at the right place at the right time with the right tool.

He almost didn't make it through the heavy police perimeter, but when some officials saw his front-end loader, they knew it could be put to good use.

While many people tried to get away from the fire, Smith forged toward it.

"I just think it was what you should do if you happen to be the one that has the front-end loader in the neighborhood and I happen to have it," Smith said.

The front-end loader, left over from his days as the owner of a local stone company, was put into motion.

While firefighters attacked the fire on the west end, Smith worked to the east, predicting correctly it would eventually come that way.

"If we couldn't stop it where it was, my home and the ones behind me were the next to go," he said.

For several hours, the former firefighter made dirt paths through the hills to prevent flames from crossing over and burning more.

At one point, he noticed flames at the home of his friend Ed Camp.

"The smoke was so thick. I literally, I couldn't see, and I barely made it back into that door," said Camp.

Camp's daughter's car, which was bought just two weeks ago, was engulfed by flames.

And Smith knew if he didn't do something about it those flames would consume Camp's home.

"The car was burning and blew up, and the paint was bubbling on the house just burst into those flames that start rolling just as I got there. So the loader I was able to push the cars away from the house and put dirt on the house," said Smith.

Camp says no doubt about it -- Smith came to his rescue.

"This was after it pretty much swept through, but it was still burning, and he came up, because the car was on fire, and the shed. You can see, by him pushing that over he kept that fire away from the house," said Camp.

"You can replace your car, you can replace your barn, but try and replace your household and everything inside of it? The photo albums, you know, you can't ever replace that," said Smith.

"I think, pretty lucky. When I was running down that hallway, and all our family pictures are on the wall, I thought, this is close, but the house is still standing. It's remarkable. I mean, honestly I thought it was gone. I told my wife it's all gone, and as the smoke started clearing, there's the roof line. It's remarkable really to me," said Camp.

"A machine like this could do a lot of good in a very short time, which it did," said Smith.

There were times when Smith felt like he was in danger, like when parts on his front end loader would start to smoke, but he kept going.

And Smith was supposed to be out of town Wednesday. He just happened to miss his flight.

EAGLE -- Families in Eagle surveyed the damage today from Wednesday's devastating wildfire and reacted to what was left behind.

The so called Highway 16 wildfire charred nearly 5,000 acres north of Eagle and left three families homeless.

The flames came very close to many of the homes, in some case stopping just a matter of feet from them.

Unfortunately, three homes were destroyed by the fire.

Seventeen-year-old Makenzie Baker and 11-year-old Jennifer Kitzberger surveyed the damage of where their home once stood. 

"Right here would be like our deck, where the barbecue, chairs , table and the front door would be where the cemented part.  I never thought it could happen," said Baker.

Both girls were not at home at the time of the fire, but saw the smoke and were worried.

"I got a call from her and said that houses were starting to catch on fire and I was like, 'holy cow that could be my house,' and once I found it was, I like broke down," said Baker.

The family says the lost most of their belongings in the fire, including memorabilia, pictures, documents, clothes and toys.

"This morning when I woke up, it just look like an atomic bomb went off, it's just incredible," said Glida Bothwell.

Bothwell lives one street over from this family and says by the time they arrived home after being evacuated Wednesday it was dark.  It was until this morning that she realized how lucky her family was.

"I thought our house was gone," she said.

"You know you never are prepared for it.  And we're not the homeowner, we're just the firefighter, but you're not prepared to see it and not be able to do anything about it at the time because the conditions are beyond your capability," said Eagle Fire Division Chief Mark Rabdau.

Rabdau says it was a difficult fire to fight, but even more difficult is watching families try to pick up what's left.

"I keep telling myself it goes on, I mean it's here one day probably will be gone the next.  We have other things that we need to worry about, other than this.  It's just life," said Baker.

The family that we interviewed that lost their home say they were just renting and did not have renters insurance.

Two other homes in the foothills were completely leveled by the fire.

Those homes were located right next door to each other on Skyline Drive, which is the street adjacent to where the other home burned down.

BOISE -- The owner of a popular hangout for University of Idaho supporters in Moscow is looking to cash in on the latest Bronco-Vandal rivalry talk -- using Boise State President Bob Kustra's own words.

On Tuesday, Kustra called Vandal culture "nasty" and "inebriated."

He later said those remarks came across harsher than he intended, but they've inspired a new T-shirt design from the owner of Moscow's Corner Club.

Marc Trivelpiece is taking advance orders for the shirts.

He told us that he thought Kustra, as a state employee, used bad form -- but he also said the BSU president made his week a lot less boring, and he'd like to buy Kustra a beer.

POCATELLO, Idaho -- A Bear Lake County man paralyzed from the waist down after being hit from behind in southeast Idaho by a fleeing suspect pursued across three states by a Utah sheriff has been awarded $3.7 million by a Pocatello jury.

The nine-member jury earlier this week found Rich County Sheriff Dale Stacy 30 percent at fault and the person he was pursuing, Darrell Ervin, 70 percent responsible.

It's unclear how much money Kyle Athay will collect because Ervin has no assets and Idaho has a cap on awards for pain and suffering that could limit how much Rich County will pay.

The crash happened on June 10, 1999. The lawsuit was dismissed in Bear Lake County before an appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court, then sent to Bannock County.

POST FALLS, Idaho -- Tense moments Thursday afternoon as police and SWAT surrounded a home for hours.  They were looking for a suspect, 28-year-old Joshua Moses, who is accused of kidnapping and extortion.

Police arrested Moses at the Falls Club after a chase that spanned many miles and many hours.  Police finally tracked him down hiding in a back room.

The twisted story started on Saturday at a home on 18th and Compton.  Police say Moses allegedly kidnapped another man, Joshua Benham, and held him for ransom.  Police say Benham was forced into the basement where he was tied to a chair with duct tape.  After a few days, investigators say his family came up with $2,500 and Benham went free.

On Thursday Post Falls police came back to investigate.  They were told Moses was still there and armed with a handgun.  They called the SWAT team.  After six hours with SWAT waiting outside, police got another tip that Moses was already gone.  Police tracked him for miles, finally finding him inside the Falls Club Bar near the Spokane River on Seltice Way.

Moses was unarmed when he was arrested.  Police did not find a gun in the house either.  Moses is charged with three counts of kidnapping, extortion, and aggravated battery.

BOISE -- Firefighters working in the Boise National Forest have responded to 16 fires since the lightning storms that began Monday night.

The Forest Service says the largest is the 16-acre Little Beaver Fire, which started Wednesday about 25 miles north of Lowman.

The five-acre Clear Creek Fire started Thursday in an unpopulated area about 15 miles northeast of Lowman.

The Forest Service says there haven't been any significant containment problems.

Meanwhile, officials with the Payette National Forest say seven small fire have been reported over the past three days from lightning storms that moved through the area.

Most of the new fires are in the New Meadows-McCall area.  All of the fires are less than one acre.

One fire, the Pup Creek Fire, is in monitor status and is burning in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness near Chamberlain.  All of the other fires are contained or will be shortly.  Demobilization has started on many of the fires.

Firefighter patrols and airplane detection flights continue to search for additional new fire starts.  More fires are anticipated.

POCATELLO -- An eastern Idaho man says his fondness for a 200-pound potbellied pig knows no city limits.

BOISE -- Boise State University and the Basque government are teaming up to help promote the Basque language and culture.

An agreement signed today includes a five-year financial commitment from the Basque government for BSU's Basque Studies program.

"In short, our goal is, in five years, in 2015, for Boise State to be the leading teaching institution of Basque studies in the world," said BSU Provost Sona Andrews.

At the signing ceremony, Basque President Patxi Lopez called the Basque culture a "universal wealth."

BOISE -- The President of the Basque Country, Patzi Lopez, visited Boise for the very first time to enjoy Jaialdi.  KTVB sat down with President Lopez to discuss his impressions of Boise and about American-Basque relations.

Like others visiting from the Basque Country, Lopez first was excited to see how big Jaialdi is in Boise and how large the Basque community is in Idaho.

"Boise's embraced the Basque people and has helped them and let them prosper," Lopez said.  "They always have told me about Jaialdi, but when you come here, it really does surprise you."

Political unrest in the Basque government

Lopez was elected last year as the leader of the autonomous Basque government.  Lopez is a socialist, and with his election ended three decades of a nationalist government. 

With political unrest going back decades, Lopez acknowledges the Basque Country could be negetively perceived, but says to truly understand, someone would have to follow day-to-day changes and progress.
 
"The reality of Basques, you have to understand and follow day to day because it is changing just as our daily lives," Lopez said. "Surely a lot of the news that comes here may have to do with some of the problems and the violence, but the Basque country is a prosperous country, a modern country, and technologically advanced."

When Lopez was elected in 2009, he vowed to confront ETA, what the U.S. and Europe consider a terrorist group.  ETA is a group blamed for killing hundreds of people in its fight to have an independant Basque state, seperate from Spain and France.

"Everyone is united... here that is demonstrated."

When talking about any political controversy, Lopez points to his lapel pin as just one symbol of how he feels Basques and Americans are coming together.

"Clearly, yes, everyone is united, and no one is asking what they think individually.  There are thousands of ways to feel Basque, and here that is demonstrated," Lopez said.

With his visit to Idaho, Lopez said the unity he sees between the two cultures in Boise should stand as an example to everyone.

"I think the Basque-American experience here is something that we can all learn and try to follow," Lopez said.
           
Lopez, his wife, and other Basque government officials will be in Boise for Jaialdi through Saturday.

EAGLE -- There were many close calls in the Eagle foothills Thursday, with both life and property in the path of a fast moving wildfire.

We spoke with two people who call themselves lucky.

Just off of Eagle Road is the furthest east the Highway 16 Fire reached.  And even though the fire died down and was stopped at this location, it doesn't mean that the homes in the area had any easier of a fight against the fire.

"I thought we were safe, but I knew it was going to switch, it always does. It doesn't stay that direction for very long," said Ed Camp.

From his lookout on a hill across from his home, Ed Camp says the fire began to move a lot faster towards his home than he thought.

"By the time I got back from there to here, it was already here," said Camp.  "It was just blowing, it was very fierce. It was so smokey I couldn't see flames, quite honestly. I never saw flames it was so smokey. And the ash was coming down like rain."

With smoke surrounding him, breathing was beyond difficult.

"The smoke was so thick. I literally, I couldn't see, and I barely made it back into that door," said Camp.

The fire surrounded his home on the north and on the south.

On the north, it destroyed a shed and his daughter's car, purchased just two weeks ago.

A friend of his, a man by the name of Jeff Smith, came with a front end loader came to his rescue.

"This was after it pretty much swept through, but it was still burning, and he came up, because the car was on fire, and the shed. You can see, by him pushing that over, he kept that fire away from the house," said Camp.

Air tankers even dropped retardant on the home.

Camp says everything happened so fast that as he looks back - it's emotional.

"I think, pretty lucky. When I was running down that hallway, and all our family pictures are on the wall, I thought, this is close, but the house is still standing. It's remarkable. I mean, honestly I thought it was gone. I told my wife it's all gone, and as the smoke started clearing, there's the roof line, it's still, it's remarkable really to me," said Camp.

Just up the road, it was a different problem for Scott Raymes and his wife.

Scott was at work and she was at home watching the fire - realizing their home was in its path.

"She called me and says, 'I think we've got an emergency situation.' She had ridden one of our motorcycles back to the lookout and said it was coming fast," said Scott Raymes.

So fast that Raymes, who stayed on the phone with his wife, wanted her to drop everything and run.

"So I got to hear all the panic, grabbing stuff, running out of the house. I was yelling at her, saying, look just leave the house. Don't get anything, just go. Get out!" said Raymes.

When she made it outside she hit a wall of smoke and couldn't see anything.  She jumped in the car and left the home.

"Drove down the driveway, drove the car off the road, into the embankment down there and called 911 and called me on the phone," said Raymes.

Sheriff's deputies tried to make their way up Hondo Road, but had to turn back because the smoke was too thick.

But not too thick for Raymes whose wife was in the path of the fire.

"So I wrapped my head in a towel and drove up there, because I knew she was up there somewhere, and she was still sitting in the car," he said.

With flames only 20 feet away - he pulled his wife out, and just in time.

"She probably had a minute before the car would have been engulfed. The fire was coming up behind that corral, and there was about a minute to go, and that car would have touched off," said Raymes.  "We think we're very lucky.  Fortunately none of our neighbors lost their houses either, a little bit of damage, but we're all very lucky."

While the fire is out and the damage done, the work is not over for people like Raymes and Camp.

They now have to work with insurance companies to begin to rebuild their lives.

If you would like to help families who lost homes in the fire, you're asked to donate to the Eagle Fire Burnout Fund.

You can send donations by mail or drop off checks at the Eagle Fire Station 1, 966 E. Iron Eagle Drive, Eagle, Idaho, 83616.

BOISE -- A wildfire burning in the Eagle foothills Wednesday afternoon destroyed three homes and a barn, and forced the evacuation of hundred of homes.   

As of 10 p.m., fire officials report the fire was 100 percent contained.

Officials say no one was injured but, the blaze destroyed structures are in the area of Homer and Smoky Ridge, and Homer and Skyline Drive.

A storm moving through the valley earlier in the day sparked a grass fire east of Highway 16 near Linder and Homer roads. 

The latest estimate is that 4,857 acres have been charred, down from an earlier estimate of 6,000 acres.  The fire moved east across the foothills toward Highway 55.  Most residents in the blackened areas were not being allowed back in their homes as fire crews continued to douse hot spots.

The winds picked up again Wednesday afternoon and fire officials say additional homes northeast of Homer Road and Ballantyne, stretching east to Quarter Drive were threatened by the flames.

Ada County Sheriff's deputies and Eagle Police officers evacuated homes in the area.  A call also went out on a geocast, a type of reverse 911 that warns residents about dangers such as this.

Residents were told to go to Eagle High School at 574 N. Park Lane.  The Red Cross set up a shelter at the high school and provided cots, blankets, water and food.

For a look at a map of the evacuation area, click here.

Boise Fire spokeswoman Lynn Hightower said that all homes north of Valli High east to Willow Creek were being evacuated.

This wildfire continued to pose problems for firefighters throughout the afternoon because of the winds.  Also, getting enough water to fight the fire was an issue.

There were 300 firefighters from the Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Department of Lands, Eagle, Star, Meridian, Boise and Caldwell fire departments battling the wildfire.  A call went out for additional firefighting help.  Crews made a heavy aerial assault with helicopter water bucket drops and retardant drops from air tankers.

The BLM had five air tankers, two helicopters, 12 engines and two Hot Shot crews - one from Boise and one from Vale, Oregon - working the fire.  A Hot Shot crew is made up of 21 members that are specially trained in cutting fire lines quickly.  Three bulldozers  were used to cut fire lines. 

About three homes were threatened earlier in the afternoon, but crews worked quickly and were about to get fire lines around those residences.  Crews from above made water and retardant drops.

"We've all known that this is just a tinder box ready to go.  And of course, living in the foothills you always worry about this," said homeowner Carol Telford.

Telford was shopping in Eagle when she learned that flames were creeping toward her home.  She says a few years ago another grass fire came close to her house.

Katie Ingram lives in that area and said she saw some horses running down the road, but was able to corral them.  She was worried when she first spotted the fast-moving fire, but expressed relief that flames did not claim any homes.

Boise Fire Chief Dennis Doan says their top priority is keeping people safe and structure protection. 

The fire crested the rim around 3:30 p.m. and firefighters were moved to safer ground.  There have been no injuries to report.

Initially it was reported there was another fire near the Avimor subdivision along Highway 55 north of Boise, but authorities say that is not the case.  It was merely smoke from the fire near Highway 16.

Investigators believe lightning caused the fire, since thunderstorms moved through the area Wednesday morning.

A red flag warning remains in effect for much of southwest Idaho.

A red flag warning means that the current conditions could mean severe fire danger.

Abundant lightning and dry fuels is the reason for the warning.

KTVB.COM Breaking News E-mail Alert subscribers were the first to learn about this story. Click here to sign up for future alerts.

EAGLE -- Firefighters are still on the scene of the homes that were destroyed by fire near Eagle Wednesday.

Our crews on the scene say the burned area is still smoking.

The pictures taken are of two of the homes destroyed on Skyline Drive.

What started out as a small wildfire near Highway 16 Wednesday afternoon, blew up into a massive one that destroys three homes and charred more than 4,850 acres in the Eagle foothills.

Afternoon winds whipped up the fire that forced hundreds to evacuate their homes and move their horses and other animals to safety.

Investigators believe lightning caused the fire, because thunderstorms moved through the area before it started.

Ada County commissioners have issued a disaster declaration, declaring the area affected by the wildfire a county disaster.  That allows the county to access emergency resources now and in the coming days.

Residents returned to the homes today to assess the damage and begin picking up the pieces of their lives.  One of the worse areas hit was along Skyline Drive where all that’s left of several homes is a pile of rubble.

Crews were out in that area this morning working to make sure that hot spots do not flare up.

Jen Martinez lives near the burned down homes.  She said the flames and smoke came upon their home very fast.  They had to scramble to gather up the horses and valuables before police made them evacuate.

She said a lot of people were coming and going into the neighborhood, but the smoke made it very hard to navigate.  The face of her neighborhood has completely changed in just one day.

“It’s just scary looking.  It’s surreal.  You look out, you see it, but it’s not really registering that this really happened.  It doesn’t look right,” said Martinez.

Martinez is now face with the prospective of a lot of cleanup work, while other ponder where to rebuild their homes.

BOISE -- It looks like the military's new F-35 fighter jets won't be coming to southwest Idaho.

Idaho's congressional delegation said that Mountain Home Air Force Base and Boise's Gowen Field are out of the running in the first round to be the bases of operation and training for the new F-35 Joint Striker Jet.

The two bases did not make the initial list of recommedations from the Air Force's review panel.  The construction costs are a factor.

The military might want to have the option of housing three squadrons at once, so it would have to build in Idaho to accommodate that.

Sen. Mike Crapo was disappointed when he received the call from the Air Force this morning and is going over the materials it sent.

In a statement he said, "I have felt all along that Idaho's facilities and training range put us at the top of the list."

We're told this does not mean Mountain Home and Gowen Field are scratched from the final list, but they are not the top preference.

“We’re disappointed, but by no means are we defeated,” Gov. Butch Otter said in a statement. “It’s a long process for deploying an aircraft that will be in use for decades to come, and this is just round one. We’ll have more opportunities to get squadrons of F-35s based here in Idaho, with the careers and economic opportunity they will bring with them. We will use the coming months to keep making our case to the Air Force, loud and clear and united, that Mountain Home Air Force Base and Gowen Field are the best places in the country to locate this next generation of weapons systems, for training, operations, and possibly even foreign sales.”

366th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Ron Buckley says the Air Force is considering buying 1,700 F-35s in the years ahead.

This first round decision, involves about 250 to 300 planes.

And the Air Force will go through the selection process every two to three years.

"I think there's a very good chance that F-35s will one day be at Mountain Home AFB," said Buckley.

Bases in Utah, Vermont and Arizona won a first installment of the single-engine jets, whose costs now run $113 million per plane.

Operational missions would go to Hill Air Force Base in Utah and the Burlington Air Guard Station in Vermont; for training, the Air Force is recommending Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.

The Air Force also announced Wednesday that 59 F-35 jets would be stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.

Gowen is one of two finalists for the C-27J Spartan cargo plane.  The other is Great Falls, Mont.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

BOISE -- A 20-year-old Boise man is charged with several felonies after police say he put a pickup truck in reverse, crashed into a fence and injured two people.

Police say Nathan Workman is charged with driving under the influence, hit and run, and injury to a child for an incident that occurred in a Boise neighborhood Wednesday morning.

Officers were called to the 600 block of S. Phillippi around 10:30 a.m.  Witnesses reported seeing a pickup with two people in the back driving around 60 mph in a 30 mph zone.  The driver headed up Phillippi to Franklin and then put the truck in reverse.  He continued speeding and crashed into two garbage cans and a chain link fence.

One witness said a young girl in the back of the truck cried out when part of the fence struck her leg.  As he approached the truck, the driver sped off, dragging a piece of the fence.  The man was hit by the fence piece and thrown into the air.  He landed some distance down the road.

Officers arrived on scene and were able to quickly locate the truck and its driver at a nearby home.

The injured girl and man were taken to the hospital and treated and released.  The girl suffered a leg injury, while the man had some severe scrapes and bruises.

Police say Workman was found to be under the influence of alcohol and arrested.  His driver's license was suspended for no proof of insurance and other traffic infractions.