"It's a blessing of God": No one hurt after big rig plows into gas pumps, smashes into Fillmore gas station

It was a miracle no one was hurt, according to gas station workers and witnesses who watched helplessly as an out-of-control big rig plowed into gas pumps and a gas station in Fillmore.

The crash happened Tuesday morning at a Shell station at 117 Ventura Street. Authorities say the big rig coming off State Route 126 in Ventura County bounced off a bridge, took out a power pole and a palm tree, plowed down gas pumps, and smashed into the gas station.

The driver, who identified himself as Michael, said he fully expected an explosion. Michael suffered only minor injuries in the crash.

"I'm thinking, cause I hit two pumps, its gonna blow up. The windshield, the windshield was cracked, but I just started ripping it open, trying to get out of there, and that's how I got all of this over here," he said, rubbing his head, where there was still traces of blood from scrapes he sustained.

Somehow, there was no one inside the station browsing or waiting to use the bathroom, or even in the station's office, where manager Maria Gomez says she is working 99% of the time.

"Five minutes, and I would've been dead," she said. "I'm lucky that I'm alive and nothing happened to me."

Fillmore is one of Ventura County's smaller cities, at the foot of the Los Padres National Forest, with a population of a little bit more than 16,000, according to the 2020 Census. So it stands to reason even the town's fire chief would have witnessed the astonishing crash.

"I was coming into town, I saw a big cloud of smoke or white dust in front of me, people hitting their brakes," Fillmore Fire Chief Keith Gurrola said. "Just happened to be right behind the accident."

Everyone involved or who witnessed the crash expressed the same sentiment – it's a miracle no one was hurt.

"It's a blessing of God," the station's general manager, Salim Jalal, said.

And the realization of how close he was to mortal danger brought the driver Michael to tears.

"I just think about my son, that he was supposed to be with me this morning, he was crying, he wanted to come with me," Michael said tearfully. "And I thank God he's not."