Williams Garage Fire ... And It's Heroes

A massive post-race fire in the Williams garage as the team celebrated Pastor Maldonado's victory at the Spanish Grand Prix left the pit lane shrouded in acrid smoke as firefighters rushed in to tackle the blaze.

The FIA confirmed that there were 31 team members seen at the medical centre after the incident and that seven required further hospital treatment. It was believed that the fire started after fuel ignited as television footage showed an intense fire rising at the back of the Williams garage, while a number of teams reacted to help. A Williams team statement confirmed that three team members remained in hospital on Sunday evening:

"After today's Spanish Grand Prix a fire occurred in the team's garage which originated from the fuel area.

"Four team personnel were injured in the incident and subsequently taken to the medical centre. Three are now receiving treatment at local hospitals for their injuries, while the fourth has been released. The team will monitor their condition and ensure they receive the best possible care.

"The team, the fire services and the police are working together to determine the root cause of the fire and an update statement will be released in due course."

Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen also tweeted: "Couple of our guys got injuries, burns and maybe one broken wrist, no news on Williams guys I hope they're ok".

A Caterham statement soon followed, reading: "All the team's employees have been accounted for and four people have been taken to the circuit medical centre for examination; one with a minor hand injury and three with respiratory issues."

Frank Williams was quickly removed from the garage and later told Sky Sports "Everything was OK when I left, but there was a lot of smoke around so I don't really know. Secondary information says no-one's hurt but I must go and verify that because I think the police are still there."

An FIA statement confirmed the number of team members who were treated: "Thirty-one team members were seen by Circuit Medical Centre staff and all have been released, with the exception of seven who were transferred to a variety of local hospitals where they are receiving treatment.

The FIA is collaborating closely with the Spanish authorities investigating this incident and will be providing a further update as soon as more information becomes available."

Force India's chief operations officer Otmar Szafnauer also said that he thinks the teams reacting well to the situation. 

"We were a few garages away having our debrief when we saw all the smoke and ran over. It smelled like an electrical fire to me - I've heard it could be a KERS pack - but we don't know. We all ran over to help and I've got to go and check on one of our mechanics who I believe inhaled some smoke. I think he's at the medical centre here so I'm going to go and check on him. I believe he's OK. We all ran down with our fire extinguishers to help put it out. It's good that we do have fire extinguishers almost everywhere in the garage but that is a bit fortunate that almost all the teams went down to help put it out."

via ESPN 

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I can safely say that I cried at the sight of such amazing (and fearless) men and women running into an unknown situation without knowledge of the circumstances and joining together as One Team to fight the fire in the Williams garage.



SKY's post-race walk where Eddie Jordan sees smoke and the viewer gets to see exactly how tight the paddock is and how quickly they will stop everything they are doing, pick up and help one team.