When Rick Mears pitted on lap 58, fuel began to gush from the refueling hose before it had been properly connected to the car. Fuel sprayed out over the car, into the cockpit onto Mears, and splashed onto some of the mechanics. It then ignited when it contacted the engine or the exhaust. Methanol burns with a transparent flame and no smoke, and panic gripped the pit as crew members and spectators fled from the invisible fire. Mears, on fire from the waist up, jumped out of his car and ran to the pit wall, where a safety worker, not seeing the fire, tried to remove Mears' helmet. Meanwhile, Mears' fueler, covered in burning fuel, waved his arms frantically to attract the attention of the fire crews already converging on the scene. By this time the safety worker attending to Mears had fled, and Mears, in near panic at being unable to breathe, leaped over the pit wall toward another crewman carrying a fire extinguisher, who dropped the extinguisher and also fled. Mears tried to turn the extinguisher on himself, but at this point his father, Bill Mears, having already pulled Rick's wife Dina to safety, grabbed the extinguisher and put out the fire. His mechanics had also been extinguished, and the fire crew arrived to thoroughly douse Mears' car.
