Chaplain (Maj.) Brian Bailey, center wearing blue shirt, attends to a man who was badly burned when the cab of the semi-truck he was driving exploded into flames March 8, 2026, at a rest stop in Angath, Austria. (Brian Bailey)
NAPLES, Italy — A twice-thwarted attempt to satisfy a craving for cappuccino ended up turning an Italy-based U.S. Army chaplain into a godsend for two men seriously injured in a truck fire along an Austrian highway.
Chaplain (Maj.) Brian Bailey credited the timing to divine providence in explaining what recently led him to a rest stop in Angath, Austria, where a parked semi-truck had exploded into flames.
On March 8, Bailey was returning to U.S. Army Garrison Italy in Vicenza after attending a training class in Germany. He pulled into a roadside commercial area seeking a cappuccino.
The establishment was jammed with travelers, so Bailey drove on. To his disappointment, the next rest area where he stopped did not offer the beverage he was seeking.
“I thought, ‘Let me try to do this one more time because I really want the coffee,’” Bailey said.
He continued down the highway, pulling into a third rest area at Angath Nord, about 42 miles northeast of Innsbruck, when he soon saw black smoke billowing near the building.
A helicopter carrying the injured driver of a semi-truck that exploded into flames leaves a rest stop in Angath, Austria, March 8, 2026. Army chaplain Maj. Brian Bailey helped the badly burned driver and another injured man. (Brian Bailey)
A closer look revealed a panicked scene, with the cab of a semi-truck in flames, its badly burned driver lying on the pavement and a second injured man closer to the burning vehicle. That’s when the 41-year-old Iraq war veteran’s experience kicked in.
“The training that I’ve received in the Army and the relationships I’ve had from people in my life, I felt like those were driving me to get out of the car, to run towards the fire and to run towards the burned man, not knowing what was going to come next,” Bailey said.
Soon, Bailey was helping a Polish passer-by move the second injured man to safety. The 37-year-old Lithuanian had injured his leg while trying to rescue the truck driver, Bailey said.
Using his medical training, Bailey checked both men’s vital signs and stabilized them while directing bystanders to call emergency services.
At one point, the Polish man on the scene feared that the truck driver had died, but Bailey noticed he was still breathing, so he tilted the man’s head back to help clear his airway.
Fearful that the truck driver might go into cardiac arrest, Bailey ran into the rest stop asking in his “best German” for an automated external defibrillator, he said. He obtained the device and went back to rendering first aid.
Bailey and the Polish helper continued their efforts, cutting away burned clothing, monitoring his pulse and administering chest compressions when necessary.
“It was kind of hard to feel for (a pulse) because his arms were burned,” Bailey said. “(It was) like just gently touching his neck to make sure he was still with us.”
Chaplain Maj. Brian Bailey checks the temperature of the water in a baptismal font at U.S. Army Garrison Italy in Vicenza. Bailey, an Iraq war veteran, recently helped two injured men at the scene of a truck fire at a rest stop in Angath, Austria. (Rick Scavetta/U.S. Army )
They also talked to him and occasionally raised his legs to help the blood flow back down to his chest as they waited for emergency medical personnel to arrive, Bailey said.
Eventually, the truck driver was flown by helicopter to a Bavarian hospital. The injured Lithuanian man, who also suffered burns, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, the online news site Unsertirol24.com reported March 9. Their conditions are unknown.
Firefighters extinguished the truck blaze, which was caused by a technical defect, according to the Unsertirol24 report.
After the injured were evacuated, Bailey got back in his car, called his wife to explain what had happened and continued back to Italy.
He also relived the experience, thanking God for the injured Lithuanian man who pulled the driver from the burning truck and other people who helped at the scene.
“In that moment, you realize how fragile life can be,” Bailey said.