One Crash Seen as Act of God

Can a tanker explosion have a greater purpose?

Late one Saturday morning eight years ago, Dennis A. Haight, who had recently been laid off from his job as a steelworker and was several months behind on his home mortgage, was reading the paper when an Atlantic Richfield tanker crashed in flames near the front yard of his rural Pennsylvania home.

Damage to his property proved to be minor--some scorched paint and torched pine trees.

But the accident was a watershed event for the deeply religious Haight. Arco paid him $6,500 to settle the accident, money he used to pay the mortgage and head off foreclosure.

“I was doing a lot of praying at the time,” Haight said in a phone interview, “and I really believe God heard me and answered my prayer.”