I was going about my normal routine, driving down the road jamming out on the radio to some John Fogerty. When lo and behold, I see what appears to be flames going the same direction I am. After I checked my coffee to make sure I didnt accidently put Jim Beam in my cup, I look again, and sure enough, there it is a car on fire driving down one of the busiest streets in town. I just had to see this, I follow (at a safish distance) and watch as the car turns into an abandoned grocery store parking lot. A lady gets out, and calmly starts to walk away, when next thing I know, 6 police cruisers 2 fire trucks and an ambulance pull up. The fire trucks quickly put the fire out, but not after seeing the entire vehicle go up in flames. I will get the pictures posted,unfortunately, I dont have any of the vehicle actually on fire, just the after math. It was an unusual sight,especially for my little college town. How was your day today?
I've seen vehicles with fires burning going down the road, but usually it's a BBQ pit being towed. Never seen a moving, on-fire vehicle. (However, a truck loaded with bales of raw cotton is interesting to see burn. You're not putting that out without just waiting for it to finish.)
Nothing like yours I did see a catch fire and burn but that was at a stop sign. The owner looked on from a safe distance and I watched from the other side of the road. Car was burned out and the tarsealed road didn't look too good. So today the only excitement was stopping on the way home to feed 6 wild/abandoned roosters.
Yeah, that seems more like a run out the clock scenerio. I would gladly have traded with you, it was bit more excitement than I really wanted. However I did get to tell my boss a good reason for being late. They said they had actually never heard that one before, and since it was original, I didnt get written up... So I guess thats actually a plus afterall.
I've seen that, several times. I get them pulled over, and within a minute or two the cars/trucks are fully engulfed. Almost every time this happens, the driver had just had his fuel system worked on, by either himself, or a friend. The stupidest one I've seen, was a large Trash Truck(Waste Management) with a lot of smoke coming from the back, where the compacted trash was. He was going down a busy freeway near downtown Houston. I signaled him about his issue. He then pulled off the freeway, and dumped his entire load in the parking lot of a gas station, about 15 feet from some gas pumps. He was on his way to unload the days worth of trash. Within a few minutes of the trash being dumped, and the air hitting it, there was a massive fire. The guy wasn't very bright. He also got at least one citation for doing this.
So, you never finished the story. The first thing that I thought of was, what happened to the female driver who walked off, from her burning car???
A very interesting tale, indeed. When I first encountered a vehicle engulfed in flames, I was quite alarmed at the intensity of the heat.
I did that on purpose. However to finish the story.... She claimed that she wasn't the driver of the vehicle, only the passenger. That the driver took off.... well it so happens upon further investigation of the incident, she was intoxicated with meth. She had stolen the car, and the owner of the car was in jail, so they had no way to file a report. The car was "used" for 4 days, until it caight on fire.
What's even more interesting to see is the aftermath. If the vehicle is a newer car, or high performance car, and the it is left to burn for a while, before being extinguished, there is a huge puddle of melted aluminum underneath. After it cools, the puddle is quite large and shiny.
Interesting. And to think I thought that was the run-off of extinguishing fluids. You learn something new everyday.
