My car caught on fire today. Kathrine and I were driving to the Mustard Seed (my favorite restaurant, even though the service usually stinks) when I started smelling a strange hot smell. Now, I have experience with overheating cars because one of my first cars was a chrysler lazer that overheated regularly at pretty much every stop light. I know how to deal with your standard overheated car. I knew this was a far more menacing smell because I have also had the opportunity of being in a car and realizing that the motor is on fire (about 8 years ago between Missoula and Plains. I actually had to hitchhike the rest of the way home with a strange man, because that was before I owned a cell phone... but I digress) and the hot wire stench hit a familiar nerve. I swerved off the road and into a Sinclair station. In hindsight, I probably should not have parked my burning car in front of the propane tanks, but in desperate times sometimes the details get ignored. After opening the hood and realizing yes, it is on fire, I ran inside and excitably shouted,"My car is on fire!!!" to the attendants there. All I heard was quiet and crickets. So, I attempted shouting again, hoping to arouse more of a response,"MY CAR IS ON FIRE!!! DO YOU HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER?!?!?!?"
They slowly leaned over and looked out the window,"Yep... her car is really on fire... well... um...."
"DO YOU HAVE A BUCKET!!!!!!ANYTHING!!!!"
"Uh..."
My eyelids were starting to twitch. The flames were leaping noticably higher and yet the man I was following to look for a bucket was in slow motion. He found the bucket, but apparantly their water pressure was on the sub-par side, because all that was coming out was a trickle. It took a good 60 seconds to get it about a quarter full. I pulled the still filling bucket from his hands and ran out the door, him following behind, I think mainly from the curiousity of seeing how mangled and burned I would get from my endeavors. I threw the miniscule amount of water on the leaping flames and was delighted to see it was pretty effective. To his credit, the attendant (who was a burly and capable looking fellow, the sort one might expect to rescue a damsel such as myself) went back inside to grab some more water. Apparantly he found a faucet in better working order, because it didn't take nearly as long and he came back with a FULL bucket this time. I sprinkled the water around the flames, getting a little closer and being even more effective because I no longer expected either the flames to leap back into my face OR the car to blow up. A mechanic meandered over from the neighboring car shop. His brilliant kick in the stomach went something like,"Yall should have let it burn! It would've been totalled but now this baby is going to need a LOT of tlc..."Which is to say,"This sucker is going to COST you". My brilliant manuvering to save my car had actually been the wrong move! And it was too wet to start on fire again *grr*... On the bright side, if I had let it burn, the propane tanks might have exploded, causing more expensive damage than a burnt up engine.
So, now the car has been towed away. Derrick took care of the details, and picked me up and now I am at home and I am wondering.... does anyone need a new car because I know where an AWESOME one is for cheap!
They slowly leaned over and looked out the window,"Yep... her car is really on fire... well... um...."
"DO YOU HAVE A BUCKET!!!!!!ANYTHING!!!!"
"Uh..."
My eyelids were starting to twitch. The flames were leaping noticably higher and yet the man I was following to look for a bucket was in slow motion. He found the bucket, but apparantly their water pressure was on the sub-par side, because all that was coming out was a trickle. It took a good 60 seconds to get it about a quarter full. I pulled the still filling bucket from his hands and ran out the door, him following behind, I think mainly from the curiousity of seeing how mangled and burned I would get from my endeavors. I threw the miniscule amount of water on the leaping flames and was delighted to see it was pretty effective. To his credit, the attendant (who was a burly and capable looking fellow, the sort one might expect to rescue a damsel such as myself) went back inside to grab some more water. Apparantly he found a faucet in better working order, because it didn't take nearly as long and he came back with a FULL bucket this time. I sprinkled the water around the flames, getting a little closer and being even more effective because I no longer expected either the flames to leap back into my face OR the car to blow up. A mechanic meandered over from the neighboring car shop. His brilliant kick in the stomach went something like,"Yall should have let it burn! It would've been totalled but now this baby is going to need a LOT of tlc..."Which is to say,"This sucker is going to COST you". My brilliant manuvering to save my car had actually been the wrong move! And it was too wet to start on fire again *grr*... On the bright side, if I had let it burn, the propane tanks might have exploded, causing more expensive damage than a burnt up engine.
So, now the car has been towed away. Derrick took care of the details, and picked me up and now I am at home and I am wondering.... does anyone need a new car because I know where an AWESOME one is for cheap!
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