Copyright 2011 Matt Farrington
I was in the kitchen tonight and heard several obnoxiously frequent blows of a car horn. I looked out to scowl at the jerk making all the noise, but saw flames erupting from under the hood of this van. I think the honking was from a passing car.(?) I hastily made my way outside (I wouldn’t say I ran. But it was more than a brisk walk, less than a jog). I didn’t see anyone around the van and the inside was completely veiled in smoke. I rapped on the driver’s window and a guy yelled from across the street to tell me that nobody was in there. (He was the owner, and was driving down out street when it caught on fire.) By now the flames were about level with the top of the van, but still only emanating from under the hood and wheel wells. I ran to the backyard and started unreeling the hose, which the owner of the van grabbed and begun spaying it from 30 feet away. It couldn’t have taken more than 30 seconds to run to the hose, unreel it, and start spraying, but the flames were 10-12 feet high now and had made their way into the passenger compartment. It was also at this point that one of the tires popped, which was startling to say the least. The owner had the hose on the van for less than a minute, when the fire fighters arrived. As I’m sure you aware, the garden hose had no effect on the fire. The fire fighters on the other hand, had it out in seconds. From there, they proceeded to cut a section of the hood off with a grinder so they could make sure everything was extinguished underneath. The lousy video below will look familiar to Brian because I install car stereos in much the same manner.
Then, as they were getting ready to leave, I took a picture of the firetruck.
Copyright 2011 Matt Farrington
Holy crackers! That had to have been intense.