well, that was a first (for me)

[calimac]

Being a passenger in a car that was on fire.

(We noticed puffs of smoke coming out of the console, pulled over, saw more smoke, piled out, opened the hood, and flames shot out. One local resident with a garden hose, a fire truck, state troopers, several phone calls to AAA and insurance agents, and wails from the owner/driver "I've never even had a flat tire before!" later, we made it to our destination: a restaurant called the Out of the Fire Cafe.)

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Wow! Did you tell the restaurant of your ordeal? They might have given you a free starter on the strength of it. (Flambé, natch.)

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Glad everyone's okay.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yowser. Glad everyone's okay, and terribly amused at the name of your destination.

[(Anonymous)]

As I think I mentioned to you when you told me this story, I lost my Dodge Daytona this way in 1996. With two friends in the car, I was parallel parking near an arts festival we were heading to, and one of my friends noticed smoke and flames coming out of the engine compartment. We all got out asap, and I called the fire department and moved far away from the car. Even though (or perhaps because) it was my car, I made no effort to find a way to try to put out the flames myself and discouraged my passengers from doing so as well. I thought that this was a matter for the fire department and only for the fire department. I know very little about how to put out fires, except that water is not always the best method. What's more, I had little basis for knowing if or when the fire would grow more intense or the car would explode. Again, for the fire department--they are the experts. The fire department came and quickly put out the fire. And so goes the story of how I lost my Dodge Daytona to spontaneous combustion!!

Glad everyone was OK, and my sympathies to the car owner.

--Little Brother in Pittsburgh