Its 1am, I'm driving home after a long day at work, and one of the cars in front of me on the side of the road is in flames.  It appeared that the fire department was just going to let it burn itself out.  The whole car is just rolling with flames.  I just hope noone was inside!!

Thought you guys would like a look.

[url=http://home.quixnet.net/~mcress/car%20fire%206-14-03%201am.WMV]Right click to save video[/url]

Same thing happened to me back in December 2000. Engine fire in an early Vanagan a few cars ahead of me. Occupants were unaware of the fire (rear engine vehicle, you know), so I pulled up beside them, flagged them over, pulled in behind them, was about to whip out my fire extinguisher...
...and then I noticed the Gore/Lieberman bumpersticker.

Funny thing was, when I looked in my rear view mirror I could see they were still sitting in the vehicle, which by now was burning quite nicely.

Clueless. Flipping clueless.

cynic

My brother bought a wrecked Jeep that had had an engine fire. A common occurence in the carburated Wranglers.

[b]Don't you hate when the car in front of you is on FIRE.. [/b]

What's worse is when you borrow your dad's pickup. And smoke rolls out from under the hood when you try to start it.  Ooooops.

At least he wasn't pissed.

That one's a cooker.

Two quickies.

#1 - One of the first calls I was ever on - I was an EMT at the county fair. On the way home one evening, see a rusty little POS (escort? civic?) lurch to a stop approaching the road. My partner and I pull over and approach.

"Good evening, sir, having a little problem?"
"Yeah, it's been doing this all day"
Smell HOT. HOT NOW. Shine light on hood, notice small brown spot the size of a dime.

Now the size of a nickel.

Now the size of a quarter.

Look underneath car, see small flaming from engine. Look at partner.
"Richard, fire...sir, step out of the car, please" After we dump our dry chem and five squads dump theirs (looked like a fire base ala VN with all the empties lying around.) The local FD finally shows and puts out engine compt. w/an 1 1/2" hoseline.

In the rain. So much for spiffy uniform.

Second story. 10 years later; I'm at a local coffee shop w/ a buddy who's also on the job. We've just gotten off shift. We overhear several "oh my's" from the LOL's behind us. Turning (coffees in hand) we notice a large amount of steam-turning-to-smoke comiing from the car across the street. See the owner come out, and for the hood release.

[MST3K]don't do it, buddy...don't do it[/MST3K]

Of [i]course[/i], he opens the hood, and, as we all know, heat+oxygen=[red][b]FIRE[/b][/red]. Of course, my buddy and I are "screen talking" to the window. "Ahh, ya dummy, we told you not to open the hood". We start back to our breakfast, and hear one of the LOL's say "It's going to explode".

Without thinking, I say out loud "burning cars don't explode".

She replied [haughty]Oh, really? How would [u]you[/u] know?"

I turn and partially stand, so she can see the uniform, and, smiling, say, "Well Ma'am, in my ten years as a firefighter, and the dozens of burning cars I've responded to, I have yet to see one explode. The gas tanks occasionally rupture, but that's just a big, burning puddle when you get down to it".

She looks up, and her jaw hits the table...she stammers, "Well, they explode in the movies"

I told her "Ma'am, they explode in the movies because there's two to five pounds of plastic explosive under the rear seat for effect".

Wound up having a pleasant breakfast and explaining step-by-step what the local FD was doing as they extinguished the car.

Just remember - once the car burns - it's an insurance writeoff. After the cost of replacing the wiring, computers, and interior, it's cheaper to buy the customer a new one.

I remember driving by a burning Corvette on the freeway many moons ago.  It was completly involved down to the tires.  Damn thing burned HOT!  It felt like sticking your face in the oven I as drove by at 10MPH or so and my windows were up.

Must be the fiberglass.

01 November, 1983. I'm driving my brother-in-law's car back to KC from NYC with him. It's late, and we're somewhere in Indiana on I-70. He's asleep. I see flashing lights behind me coming up FAST! I back off, but before I'm slow enough to take to the shoulder, the Indiana trooper blasts past me like I'm standing still, and disappears ahead of me. A few minutes later I can see a glow in the distance. Finally, I approach. There, on some exit ramp, is a VW bus "fully involved" as the firefighters say. The Indiana trooper is there, leaning up against his car. Hippie sits on the ground, watching the inferno. I chuckle to myself, dial up a few more revs from the anemic '78 Chevy Monza, and continue homeward.

What about VW bugs, fire waiting to happen when the carb vibrated loose.  How many have you seen that have burned at least once??

One of my other questionable hobbies is railroads.  Some of us were at the station and these two yuppie kids started to jump their cars.  Between trains so this was the show.  We can see little streams of smoke or gas coming off both batteries.  Immediate reaction was "Hell I heard of batteries exploding, we may just see it."  and we started backing up.  Suddenly we see a red glow on one battery, "Hey you guys get the hell away"  Glow sgets bigger sparks start and now here come the flames.  Both kids whip out cell phones and "Are you calling 911?"  "NO, we're calling our parents to see what to do." Shit, so we called 911.  Hmm do we wasste an extinguisher on these dorks, NO.  We are close enough to the fire station to here the alarm announce.  "Hey why'ld you call them?"  Fine watch your car burn up.  Momma's both get there, then one Dad as FD is mopping up.

Afterwards one of the kids came over and told us "We had them hooked up right.  We don't know what happened."  

UN HUH there's a reason you hook the negative lead someplace other than the battery.

On the way to Knob Creek 2002....
 
What is it with cheesy motorhomes anyway ???

[img]http://www.machinegun.com/imagefolio/gallery/Knob_Creek_October_2002/MVC-509S.JPG[/img]

[lolabove]  Sick...very funny...but sick! [;D]

19 years ago (i was 6 at the time) family was heading of to grandmom'n'granddads place for a visit. on the way there we are following another car and spot a spare fuel tank up ahead on the road. we are already in the left lane. the guy in the right lane didnt see it. ran right into it.. viola one carsize fireball.of course the instant he hits hit he slams on his brakes and gets off the road. meanwhile dad has pulled over and gets out to help, having told us kids to stay in the car (we listend this time [;)]) and starts throwing dirt on the car. while the 2 idiots are still inside the damn car and its burning with fuel on it. the girl is screams they guy is to scared to open the damn door and get out. my dad still tossing dirt on the car starts shouting for the idiots to get out of the damn car. eventually they do and also start dirting the car....
it survived, looked like hell but it survived.
it was a spare fuel tank of the back of a jeep wrangler.

to bad no-one had a firecan that day.

I wasn't there...but I heard about this burning truck story in numbing detail after the fact.  It happened in 1987 and involved one of the strangest dudes I have EVER met.
Just a bit of background...
I was serving in a destroyer in San Diego at the time.  One of our brother officers was a VERY strange dude.  He was a genius...really.  The guy had a total photographic memory.  He did advanced calculus problems in his head just for fun when he was bored.  For about six months, he was going to Las Vegas on Friday nights and playing blackjack all weekend and coming back rich.  I thought he was the luckiest man alive until I found out he counted cards...and even against a seven-deck shoe, he would beat the odds and win.  As soon as one casino caught on, he was banned from all of the casinos at the blackjack tables.  He used nothing more than his incredible memory!

Aboard ship he slept in his clothes with the stateroom A/C turned down to 40 degs. and he didn't use sheets or blankets...his roomy used them all!  At his apartment, he slept on the floor without any bedding.  He also kept lots of dynamite and blasting caps in his closet!!! [shock].  He "needed" the TNT because he was a semi-precious rock hound.  He would take a weekend and go to the Arizona desert and blow up stuff and collect all sorts of semi-precious stones, take it to a rock hound convention and sell the rocks for a tidy profit.
OK...stage set:
One Friday afternoon, our boy is on his way to a rockhound convention across country.  He is driving his four year old P/U truck and the fiance of a brother officer is riding shotgun...to return the truck home.  About ten miles from the airport, while sitting at a stoplight, the truck suddenly begins smoking heavily and they bail out just as it begins to burn furiously (No...no TNT in the truck!).  Our rockhound grabs his bags, tosses the keys to his passenger and hails a cab.  The truck burned to the rims...a total loss.
When the police and firefighters arrived, his young lady passenger had a heck of a time explaining what had happened to the driver.
Our guy made his convention though.

Huh huh...mmm...FIRE!  FIRE! FIRE!!! [:D]

[ROFL2]

I guess you didn't have a gas can with you?