My Van Exploded in Flames

This morning i gave gaba a ride to city college so she could file some paperwork for her english as a second language course. On the way back i started to smell some gas. I was like, i should stop and look to see if there is something wrong with the engine. But i figured i’d do that once i found a parking place.

Just as i was crossing duboce and church, where the N and J muni lines go underground, i lost power. I fiddled a little and got it to coast out of the intersection. I hopped out and went around back. Normally when it lost power it was just some hose which had come loose. This time i noticed smoke. I popped the trunk to see the engine, and it was in flames.

I said oh shit, and called 911. What do you say when your car is on fire. The flames grew and there was more smoke. It drew the attention of a lot of people. Just at the last minute, I remembered i’d left my backpack and laptop in the front seat. I got the door open and reached in to the now black smoke and grabbed it out. By this time the fire had spread from just the engine to the whole back of the van. I ran away.

A minute or two later the fire engines showed up along with a few police officers. Everybody was exceedingly nice. It drew a lot of attention and blocked the intersection for about 15 minutes.

Eventually they got it put out, and i remembered i had a camera phone. So i didn’t get any photos of the flames shooting out, but i got some followup shots after everything had calmed down. I gave my info to the police officer and they called a tow truck. They said they’d take care of it and call me if i was needed for anything.

It’s kind of shocking to have your car burst in to flames. I’m pretty lucky that i didn’t get hurt and didn’t loose anything. Nobody else got hurt either.

Gaba and i have been meaning to get rid of the van for a while, it’s a pain to move it and get parking tickets. And it was marginal to the point of not being something we’d take on trips anywhere. I don’t think disposal by fire was exactly what we had in mind.

I’ve got photos online now in my flickr stream.