I would like to say new story tomorrow but... · 6:53am Dec 13th, 2014
...Well, I'm still rather shaken up from a severe engine fire yesterday, that cost me my car and perhaps my peace of mind, leaving me in no state to edit the story into its publishable state at the moment.
You see, what happened was I tapped the brakes on the freeway yesterday, and something popped loudly, releasing a puff of something from my left front wheel well and maybe another wheel well, I do't know). After that, I pulled to the side of the road and my brake pedal went to the floor (obviously that pop was the brake line) as smoke started drifting from my hood. I didn't panic, instead jamming the car into park to get it stopped ( was going about 15 MPH at this point, thanks to traffic on the freeway) and pulling the handbrake to keep it there. I grabbed my phone and my keys, and put on my flashers and hopped out. Stepping behind the car (and finding my phone dead), I saw the smoke gradually increasing in volume and kept moving away from my car. Three motorists stopped and used up their fire extinguishers on the car, to no avail (two of them called 911, thank Celestia) and one stayed behind to talk to the police
Anyway, ten minutes later, flames shooting out of my car's hood, and through heavy traffic, the fire department came and put it out. I then got towed off and got a ride home (thank you CHP for calling the towing service). I was badly shaken up by this whole experience (though not hurt in any way), and haven't been able to write fiction yet.
The car will probably be declared a total loss (the engine had signs of melting, the hood was destroyed to get to the engine compartment the windshield and dash were both rather melty themselves, the front two tires popped form the heat (after I was stopped, fortunately), and everything smelled of smoke, including me. On the bright side, I'm physically fine, just shaken up and depressed about the loss of my car. Just give me a day or two and I'll be back at it.
(If you were on the 210 Freeway near the Citrus exit in Fontana, California around 4:45 yesterday, and saw a giant smokestack, well, that was me, and I apologize about causing that traffic jam).
BTW, is it normal for a car's brake line bursting to start an engine fire of this nature? (it may have been the other way around, admittedly)
That sucks, man.
I'd say I have a story of similar circumstances to share, but the only driving I do is in video games and I'm a terrible driver.
Want an internet hug? I have santa hats.
Sorry to hear that. You are lucky so many people had fire extinguishers with them, as my self defense instructor once talked to us about him arriving too late to the scene of an accident where one of the cars caught fire and no one that stopped to help had a extinguisher. They were unable to get the one of the driver's out in time due to the flames. Main reason why I have one on me now, not alot of people think about what safety stuff they should keep in their car just in case.
Thankfully, gas doesn't explode like in the movies, all those stupid scenes were a car slams into another car and they both explode? So silly. But I have to assume the engine somehow caught fire, or your gas tank got ruptured, though both are really strange things to suddenly happen. From what I understand, brake fluid doesn't catch fire, nor have I ever heard of anything like this beyond the car overheating and causing something like this. But usually you see the smoke and can check the gauge to see if the car is overheating. This is just weird to me.
Well, hope the rest of your weekend goes better, though since you need to go through insurance crap, and get a new car, I'm not thinking this is to be. Curious on your new story and I need to check out some of your others works, been awhile since I looked at the Fleur x Flutter shipping. Was quite good from what I remember.