I Don't Remember the Phone Having Bite Marks in it Before Today....

[PepperElf]

needless to say, just about everyone was in a panic on what if it was parked by their vehicle! (sorry, me included )

Oh I personally don't think you need to be sorry about that. It's only natural to worry that the fire might damage your own property.


it's one of the selling factors for some houses in the area - that the house isn't too close to the next one over, in case the neighbors's house catches on fire. and soon after i heard that sales pitch i indeed saw a house burned down with melt/damage marks on the next home.

[Aethian]

I had on a route one time where a section of mailboxes were taken out and a burned out pickup truck was sitting on a front lawn. Turns out one of the guys was coming home from work, his truck ignited and he jumped out. At least his truck stopped on his lawn and not on the neighbors across the street.

[Jester]

That does happen. My buddy Pilot barely escaped his Porsche 944 after it mysteriously ignited, and it went up in flames quickly, he told me. (This was in L.A., so I only heard about it and saw pictures, didn't actually witness it.)

[Argabarga]

We get about 2 car-be-cues a year..... cars that just burn up in parkinglots/driveways for no apparent reason.

The one prior to this was a Ford Explorer that got lit up by an electrical short and burned out stem-to-stern, since it was out in the outer-outer-outer-commuting-from-Mars parking lot for campus, nobody saw it until it had finished the job.... the owner (who took it better than you'd think) was able to salvage 45 cents from it, it was in the cup holder.

[Jester]

Apparently that is not that uncommon in that model of Ford.

Which is probably why my friend Psycho, who has been a professional mechanic for decades, never refers to it as anything but an "Exploder." Apparently that is a common nickname for it among mechanics.

While I have no direct experience with them myself, I can tell you that, having owned two Chevy Blazers over the last 14 years, I have never had that problem with either one. I've had OTHER problems, for sure, but neither one of them every blew up, lit on fire, or gave me any reason to think it would.

(To be fair and honest, both Blazers had issues, but the vast majority of those issues were non-mechanical--mechanically, they were both pretty much, to steal the slogan, "like rock.")

Actually, I've owned four vehicles total, two reliable, two not so much. But even my highly questionable Dodges never burst into flames. Although, considering how everything else conceivable went wrong mechanically with them, I'm kind of surprised they didn't. The Shadow sure as hell should have.

[NotAlBundy]

I had a Shadow as well! Mine also had all kinds of things go wrong with it, until one day, it just didn't want to start anymore. No fire either. On the one hand, that car was such a piece of crap. On the other hand, it was like a Timex - took a licking and kept on ticking. Lasted me 6 years, at which point it was 13 years old.

[ZedOmega]

...if a car on fire is a normal day, I'd hate to see a holiday rush. Just sayin'.

[manybellsdown]

While I can sympathize with the first caller, as I have "lost" my vehicle before, not to mention having "lost" my bicycle as well. However, when your vehicle is not where you think it is, it's generally a good idea to look around before immediately calling the tow company!

We once spent an hour searching our apartment parking lot trying to figure out where my husband had parked his car. Then we called the tow company.

...and only then did we realize it had been stolen.

Also the cars on fire from electrical issues makes me glad I got rid of my Kia Sportage. That thing had horrible electrical issues - for example everything would short out, without fail, if I drove higher than 6000 feet. And I live in California. But it never occurred to me that it might have caught FIRE so now I feel lucky.

[Peppergirl]

I'm embarrassed to say I've lost my car many, many times back in my wild days.

[Andara Bledin]

My mom's old Datsun went up in flames.

Which started up while I was driving it.

Thankfully, it was late at night, so there were very few other cars around, and I was stopped at a signal, so it was a simple matter to turn off the engine, pull the key, grab what was vital, drag my sleeping hubby out of the back seat, then stand on the side of the road as bits of plastic and soft metal started dripping into the roadway from the undercarriage.

I had to call my mother to let her know what happened and get a ride the rest of the way home. I think I was pretty hysterical (it was her car, after all), but she was pretty mellow about it all. Pissed about her car going up in flames, but not at me.

^-.-^

[Ghel]

I've only ever witnessed one car fire. Right across the street from my house. It was the middle of winter in Minnesota and the neighbor couldn't get his car to start because it was too cold. His solution? Put a propane tank with a daisy heater in front of the car to warm the engine. Well, it warmed it, all right. Set the bumper on fire.

My hubby was the first to call 911. Neighbor didn't even notice until after we did. When the fire department got there, one of the firefighters had to hop in my car to move it out of the way before they put out the fire. I don't remember if it was right before or right after the fire truck pulled up that the valve on the propane tank failed and started shooting 20' jets of flame down the street. Luckily, it was down the street and not into the neighbors' or our house.

[MoonCat]

We drove past a car fire once. We could feel the heat through our closed windows. Yeah...that hot.

My sister likes to listen to some radio station out of NY City. She says there's a car fire pretty much every night on one street or another.

And of course there was the fun night back on my old street....when somebody set a guy's car on fire to "send a message." Lovely neighborhood.....not.

[Draper Mel]

There's a family story about the time one of our cars burned up back in the late 60s. I believe I was in utero at the time, and my mom was driving with my two older sisters. I don't remember what kind of car it was, but it was old and rusty.

Suddenly my oldest sister, who was in the front passenger seat, said "Mom! Fire!" Sure enough there were flames coming up through a hole in the floor. My mom pulled over and they all got out and stood there and watched it burn. The fire department did come, but it was too late for the car.

[wolfie]

Put a propane tank with a daisy heater in front of the car to warm the engine. Well, it warmed it, all right. Set the bumper on fire.

I don't remember if it was right before or right after the fire truck pulled up that the valve on the propane tank failed and started shooting 20' jets of flame down the street. Luckily, it was down the street and not into the neighbors' or our house.

My guess is that the valve didn't fail, but worked as it was supposed to. The burning car would have exposed the propane tank to a lot of heat, building up pressure inside. This would cause the pressure relief valve to open, and with an ignition source nearby, the escaping gas would catch fire.

[Shalom]

My guess is that the valve didn't fail, but worked as it was supposed to. The burning car would have exposed the propane tank to a lot of heat, building up pressure inside. This would cause the pressure relief valve to open, and with an ignition source nearby, the escaping gas would catch fire.

Yah. Without the valve, the whole tank might have ruptured, and that might have leveled the block if it all went up at once. I vaguely remember an episode where a large propane tank on the roof of a building on 7th Ave in Manhattan blew up, and the wreckage of the tank demolished a building on Third Avenue.