Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Fire on the Rocky Road Today

It was bad enough that our biological clocks have to cope with Monday, but mine got topped with a fire where I work.  We are getting a new roof, and one of the roofer's pick-ups was backed up to the building.  Something in the bed of the pick-up caught fire.  The bed of the truck apparently contained a lot of flammable material because it burst into flames.

I was in the ARC when one of the workers and one of my co-workers came running in looking for fire extinguishers.  At that time, I had no idea what was on fire or how bad.  I showed the man where the fire extinguisher near my office was located.  Everyone was rushing around frantically.  I peeked out the window to see how bad it was, and I saw that the flames at that time were bursting forth about three to four feet above the bed of the truck.  I knew that we needed to call the fire department, so I ran to the front office to tell the assistant director what was happening, and that we needed to call the fire department.

You can see the back end of my car
 just on the other side of the truck.
I was going to go tell the Dean, and about that time the fire alarms went off.  Everyone in the building evacuated.  The fire trucks began to arrive, and by that time the flames were really engulfing the truck.  We heard a small explosion. The black smoke was boiling up in the air.  Someone said to me, "Isn't that your car sitting close to that truck?  Shouldn't you move it?"  I handed my keys to a personwho volunteer to try, and they took off toward my car. (I knew that I could not get in the smoke because of my breathing problems.) They were back in just a moment or two telling me that it was too hot to get near the car much less get in it and move it. 






We stood and watched while the firemen finally got it out.  The truck was black and gutted.  It is amazing that the gas tank did not explode.  There was a gas can in the back of the truck as well and it had made it through the that fire as well. 

My car appears to be okay, but it has a lot of soot on the roof. The fire chief is sending me a copy of the report today, and I am going to contact a business that specializes in convertible tops to see if it needs to be replaced because extreme heat does damage them.  I called my insurance company in the event I needed to get it replaced.  I learned a long time ago that you should always call your insurance company when something happens to just be on the safe side.   

One thing about it, my life is never dull!


1 comment:

  1. Wow, I'm glad the fire got under control quickly! How fast life can change... I'm glad you and your car are safe my friend.

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