Post by vajramukti on Mar 20, 2008 19:09:08 GMT -5
Everybody knows that cigarette smoking is gambling with your life. Eventually, the cumulative body burden of the chemicals leads to a number of ailments including lung cancer. It takes years, but you eventually lose your life.
It takes just 4 minutes to lose your truck.
I was leaving my kenpo studio having picked my son up from today's lesson. Still in the parking lot, I noticed a pickup truck with a lot of smoke coming out a window. I stopped, grabbed my phone, and then saw a flame. I sent my 10 year old running back to the studio to tell Brandon and Daniel to bring the fire extinguishers, while dialing 911. They, seeing Davis panicked, thought MY truck was on fire and responded in about 30 seconds,
which was already too late. The flames had engulfed the entire cab of the truck. The back two windows had already exploded. At this point the owner of the truck came outside, saw what was going on, and ran back inside, presumable to call 911.
I called 911 again to inform them that they had very little time before this became a building fire, and as I was hanging up, heard sirens.
We were less than 4 minutes in on this situation, and the truck was far enough gone that the fire department actually sprayed the building first, then started putting out the fire.
This poor guy left his door open, truck running, and a cigarette burning in the ashtray while he ran inside to grab some documents to take home with him. He was inside maybe 30 seconds when he saw the smoke. We are speculating that some wind whipped in thru the open door and blew the cigarette onto some papers or something.
Had he been driving, given the time in which this occurred, he would likely have been on fire before he would have had a chance to pull over and get out of the truck. We're talking 20-30 seconds from seeing smoke to a fully engulfed cab with exploding windows. If there had been other cars in the parking lot next to his, they would be gone. At one point, flames were coming from the rear wheel wells, which is awfully close to the gas tank.
4 minutes. 30 grand. And that is the good news. It wasn't the entire shopping center. It wasn't a PERSON. Thank God, no one was hurt.
It was kind of surreal for a moment. I realized on my way home with the boys that my first actual thought was, "Why is that guy burning his truck?"
It took me longer to tell about it than it did to happen.
So, quit smoking. Save a truck. Maybe a life.
It takes just 4 minutes to lose your truck.
I was leaving my kenpo studio having picked my son up from today's lesson. Still in the parking lot, I noticed a pickup truck with a lot of smoke coming out a window. I stopped, grabbed my phone, and then saw a flame. I sent my 10 year old running back to the studio to tell Brandon and Daniel to bring the fire extinguishers, while dialing 911. They, seeing Davis panicked, thought MY truck was on fire and responded in about 30 seconds,
which was already too late. The flames had engulfed the entire cab of the truck. The back two windows had already exploded. At this point the owner of the truck came outside, saw what was going on, and ran back inside, presumable to call 911.
I called 911 again to inform them that they had very little time before this became a building fire, and as I was hanging up, heard sirens.
We were less than 4 minutes in on this situation, and the truck was far enough gone that the fire department actually sprayed the building first, then started putting out the fire.
This poor guy left his door open, truck running, and a cigarette burning in the ashtray while he ran inside to grab some documents to take home with him. He was inside maybe 30 seconds when he saw the smoke. We are speculating that some wind whipped in thru the open door and blew the cigarette onto some papers or something.
Had he been driving, given the time in which this occurred, he would likely have been on fire before he would have had a chance to pull over and get out of the truck. We're talking 20-30 seconds from seeing smoke to a fully engulfed cab with exploding windows. If there had been other cars in the parking lot next to his, they would be gone. At one point, flames were coming from the rear wheel wells, which is awfully close to the gas tank.
4 minutes. 30 grand. And that is the good news. It wasn't the entire shopping center. It wasn't a PERSON. Thank God, no one was hurt.
It was kind of surreal for a moment. I realized on my way home with the boys that my first actual thought was, "Why is that guy burning his truck?"
It took me longer to tell about it than it did to happen.
So, quit smoking. Save a truck. Maybe a life.
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