Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 00:15:13 -0400
From: “connectnc.net”
Subject: Vacation excitement , people and a car fire
I will write a proper post about my first vacation in 20 years we took this week to the NC Mountains but I wanted to share an event that made me ponder on just how much people have changed.
We went to Linville Falls Friday and after a long walk to the falls and back we headed out down the dirt entrance to the paved road where a black Land Rover sat with its hood up and a roaring fire blazing at the rear of the engine . The man was in near panic waving at people but cars passed and no one stopped . We approached the vehicle and I jumped out to see if I could help . He had what looked to be a lot of his possessions in the vehicle as if he were moving with his dog . He was frantic as I ran up to the vehicle I could see where the fire was coming from and with my experience as a mechanic I knew it was a transmission fluid fire . I didn’t have a fire extinguisher nor anything else you should use to put out a fire but I did know what needed to happen to stop it . I proceeded to yell for the boys to bring me every soft drink in the cooler and as they handed me drinks I shook the cans , popped the lids and sprayed the base of the fire at the rear of the engine . I was able to cool it down enough to get closer so I clipped the battery cables to prevent an electrical fire from starting from the melted wires exposed on the firewall and continued to drown the fire with 24 cans of soda , one cooler full of ice cold water and several cups of muddy water from the puddle we made while putting the fire out . While this went on Beth had tried to get people to stop and asked for a fire extinguisher , bottled water or anything else needed to stop the fire . I want you to know not one person offered to help ! All just drove off and left .
The man was from Germany and he was moving some of his belongings and apparently overheated the transmission climbing up and down through the mountains . I found the dipstick to be blown out where the transmission literally belched fluid out on the engine . Automatic transmission fluid burns better than gas if it hits a hot exhaust manifold and that’s exactly what happened as well as saturating his insulation under the hood next to the engine firewall . After the fire was out and the situation was safe a park ranger finally showed up with a fire extinguisher !! I explained to the man what had happened to cause the fire and showed him that even though he had significant damage to the insulation and wires on the rear of the engine that the vehicle was very much saved and repairable . He was very grateful and related to me that even when the truck first started smoking that no one else stopped to help before we got there ..
I remember a time when I was a child we had a flat tire just off the Blue Ridge parkway . People stopped , brought cold drinks to us , helped change the tire and made sure we were back on the road . What have we become if we cant help someone in dire need beside the road ? Does it ever occur to these people that don’t stop that some day it might be them in dire straights ? I lost a cooler full of drinks , I was covered with soot , and I was exhausted but I felt I did the right thing . I taught the boys that no matter what happens do not get excited , focus and act to resolve a problem . I do not advise anyone to attempt to put out a vehicle fire but I have done so in the past so I did but I do ask that you think about how you would feel if that were you sitting beside the road and no one offered to help the next time you pass by someone in need broke down .
We left and went on to have a wonderful vacation and I will post about that tomorrow 🙂 Goodnite Mark