Car Fire
Well, What can I say?
Driving home from work last Friday, after one of my weekly late night grocery shopping visits to Wegmans I noticed that my power steering was more than a little off kilter. I would turn the wheel in either direction and the wheels would barely respond!
Once I got home and after some difficulty working my way into a parking spot, I decided to take my car down the street to see if could do a “K Turn.”
I couldn’t. The wheels wouldn’t turn at all.
At this point, I am blocking the whole street and cars are waiting behind me, so I am frantically going back and forth trying to turn around. Then — smoke. A LOT of smoke coming out from the hood. I freaked. For some reason after I jumped out of the car I begain walking quickly towards my house, which was only yards away. I’m not sure why or what I would do when I got there. I had my phone right in my pocket after all. While walking away I looked back to my car and noticed something glowing underneath…
FIRE! Fire was dripping from my car and igniting leaves and twigs on the ground! I ran back over to try to put it out and burned my hand in the process. I believe it was at that point that I realized that there was a fire above in the engine area. I popped the hood, and there it was… Several of the cables surrounding the engine were on fire.
Out of a pure panic, I acutally tried to blow the fire out. Ha Ha… Right… That’s when I called the Fire Department. They got there in about 2 minutes God bless ‘em. They put out the fire quickly — It then began raining heavily. I got soaked but had to stay next to the smoldering car while waiting for AAA. Fortunately while I was waiting about 45 minutes for the tow truck, a lovely young lady friend of mine kept me company and cheered me up on the phone as I relayed this same story to her. I’m really just getting to know this person and she was probably hoping I led a normal, calm life, then hears this freak show. Poor girl.
In late 1999 I bought this car, a 2000 Oldsmobile Alero - brand new. It now has less than 50,000 miles on it and has turned out to be one of the most expensive mistakes I’ve ever made. 4 brake jobs, replacement of the front end suspension, and most recently, a F***’ing FIRE under my hood. No wonder they don’t make them anymore.
Living the Dream…
Stay Tuned.
Big Marc