12/04/2008

Breaking News!

As I stood at our patio door, admiring the evening, a big beautiful fireball caught my eye in a garage across the parking lot. As the fireball condensed into a cheery little blaze in the engine compartment of a truck, I saw two people frantically throwing snow at it. I didn't see anything else after that, because I was running around my apartment complex looking for my cell phone and a fire extinguisher. By the time I got down to the scene of the excitement, a helpful gentleman with a fire extinguisher had already beaten me to it. I stood around in my shorts and T shirt (It was about 25 degrees outside) to get the juicy details. Basically, a guy was trying to get his truck started He pulled a spark plug to clean out antifreeze that had flooded into the cylinder and then tried to turn it over (who knows why). The spark must have ignited some vapors that had collected above the engine. This, of course, also ignited all of the oil and grime that covered the engine, causing no small thrill for the man, and even more so for his girlfriend, who was attempting to jump start him. Her view of the fireball was somewhat obscured by her upraised car hood, leaving her healthy and enthusiastic imagination to fill in the details.
Then I froze over and walked back inside. About 2 minutes later the police showed up, followed shortly by a fire truck. I have posted exclusive footage of the fire truck below.


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