Fire Truck

Last night we went to dinner with Ron's parents and Kathy's dad and his girlfriend. Afterwards we stopped by Butch and Rose Mary's (Ron's parents) to visit. We sat on the front porch and visited and decided it was time to leave. As we were saying our good byes, something very strange occured. Frist, let me say a couple of things. Ron's parents live on Highway 231 which is a major four lane road in and out of Panama City - their house and porch face this highway. They live about 25 miles north of Panama City on the outskirts of a small town called Fountain. Anyhow, as we were saying good bye, we all sort of noticed at the same time a small pickup truck going by the house. What we noticed about this truck was that it was on fire! On the passenger side near the front tire, by the engine, flames were shooting out the side. Not a tremendous amount but still enough to get your attention. The truck began to slow down as it passed our location and then went out of site. We all were a bit surprised by what we had just seen - flaming trucks are the not the norm. A couple of moments passed and Katlin and I decided to walk up to the road and see if we could see what happened to the truck. We walked about 40 yards to the highway and looked to the south where the truck was traveling. The truck is now about 120 yards south of where we are standing. By the time we got the road, the truck was really beginning to smoke - alot. We didn't notice any flames but the smoke is pretty intense. Don't forget its about 9:00PM on the outskirts of a very small town so it was dark. However, you could see the plume of smoke rising from this truck. It's dark, smokey and you can't see a thing.

For some reason, the genius (a girl by the way - nuff said) who was driving the flaming truck did not pull off the road. Lady Enstien stopped her flaming truck in the right hand lane of the highway - in front of a gas station. I'm thinking that the flames and smoke must of became to much and she had to bail. At this point the situation is becoming a bit interesting. The smoke is now so thick that you can't see the truck stopped in the lane of traffic and cars heading in that direction have no idea what lies inside of the smoke cloud - this could get real ugly, real fast. Kat and I call for my dad - he calls 911 to let them know whats up. The rest of the family now comes to where we are to see what is going on - a couple of flash lights show up - Butch the honarary volunteer firefighter/traffic cop springs into action. A "real" volunteer fireman from Georgia happens to drive by and he jumps in to help as well. He turns his car towards the oncoming traffic and turns his strobe lights on to alert them that danger is ahead. So traffic control begins, some people are just stupid and don't listen but that's another issue. There a couple of very close calls that become near misses - how they didn't hit the truck is a mystery to me. The smoke from the car begins to lift a bit and you can now see shadows of folks darting in and out from near the truck. In the distance we now hear the sirens of the fire engines. Once again we can start to see flames coming from under the truck - then a few moments later from the hood - then from the sides. By the time the fire engine arrives, the truck is now completely engulfed in flames. I'm talking about flames shooting 20 foot into the air - around the whole vechile - in front of a gas station. Traffic is now stopped in both lanes, people have gotten the hint that there is a problem. Traffic is backed up in both lanes for about 1/2 a mile. No one's going anywhere for awhile or so we thought.

All of the sudden a lady jumps out from one of the stopped vechiles and she is frantic. She goes on to say that she has her mother in the SUV and that she is having a stroke. We look at her mother on the passenger side and she does not look good at all. We tell the lady to get back in her SUV and work her way through the median or side of the road to near the fire engine. We tell her to drive to them and get some help or an escort to the hospital. She does and she works her way through and a Sherriffs car goes with her to the hospital. No sooner do they pass by the flaming truck do we hear a loud boom. The gas tank on the flaming truck exploded! (That part was kinda cool) - So now we bascially have chaos. I'm thinking that the gas station is gonna go up any minute now - but it doesn't. After about 20 minutes, the firefighters put the flaming truck out, the smoke clears and they are able to open up a lane of traffic and once again cars are moving. The situation is now under control and we decide to leave. We don't believe anyone was hurt nor do we know the cause of the fire. But it was pretty wild and made the evening interesting. Brings a new meaning to the term "Fire Truck" doesn't it?