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| Car Fire On I-15 |
Yesterday evening, while Little Red (Mini Cooper) and I are cruising up the I-15 North heading home from work, I could see in the distance a plume of light gray smoke drifting off into the East and the bright red brake lights of the vehicles up a head. My first thought is, not another wild fire! I am getting weary of these wildfires. Too many people have already suffered enough from fires. And lets not forget about the firefighters who risked their lives working on containing the fires. As I approached the spot where the smoke appeared to be coming from, I could see the flashing lights of the fire truck and I noticed it was a car fire causing the smoke, that now turned into a thick black smoke. As I am driving past, I could see the firefighters had it handled and will have extinguished right away. I truly hope and pray the driver and any passengers in the car were able to get out unscathed. Having your car burst into flames has to be terrifying.
As I started to pick up speed getting past the bit of a traffic jam, I start to wonder what causes a car fire. I have been fortunate to never have a car go up in flames and I probably should have. I have driven beat up old clunkers and a newer Chevy Impala that always seem to have electronic issues. Back in 2004 the Impala was only 2 years old and seriously that car always seem to have problems with its electronics. Ever since, I owned and got rid of the Impala I swore to never buy a Chevy again. Anyway, that is another story for a later day. Anyway, I did a bit of research um... actually, I just Googled "what causes a car fire" and I found some interesting information on various ways a car can start on fire. It can be anything that causes a car to become BBQ such as design flaws, electrical issues and overheating just to name a few. I found an interesting article posted at a website named, Car Fire Experts. I never knew there as a website by such a name until today. Very cool. If you are interested in reading more about it click here to reach their What Causes Car Fires To Start article. Also, check out their Seven Simple Steps To Prevent A Car Fire. I bookmarked this site for future reference. Very helpful. I hope the creator of the site doesn't mind me linking out to his articles.
Keep in mind, I am just as guilty of not doing preliminary checks on my vehicles that should be done before heading out on my journey. If you are like me and drive 60+ miles 5 days a week back forth between work and home, that is a lot of wear and a tear on a car, even if it is a new car. For example, I remember when I was in the US Army, every morning after PT, we would head over to the Motor-pool and do our periodic maintenance checks. Especially, if we were planning on taking the vehicle out on a mission or training exercise. We always had to make sure the tires or track were in good shape, check the fluid levels and etc... It didn't take us long to go over everything. What I am trying to say is maybe, we should be doing a quick check on our cars before heading out. Do a quick glance over the engine to ensure all hoses are in good shape, no loose wiring, fluid levels are at the correct level and tire treads are in good shape. Maybe not every day but, then again if you have a long commute between work and home, just a few minutes of looking over the car isn't a bad thing. I just want us all to be safe and not end up on the side of the road with a broken down car, I know how frustrating it can be. And, don't forget dangerous.
Stay safe people and in the meantime Smoke'em if you got'em.
Oh by the way, I found a few other articles that I linked out to that I find very informative. Again, I hope the authors don't mind me linking out to their articles, I find them very useful.
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