dummy
07-05-2010, 10:05 PM
Heading home from Havasu on Friday on Hwy 62 and see a '97-ish F-250 4-door towing a toy hauler on the side of the road. Trying to figure out if it's steam or what coming out of the hood. As I get closer I see it's a Samaritan emptying 2 Marine extinguishers under the partially-cracked hood. "Bummer" I think and then I see some lady running off into the desert with 3 little kids in tow. "Crap" and I bail for the shoulder hard. Tell my wife to stay in the truck with the kids, jump in the boat, grab my extinguishers, and run back to his truck.
Funny the things some people say and do in a crisis situation. I come around the passenger-side to see the owner chucking half-empty soda cans and take-out leftovers off into the desert. There was already a kid's car seat and some other stuff in the dirt. I ask the Samaritan if he can pop the hood and he says it's too hot. Then he looks at me and says "hey, we've got the same extinguisher." Weird. Then he goes back to randomly blasting away through the cracked hood.
I peek down through the cracked hood and see flaming fluid shooting out a severed tranny cooler line even though the engine is off. I know from my 4x4 experience what's gonna happen so I tell Samaritan guy "we're not gonna save this." He kinda blinks and keeps blasting away from all angles. I check the fender to make sure it says "Powerstroke" (don't wanna climb into a gasoline bomb) pop the driver's door open and peer through the firewall through a grommet hole and see nothing but flame. Hit through the hole with my extinguisher, give it a couple blasts from underneath to buy a second or two and tell the owner to unhook his trailer 'cause it's gonna go up fast. He looks at me with disbelief for a second. I calmly say "fast" and he gets to work.
I start pitching carseats, bags, everything from the inside of his truck. Come around, grab his registration and paperwork out the glove box, check the center console, under the seats, etc. Yell to the owner to toss me his keys. Smoke getting thick and the hood of the white truck is brown. I know it's coming through the firewall pretty soon. Pop it in Neutral and jump back to the trailer hitch. Owner is struggling trying to get the stabilizer equalizer rod unhooked. I bounce the rear a bit, he frees it, and I say "Push". The 3 of us push it forward about 15 yards. I check the handle for heat, open the driver-door and smoke is billowing. Take a breath, bang it in Park, grab his keys, and shut the door. Head back to the desert to pile all his stuff in one place. 'Bout 60-seconds after grabbing the keys the front tire blows and the interior is roiling in flame. "I just put new tires on that truck" the owner says to me softly.
I ask him how old his youngest daughter is off in the distance. He says 2-1/2 and I told him how the same thing happened to my mom, brother, and me when I wasn't much older. Freaked me out and told him to comfort his kids - not much else he could do at the moment. He said it was running a tad warm and then he hit the tracks between Rice and 62/95 hard. Started smoking shortly after. He musta severed the tranny cooler line. Driving any shortz distance would cause hot ATF to go everywhere under the hood and it doesn't take much to touch that stuff off when it's over 210-degrees. And it's nearly impossible to put out even if you can get to it.
A nice young dude in a Superduty pulled up and hooked up to his toy hauler to move it back further out of the way. Offered them a ride. My truck had my boat on the back and my wife and 3 kids taking up all 5 seats, so seeing he was handled and having not much other help to offer I shook his hand and left. 'Bout 20-minutes later we passed the firetruck heading his way. Sure had his 4th weekend ruined, but glad he got his family out safely.
My wife snapped this with my phone camera from my truck while I was out helping. Check your tow rig gear and be safe!
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd176/chinhazel/IMG_0749.jpg
Funny the things some people say and do in a crisis situation. I come around the passenger-side to see the owner chucking half-empty soda cans and take-out leftovers off into the desert. There was already a kid's car seat and some other stuff in the dirt. I ask the Samaritan if he can pop the hood and he says it's too hot. Then he looks at me and says "hey, we've got the same extinguisher." Weird. Then he goes back to randomly blasting away through the cracked hood.
I peek down through the cracked hood and see flaming fluid shooting out a severed tranny cooler line even though the engine is off. I know from my 4x4 experience what's gonna happen so I tell Samaritan guy "we're not gonna save this." He kinda blinks and keeps blasting away from all angles. I check the fender to make sure it says "Powerstroke" (don't wanna climb into a gasoline bomb) pop the driver's door open and peer through the firewall through a grommet hole and see nothing but flame. Hit through the hole with my extinguisher, give it a couple blasts from underneath to buy a second or two and tell the owner to unhook his trailer 'cause it's gonna go up fast. He looks at me with disbelief for a second. I calmly say "fast" and he gets to work.
I start pitching carseats, bags, everything from the inside of his truck. Come around, grab his registration and paperwork out the glove box, check the center console, under the seats, etc. Yell to the owner to toss me his keys. Smoke getting thick and the hood of the white truck is brown. I know it's coming through the firewall pretty soon. Pop it in Neutral and jump back to the trailer hitch. Owner is struggling trying to get the stabilizer equalizer rod unhooked. I bounce the rear a bit, he frees it, and I say "Push". The 3 of us push it forward about 15 yards. I check the handle for heat, open the driver-door and smoke is billowing. Take a breath, bang it in Park, grab his keys, and shut the door. Head back to the desert to pile all his stuff in one place. 'Bout 60-seconds after grabbing the keys the front tire blows and the interior is roiling in flame. "I just put new tires on that truck" the owner says to me softly.
I ask him how old his youngest daughter is off in the distance. He says 2-1/2 and I told him how the same thing happened to my mom, brother, and me when I wasn't much older. Freaked me out and told him to comfort his kids - not much else he could do at the moment. He said it was running a tad warm and then he hit the tracks between Rice and 62/95 hard. Started smoking shortly after. He musta severed the tranny cooler line. Driving any shortz distance would cause hot ATF to go everywhere under the hood and it doesn't take much to touch that stuff off when it's over 210-degrees. And it's nearly impossible to put out even if you can get to it.
A nice young dude in a Superduty pulled up and hooked up to his toy hauler to move it back further out of the way. Offered them a ride. My truck had my boat on the back and my wife and 3 kids taking up all 5 seats, so seeing he was handled and having not much other help to offer I shook his hand and left. 'Bout 20-minutes later we passed the firetruck heading his way. Sure had his 4th weekend ruined, but glad he got his family out safely.
My wife snapped this with my phone camera from my truck while I was out helping. Check your tow rig gear and be safe!
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd176/chinhazel/IMG_0749.jpg