At about 6:30 this morning, a guy pulled into the driveway between the gas station I work at and the car wash next door. His car's engine was on fire.
He ran up to my store to get two of our fire extinguishers to try to put it out, but he was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, my boss called the fire department and shut off the electricity on the oasis (the part of the lot where the gas pumps are). The guy got his dogs out of the car and got away. I'm not sure where he was at this point, but he was a safe distance away from the car. We could hear the firetruck sirens approaching just as the gas tank caught fire and the rest of the car shortly thereafter. I knew it wouldn't be like it's portrayed in the movies, but it was actually a lot scarier, faster, and dramatic-looking than I'd expected a car fire to look. There was a huge, thick, fast-spreading cloud of foul smoke from the burning tires and interior of the car. It took a while for the firefighters to get the hose connected but the fire was eventually extinguished, no one was hurt, and the only property damage was to the car.
The police had blocked off the nearest intersection to the west and the road to the east. Some fool actually tried to drive around the police car to get to the gas station.
I would have thought that most reasonable people would see six police cars and a fire truck and think, "Gee, maybe I should get my fuel at a different station today," but I guess that person was not that clever.
