Perhaps I am an unlucky person for having these experiences, but having several brushes with automotive fire has taught me a lot about what not to do around cars. I am not a careless person, or even a stupid person, and I hope that you as a reader will never have to deal with an automotive flare up. This is my story:

The Chevy 'Blazer'

I was 17 when I bought my first car. My brother, who was my junior by 2 years and just learning to drive, and myself decided to put our money together and buy a car. With help from our father and grandfather, we happened upon an old 80's model Chevy Blazer (ironic name huh?) at a Salt Lake City dealership. My grandfather was a good friend of an employee there, a car salesman named 'Skip', who would could get us a deal on this old car for only $600.00 out the door. At the time, this seemed like an incredible deal, so my brother and I jumped on the offer. With the new car in tow behind my fathers RV, we began our trek home from Salt Lake City, UT to Los Alamos, NM, a trip of about 600 miles. The Blazer seemed to drag on the RV, and all seemed normal until the southern edge of Provo, UT, when a loud bang from behind accompanied by a fireball just behind the Blazer. Pulling off the road as quickly as possible, our trip and new car seemed doomed. Since my father was driving and I was a passenger, I happened to see the red fire extinguisher bottle right next to the door of the RV and formulated a plan of action right there. As the RV slowed to a stop, I had the extinquisher in my hands and jumped out to douse the flames coming from under the car. It was my very first experience with a real fire or a real fire extinquisher, but I managed to snuff the flames will little difficulty.

The damage was terrible. The rear differential had gotten really hot and had melted the bering races holding these thick roller berings in place, and without the race they had found thier way inbetween the gears and the rear casing of the differential. One bering had shot its way out the casing and had given the very hot gear oil a supply of oxigen, creating the fireball we had seen. My father had been an auto mechanic in Provo in his college days, and we were able to tow the car to that repair shop where the owner allowed us use of a repair bay. A little bit of investigation revealed that the rear differential had a different gear reduction than the front, meaning that for every 3 point something turns of the rear tires the front tires turned 4 point something times. We had been towing it in 4WD neutral, and this had caused our problem. As I was raised to be a mechanic by my father, I set about removing the rear axle while my brother and father went to go find parts at a scrapyard. As it turns out, the scrapyard would not sell us a replacement axel of the correct ratio because it could potentially give someone else the same problem we had, so they returned with an axel of the same ratio. Again, my father and brother went back with the old axel to collect the deposit charge leaving me to fit the new axel. One afternoon of wrench turning later we were back on the road towing our 'new' car back to New Mexico.

The 3000GT

Some years later, I was troubleshooting a bad rear window wiper motor in my 94 Mitsubishi 3000GT when I started to smell smoke. I had managed to put too much current through the wire going to the motor and to my horror I could see the insulation dripping off of the wire. As I was perched precariously in the car with one hand in the front of the car and the other in the very back of the car trying to take an electrical reading (you sometimes have to be an acrobat or contorsionist to work on cars) I felt powerless to stop it until it burst into flames. Dropping my tools I was able to pat out the fire with my hands before running around the car to disconnect the battery. After looking into the electrical diagram, I discovered that there were no fuses inbetween the battery and the rear wiper motor... So I installed one right after I replaced the melted wire. Fortunately the damage was minimal and I was able to get my rear wiper working, but a close call none the less.

I have not had any other cars of my own burst into flames, but I have driven past burnt out cars and have seen other cars catch fire, and I have shared in the horror and felling of helplessness of watching a car slowly being consumed by flame. Perhaps I am unlucky to have these experiences, but I consider myself lucky to not have faced a total loss of any of my vehicles. I think these experiences have helped me be more prepared for these situations and so I share them with you. In conclusion dont buy cars from men named "Skip", dont tow a vehicle in 4WD neutral, and have a plan just in case your car catches fire.