Buy a fire extinguisher
So the other night I was driving home on I65 at 1
in the morning and I shot past a crashed car with no lights on and smoke coming
from the engine compartment. I pulled over (I almost always do) since no one
was on the scene yet. It took me 400 feet to get over and stop safely so I
trotted back and noted that while cars were pulling over, no one had yet
approached the wreck. I hear tires screeching as other cars are coming on the
wreck at 70 miles an hour and trying to avoid it. I wonder if there is anyone
in the car till I hear a woman screaming. "help us, help us, my husband's leg
is broken and the car is going to explode!." Right then another car pulls over
closer and a woman hops out to help. A man is lying on the ground in the median
moaning "O God, O God, my back, my back." His wife is hysterical and indeed the
car is on fire and leaking a fluid of some kind, maybe gas, maybe not. So now
I've got a potentially explosive car and a man with potential back injuries.
The first thing they teach you in first aid is not to move someone with an
injured back as you risk severing the spinal cord causing permanent paralysis.
Right away, my brain springs into action, I've got a fire extinguisher in the
jeep, along with a full first aid kit, safety hammer, flashlight and pretty much
anything you'd need in this situation. My first priority is to get the fire
out. I turn back to my jeep and realize that I'm not driving my jeep. I'm
driving my new FX35. I have a first aid kit but nothing else. The woman who
pulled over realizes her car is too close to the fire and barks at me: "sir,
move my vehicle." I hop in her saturn and pull it forward behind my car. I am
racking my brain trying to figure out what to do. I can hear the woman yelling
"we need a board to move this man before the car explodes" and I know that there
is no board. We are on the freeway. My choices are to drag this large heavy
man 400 feet, potentially further injuring his leg and maybe paralyzing him or
to run like hell. There are no cops and no other males. I contemplate backing
my fx up to the site and dumping him in the back, but honestly I can't figure
out a solution. I don't even want to run back to the crash site 400 feet away.
I am afraid of the car exploding. I run back anyways. Nothing has changed, the
man is still moaning about his back, he doesn't seem to be bleeding, his wife is
still hysterical, the woman who stopped to help is still yelling for a board,
like one will materialize with one if she yells enough. A couple other people
are arriving and I am standing there paralyzed with indecision. I've pulled
over for plenty of accidents and I have first aid training from being a
lifeguard and a camp counselor, but there is nothing in my book about what to do
here. I don't know if the car is going to explode. It's not burning much
visibly, but it is smoking like crazy and the road is reflecting orange
underneath the car, meaning there is flame there. I don't know if cars actually
explode like they do in movies, but either way I don't want to be here. I am a
take charge guy, but right now I am stuck in an infinite loop because my brain
is racing so fast I cannot stop to think. If I move the guy, I may paralyze
him, if I don't move the guy, we may all die. The car is burning, the fire may
be reaching the half full tank at any minute. I do not want to be
here.
To cut the drama short, the cops
showed up, one ambled over, peeked under the car, ambled back to his car, opened
his trunk, got a fire extinguisher out, ambled back, squirted a couple times
under the car, got up and mumbled "it was about to go out anyways". I left when
EMS showed up cause they didn't need me in the
way.
So. I'm off to walmart to buy a
fire extinguisher, a first aid kit and some road flares. I'm going to sign up
for the next first responder class I can. I'd advise everyone to keep those
items in your car. I really wish I'd been driving my jeep that night because
when I strapped the fire extinguisher to the roll bar, Ben from Skillet made fun
of me and nothing silences a laughing person like saving a life. (HA!) Don't
get me wrong. I like Ben, I just think we disagree on the importance of fire
extinguishers in vehicles.
Go buy a fire
extinguisher. Put it in your car.
You'll
probably never use it, but if you have
to.
You'll be glad you had
one.
UPDATE: Apparently cars rarely
explode like they do in the movies, what the usual danger to bystanders and
rescue workers is when the gas struts that lift your hatch or the struts that
suspend the car explode, sending the rods flying. Also the tires and airbags
explode. When the fire reaches the tank, it will ignite but not typically with
concussive force, so I guess I was safer than I thought. However, in some
cases, while they may not explode, they do burn up rather quickly. The glass
breaker in my jeep also has a recessed blade to cut seat belts. I started
carrying that after I read about an incident where the police came on a 2 car
accident on fire and the teenage girl in the driver's seat was locked into the
seat by her seat belt and they were not able to cut her out before she burned to
death since none of them had a blade or scissors.
Posted: Wed - May 10, 2006 at 04:25 PM
