FIRE! FIRE!
Exciting stuff happens at the Smith house! This morning (Monday) Terry went to start the work van ready to take it to Kevin's to get something fixed, but what should have been a normal action soon turned into a disaster...
I hadn't got much sleep last night due to a cough so I was sitting on the couch vacantly staring at the TV (I think I was watching the Sky Sport channel but can't say I took much notice!) when Terry came running in and said "Shit! There's a fire in the van! Got a tea towel or something??" (no offence to those that oppose swearing). He sort of ran into the kitchen and grabbed a tea towel and ran off again. I wandered out to see what was going on and asked in a nonchantly way "It's probably just steam from the cold."
Then I saw the flames under the dash. I ran inside to grab the water jug, raced outside for Terry to throw it onto the fire. We thought it was out but a few seconds later more flames came out and we got more jugs of water - we did try the hose but it didn't reach - the flames wouldn't go out and in the meantime of me getting water he phoned the 111. A policeman turned up with an extinguisher (top priority now is for us to get two; one for the car and one for the house). He sort of got it out but the dash was still smoking, then the fire engine got there and hey hoh they got it out for us. But they also had to rip the dash out and disconnect all the wiring etc. We did manage to save the GPS thing; which Don was happy to hear. So I'm waiting for the panel-beater's to get here to tow the van away. Insurance is a very good thing! We're very pleased we don't have the responsibility to get it fixed. And to think we were going to buy the van for Terry to use for work! So here are the photo's.
As you can see the dash is pretty munted. There is a wire that seems to be too long and was just hanging there, so possibly it was rubbing against something and eventually sparked.
I couldn't resist putting this photo of Tank cuddling his toy while asleep. Terry tried taking it away when he had it under his paw but Tank woke up straight away and gave Terry a doggy frown.
I hadn't got much sleep last night due to a cough so I was sitting on the couch vacantly staring at the TV (I think I was watching the Sky Sport channel but can't say I took much notice!) when Terry came running in and said "Shit! There's a fire in the van! Got a tea towel or something??" (no offence to those that oppose swearing). He sort of ran into the kitchen and grabbed a tea towel and ran off again. I wandered out to see what was going on and asked in a nonchantly way "It's probably just steam from the cold."
Then I saw the flames under the dash. I ran inside to grab the water jug, raced outside for Terry to throw it onto the fire. We thought it was out but a few seconds later more flames came out and we got more jugs of water - we did try the hose but it didn't reach - the flames wouldn't go out and in the meantime of me getting water he phoned the 111. A policeman turned up with an extinguisher (top priority now is for us to get two; one for the car and one for the house). He sort of got it out but the dash was still smoking, then the fire engine got there and hey hoh they got it out for us. But they also had to rip the dash out and disconnect all the wiring etc. We did manage to save the GPS thing; which Don was happy to hear. So I'm waiting for the panel-beater's to get here to tow the van away. Insurance is a very good thing! We're very pleased we don't have the responsibility to get it fixed. And to think we were going to buy the van for Terry to use for work! So here are the photo's.
As you can see the dash is pretty munted. There is a wire that seems to be too long and was just hanging there, so possibly it was rubbing against something and eventually sparked.I couldn't resist putting this photo of Tank cuddling his toy while asleep. Terry tried taking it away when he had it under his paw but Tank woke up straight away and gave Terry a doggy frown.
posted by lydia @ 10:35 AM
2 Comments:
At 11:42 AM,
Anonymous said…
What an exciting start to the morning! Would certainly wake you up in a hurry. A fire extinguisher is certainly a great thing to have.
At 1:26 AM,
ray said…
Thank God it didn't happen while he was driving or anything. Glad everyone is safe.
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