I remember a while ago, while I was still living in the rolling wilds of Kentshire, I was driving down the lovely (well, functional) A2 near delightful (!) Dover, and as I rounded the corner, I saw smoke. Quite a lot of smoke. Big old black smoke. As I got a bit further round that corner, I saw the origin of the smoke. As the old saying goes, there is no smoke without fire, and this occasion was no exception, as there on the side of the road was a car on fire.
Now most people were just pulling over into the fast lane and dashing on past, but, being in no particular hurry that day, and feeling like being a good citizen, I pulled over a safe (I hoped!) distance in front of the car, and got out to help.
The first thing I did was to ask if either of the two men who were with the car had called the fire brigade. Worryingly, the answer was ‘no’. So, I dialled 999, gave the nice lady the location and awaited the lovely roaring red engines and blue flashing lights.
Next, I told the two men that standing that close to the car was probably not a great idea, and maybe they should back away a bit. Or a lot. The men were not English, and it turned out that one of them was giving a lift to the other so he could get to the ferry terminal a few miles down the road. The man was very concerned, as his passport and papers were in the car, which was now merrily burning away. He was obviously trying to get to the car to retrieve his bag which had all the documents in. However, the blaze was now intense enough to be setting fire to the bank at the side of the road (bank as in grass verge, not as in Barclays!)
After dissuading him from attempting this suicidal mission, I managed, in halting English, to find out what had happened. The men had been driving along, when a small fire had started underneath the gearbox of the car. The second man had noticed it, and tried to put it out, but as they didn’t have a car fire extinguisher of any kind, this proved rather ineffective. Hence the current flaming status of the car.
Now, would a car fire extinguisher have made a difference here? Well, in short, yes. Car fire extinguishers are small, compact versions of the powder extinguishers that you would find in your office. Being powder, it should extinguisher most major types of car-related fire – i.e. those involving paper (like passports!) or cloth (seating), fuel or oil (often found in cars!) or even gas. It gives you a first line of defence, and is safe to use around electrical equipment, which is also quite prevalent in cars.
As it turns out, the fire brigade arrived, tackled the fire and the last I saw was the men talking to the fire officer. I hope it all turned out okay for them, and he managed to sort out another passport okay. Maybe a car extinguisher would have allowed them to tackle the fire while it was still small, and saved the destruction of their car. The important thing to remember though, is no matter how well equipped you are, if in doubt you should get out of the car and call for help – after all, that’s why we have a fire brigade!
