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May 8, 2012
Car Fire in North Beach
Last night, I was sitting in a local pub in North Beach drinking a couple of Stellas. Minding my own business. Woman pulls up front in a Honda Civic. Stops. And the car proceeds to catch on fire.
Light was coming from under the hood. The fire was burning in a sustained, continuous manner. I called 911 and reported the car fire. They rolled out a couple of the big "Apple Dumpling" sized firetrucks. Before the fire dept got there, someone came out with a fire extinguisher, they lifted the hood, and extinguished the fire.
But, it was interesting. Interesting in that I've never seen a car catch on fire for no reason before. Now, I've caught the weasel on fire more than once, but it's a rolling fire-hazard. This was a car sold by Honda to the general public as a safe vehicle. Not something designed to operate in war zones without a key and 1/2 pound of TNT strapped to the transfer case to keep it from falling into enemy hands.
So, it was intriguing. I initially assumed that the car's battery had caught on fire. But when they raised the hood, I observed that the battery box was near the firewall, not behind the headlights.
The car caught on fire behind the passenger side headlight, about 12" to 24" back behind the headlight, I'd say. I'm not clear why it caught on fire. But if I worked for Honda, I'd be looking into why the car caught on fire.
Posted by Rob Kiser on May 8, 2012 at 11:03 AM
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