Imagine waking up at 6am Friday morning to roofers clanking ladders, cussing like sailors, and banging on your roof (without you knowing they were even coming.) What a way to wake up, right?
Now, imagine Monday morning waking up at 5:45 to a strange noise. Thinking it sounded a little different than the usual clank and clatter of the roofers, I get up to check. I get up out of bed and peer out of our kitchen window and see....
...Justin's truck on fire.
As soon as I saw it I ran back in the bedroom and started yelling, "Justin, your truck is on fire. Your truck...fire....flames..." (Clearly not being able to form sentences at this time.) Thinking I was having a nightmare and hesitant to believe me, he slowly got up to check. Needless to say- he now accompanied me in this nightmare.
He hurriedly called 911, and after 30 minutes of waiting, they arrived. Apparently, dispatch had given them the right street, wrong city. Instead of our Verdery Drive, they gave them N. Augusta's. (I forgot to mention, the roofers showed up 5 minutes after we discovered the flames. Thankfully they were there with us because they called 911 again for us after 10 minutes of no sirens just to confirm they were on their way- they weren't.)
The truck was radiating heat and was (as usual) parked close to the house. It wasn't until the roof started steaming that we realized...the house could be next. Justin ran to the neighbor's and stole their water hose. He immediately began spraying the side of the house and roof with water trying to cool it off. While doing so, the battery exploded and the fire hit the gas tank. A few explosions happened while Justin was within feet of the truck....not a good feeling.
The firemen finally arrived and began spraying a very powerful stream of water towards the truck. After working at it for around 5 minutes or so, they realize...water wasn't going to do the trick. Since we filled up with gas a few minutes away from home last night, the truck had about 20 gallons of fuel in it. They had to resort to using a foam substance to put out the fire, which worked, but they say is very costly (and our dogs shouldn't drink it...). Hopefully that can all be billed to our insurance agencies, also.
Since so much foam was used and so much gas leaked out, DHEC had to be called because our yard is now an environmental hazard. The DOT had to come and dump a load of sand to cover up the foam and we (by we, I mean Justin) had to take a shovel and try and get as much of black, burnt sand out of the yard.
Yes...we are still wondering the exact same question you are wondering...how did it happen?
The firemen seem to think it was faulty wiring or either a cell phone charger that was left plugged in. Other than those two suggestions, they are stumped also!
Since we are in the process of moving from our GA home to N. Augusta, we had A LOT of stuff in the truck. We were too tired last night to unpack it, so we decided that I would do that while Justin was at work today. (I guess that's one thing on my to-do list that took care of itself.) Among the things in the truck were: 2 paint sprayers, a push lawnmower, a dog box, LOTS of clothes, new door hinges we were supposed to use on our new cabinet doors, and a coleman grill. Many other small things were in there, but I won't list them all. The total cost of all of the items on our list so far is at $2417 (not including the truck, of course.).
A few items remained...like the driver's manual. We especially like bullet number 2: Things to know before starting your vehicle. I guess we won't be needing this anytime soon.
Please pray for us during this stressful time. We're trying to get everything settled with our homeowner's insurance and our car insurance agencies. Maybe this was God's way of giving us permission to buy a new car! ;)
