Flaming Truck

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Friday night had all the earmarks of being a good night on the 3700 block of Main. The Suspects were playing their second “reunion” show with The Aqua Velva opening up. And if that wasn’t enough, The Light Rock Express were groovin over at Charlie’s Big Top. Things were just getting “fired” up when the doorman of the Continental Club exclaimed “Holy Sh*t! A flaming car!”

I turned just in time to see a truck driving down Alabama towing a backhoe on a trailer and the trailer was ON FIRE….I thought at first this was some kind of art car event or something.

A handful of us ran around the corner to see what was up and we saw the truck pull up next to a gas station.

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Could you imagine being at the pump, just minding your own business filling your tank and a truck load of flaming death just pulls up?

Apparently there was an industrial strength cardboard barrel full of trash on the back of the truck that had managed to ignite. The guys jumped out of the truck and pulled it down to the street where it commenced to roll around.

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One of the guys from the truck hopped out and had the wherewithal to climb into the backhoe, fire it up and attempt to tamp out the flames. This resulted in the flaming horror rolling down the street several feet.

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Fortunately, it rolled AWAY from the gas pumps.

The group of men in the truck and the guy in the backhoe all did their part in extinguishing the flames and even got some help from a handful of bewildered homeless guys and had it mostly put out by the time the fire department arrived.

Just another reason why I try to have my camera with me at all times. You just never know what your going to see at any given time. The last two shots here are my favorites and the ones I wanted to show off, but I felt the context was important.