Well Sunday was one of those days for us. We had a BEAUTIFUL time baptizing Jacob on Sunday morning at the lake with our close family and then we had a picnic with some of my father-in-law's famous smoked ribs and my mom's famous potato salad. So we baptized, ate, swam (swum...whatever) and then headed to pick up a former youth to bring back home with us for the week.
Cut to three hours later on the road...Paul looks in the rearview mirror and says, "I think I see smoke!" and of course I whip around and I don't see anything...but Elizabeth does. So Paul pulls over, we jump out of the car and we find the luggage on our cargo basket...ON FIRE...not just smoking...ON FIRE...EN FUEGO...BURNING! So I run back to the car and I yell for the kids to get out of the car. Elizabeth jumps out with Abby and I literally throw the boys out of the car to Elizabeth. Meanwhile Paul is trying to beat the flames out and get the luggage of the cargo basket at the same time. Of course the luggage is strapped securely on...because we don't want to lose it! So while he is trying to put the fire out it spreads to the grass under our car and we have to move the car so that the car doesn't explode. It is at this point that Paul and I realize that this is serious. We finally get the luggage off the basket because a man that stopped to help had a pocket knife and he cut the straps. The luggage is now completely engulfed and the fire is spreading in the grass.....quickly. The kids and Elizabeth are safely away and we now had to move the car again. We threw the luggage away from the car and we finally get to a point where enough of the fire is away from the car and we can at last release the pin holding the basket on so our car can be safe too. After the car is safely away and the children are safe...we stood on the side of the road and watched Paul's luggage and Jacob and Caleb's luggage burn about 3 acres of the median down Interstate 35 in Hillsboro, TX.
We got Elizabeth's bag and my bag away with minor damage, but Paul's and the boys luggage was a total loss. It's one of those times when you know that Satan has blatantly attacked us and even though we lost physical things, God protected us from a major catastrophe. Of course I had my camera so I snapped some pictures for the insurance company and (of course) for my scrapbook.
I just realized that I haven't told you how the fire started...We normally have the cargo basket attached to our hitch with an extender that raises the basket about eight inches higher than the hitch....but the extender was in San Antonio...we were in Dallas...(that's a long story...don't ask! ;) So anyway...without the extender the basket sat just behind the exhaust pipe. So over the course of 3 hours...the exhaust got so hot that it actually caused Paul's luggage to ignite...thus...fire. I know...it's totally a freak accident.
Ok so back to the pictures...Here they are!
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3 comments:
Stuff like that only happens to you guys... praise God everyone is OK!
that is CRAZY! i could hardly believe it while i was reading and then the pictures, wow...i bet that's not how grass fires usually get started! :) so glad everyone is ok! love you!
Oh my goodness! While I was reading about this on your blog, I had a mental picture of the fire. Then I saw the pictures and it was WAY worse than I had imagined!! Praise God everyone was okay!
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