This weekend while driving in Pasadena I turned the corner and saw a plume of smoke. An SUV in a parking lot had flames erupting from the hood. No one was visible anywhere nearby
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I've seen two cars on fire and thought mine was on fire at one point. Mine was when some gauge or other in mine cracked, causing something else to break when it got overheated, and steam to pour forth from my vehicle when I was trapped in rush-hour traffic. Terrified, I managed to pull over off the road a few minutes later and threw myself and everything I needed (purse, phone, iPod, books) out of the car and called roadside assistance. Eventually it stopped, and I realized it probably wasn't going to catch on fire (the difference between steam and smoke not exactly being apparent when you're terrified and trapped in traffic), and got back into the car to get out of the sun while waiting for the tow truck
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I was also in Denver when a car there was struck by lighting during 5-o'clock traffic and set on fire. Did not see it, alas, as it was not on my commute home, but I remember hearing it on the news.
I've been in a similar situation to your "thought it was on fire"; we were visiting my grandmother, and her car suddenly started spewing what looked like smoke but was actually steam while we were stopped at a light.
My mother practically threw my brother and me out of the car.
Yeah, It wasn't until later that I realized if it was smoke, I would have been able to smell it and it probably would have been much darker. But better safe than sorry, at any rate.
React first. Cogitate later. If it isn't a fire, all you'll feel is mildly silly. (I just finished reading Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable. Very good book on disasters and how people react to/during them. Highly recommended.)
I got to subsume my feeling-silly with feelings of RAAAGE when I noticed that I was pulled over with my hood open in the universal sign for MY CAR IS BROKE on the access road next to a road that exited from a country club, and I was passed by many, many people in SUVs turning onto the access road from the club and only one of them even rolled down a window and asked if I needed help.
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My mother practically threw my brother and me out of the car.
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I got to subsume my feeling-silly with feelings of RAAAGE when I noticed that I was pulled over with my hood open in the universal sign for MY CAR IS BROKE on the access road next to a road that exited from a country club, and I was passed by many, many people in SUVs turning onto the access road from the club and only one of them even rolled down a window and asked if I needed help.
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