When trucks explode
20 February: Quartzsite was advertising free produce at its food bank today. Let’s take a step back to last night to find out why:
Boom.
DH and I looked at one another; this wasn’t a distant explosion from the Yuma Proving Grounds or a mine, but something close by. We started putting on shoes and coats.
Boom…louder, this time. I went outdoors in time to see a column of flame rise into the air not 600 feet away.
The direction was that of the entrance station, so I thought either the entrance hut went up, or an RV. DH came out shortly after I did and I observed that “Something terrible just happened.” As it turned out, it was bad, but not terrible, and the only things harmed during the making of this drama were a bunch of lettuces.
DH filmed the large column of flame awhile, then we went down to see what was up. We were not alone, of course; a crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle as fire engines and cops rolled up.
From what we pieced together, a semi-truck had had two blow-outs, which was the bang we heard. The second had ignited his trailer, but the driver got his rig unhooked and drove to a safe distance, but was unharmed.
We arrived in time to see the fire crew hosing down the gutted trailer with a pile of sorry-looking lettuces on the highway. After a bit, the emergency service let a long stream of held-up traffic was by, and the show was over.
This was cross-posted from Raven's Roads. You can comment here or there, but if you could bring yourself to comment there rather than here, that would be very nice. Here's the link to comment over there