I had to start this because it didn't really fit in the autoparts store thread.

Reading all those stories reminded me of this one, so here you go...

I know a guy who is a fireman. The hall got a call out to a car fire in a driveway about 3 kilometers from the hall. 911 had recieved several calls from concerned neighbors who said the guy and his wife were trying to put it out but having no luck. The crew went out but about half way to the address they were flagged down by a crowd watching a car burn on the side of the road. It was the same car as it turned out. The guy had been welding something underneath and eventually melted the undercoating, which ignited. Instead of stopping, he put the fire out below, and had his wife crawl in the back to stamp out the flames that kept popping up from the pesky burning carpeting etc. When she could no longer keep up, even with his help, he finally jumped in the car and DROVE to the firehall, with his wife still in the back trying to put out the flames. They made it about half way before the heat drove them from the car....

My dad and I witnessed an epic engine fire once in a grocery store parking lot. Hood up. Flames 5 feet high. Nobody around. Looked bad. We had just been at a restaurant and there was a police officer shooting the bull in the parking lot. Before cell phones so the fastest option seemed to be to spin around and got the 1/2 mile back and tell him about the fire and let him radio for help. We tell him, he flips on the flashers and heads to the store. We're behind him. The car is gone. Just....not there. Finally figured that we must have just witnessed someone having a really bad time starting their car and ended up with a carb fire. Somehow they sorted it out in the 3 minutes we were gone, successfully started the car and left. It was weird. The cop thought we were jackasses.

I'm a firefighter. I love car fires. I'm always so disappointed when someone calls us and a car is just overheating. My best one so far was a cube van full of carpet. Everything was on fire. We saved the rear tires and the batteries.

I hate car fires.

One night, I had to deliver a DQ sundae to my wife's grandpa in the hospital. Got the sundae and up to his room and sat down for a few minutes to chit chat while he ate. I heard an overhead page about something in the parking lot. I didn't pay much attention until the SECOND page overhead.... I then turned around to look out the window.... 6, 7, 8 foot flames coming out from under the hood of MY WIFE's CAR!!!! So, as I run to the elevator and outside, I phone home to say "Your car is ON FIRE!" Turns into a total loss along with a smug insurance company that happens to rhyme with myassiswide, that wants to disallow my claim because I drove to another state and intentionally set it, but nevermind that the other state is 5 miles away and in a hospital parking lot with LOTS of security cameras everywhere.

sigh

I guess that would make them less fun. Did they eventually pay?

One day I was stuck on 128 in Mass in bumper to bumper traffic. The Camry just in front of me started to smoke, then flames appeared below the car. As I and everybody else scrambled to get away, a cement truck pulled up alongside. Driver calmly climbed out of the cab, slipped on a pair of work gloves and pulled a hose out from under the big spinning drum. He turned on the water opened the hood of the car and put out the fire. Then he put the hose away, took his gloves off, climbed back into his truck and drove off without saying a word to anybody. I couldn't help but think that I had just watched the coolest dude in the world.

In reply to mw:

Yes, but easily 3 months of haggling to still only get lowballed on value. At first it was letter basically stating hand over the keys and we'll cut you a $2k check today. Car was still booking for 6k....

I drove my beater 79 Chevy Malibu to class 1 time, and I come out to 3 firetrucks surrounding my parking space. From 200 yards away, I could see that my car was a different color, but had the same shape. I get closer and see that a 2 year old Honda was the culprit. My car had been sprayed down with chemicals to keep it from burning too. The Honda was a total loss. The dean (or some guy from the deans office) gave me $10 to get my car washed. I was really surprised that there was no paint damage at all. I had a firetruck move, so I could leave and I went on with my day.

Cole_Trickle wrote: I drove my beater 79 Chevy Malibu to class 1 time, and I come out to 3 firetrucks surrounding my parking space. From 200 yards away, I could see that my car was a different color, but had the same shape. I get closer and see that a 2 year old Honda was the culprit. My car had been sprayed down with chemicals to keep it from burning too. The Honda was a total loss. The dean (or some guy from the deans office) gave me $10 to get my car washed. I was really surprised that there was no paint damage at all. I had a firetruck move, so I could leave and I went on with my day.

That's awesome that they saved your car!