History in the Making: A Minivan Fire

4:25pm: When my wife happened to look out a window, she noticed a fire truck was parked on the street. When we went out the door we saw a SUV that was on fire!

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(Update:

William Tyree uploaded, cropped
Nancy Cremer: My daughter saw his car driving towards her with flames under and behind his car. Numerous people tried to get his attention. She turned her car around and saw him get out of the vehicle before it turned into a ball of flames. So glad he was able to get out safely.

)

I learned later that the ladder truck suppressed the engine fire, but it had run out of water just before the gas tank was compromised. If you look at the photo above, gas was burning along the curb. Fortunately, the pumper had just finished with a fire up north.

I could hear  the siren of the pumper arriving, so I switched my camera to video mode and caught the pumper as it arrived. You can see it playing out its supply hose as it pulls into position. 

Screenshot @ 0:00

We homeowners were lucky that the wind was blowing the smoke South down the street and not at our homes. The few whiffs of smoke I smelled reminded me that rubber and plastic burn with a bad odor.

Screenshot @ 0:37

After the pumper comes to a stop, they transfer the pressure hose from the ladder truck to the pumper and start fighting the fire. In the meantime, they hooked up the supply hose. They knocked down the main flames pretty quickly. But they sprayed water long after I quit taking video. At 4:21 they bring over a bucket of liquid that they start pouring into the water stream at 4:33.

Screenshot @ 0:58

4:39  While I was taking the video, a tow truck arrived.

4:39  As I said, they continued to spray water after I quit the video.

4:42  And another inspector car arrived.

4:46  They continue to hose down the SUV.

4:46  The policeman had trouble reading the license plate. He had kicked it off the car and out onto the lighter pavement. It is on the street just to the left of his foot. 

4:50  I presume it was the stuffing in the car seats that needed a lot of water.

4:52  A tow truck has arrived that can handle a vehicle whose tires have partially melted.

4:53  I concluded that the reason why the small tow truck had come so early was to help the firefighting. It was used to...

...provide better access to the gas tank.

4:58  A couple of photos showing how they fold it back up when done.

5:00  The pumper holds 500 gallons of water so they started packing up the supply hose by disconnecting it at the truck and...

...and the hydrant.

5:04  Two firefighters walk a set of rollers down the hose while one holds the end to push all of the water out of the hose. Here they are doing the last segment.

5:07  There is a person up on the truck that pulls the hose to the front of the truck while the others feed the hose to him.

5:08  They are coupling on the next segment of the hose before they add it to the pile that is on the truck.

5:08  Meanwhile another firefighter hauls another segment down the street so that it will be ready to couple to the hose on the truck.

5:09  The transport tow truck is getting into position.

See the video starting at 9:53 for the loading of the SUV.

5:17  Not all shots are useful.

5:19  The ladder truck is leaving.

5:20  With the ladder truck gone, I get a good view of the pumper.

5:22  The two tow truck drivers spent a lot of time cleaning up the debris that fell off the SUV. Earlier, they had to work on getting out a part that went into the asphalt when it was partially melted.

5:28  They then put the SUV back on the street so that the fire inspector could take some phots. (He had been interviewing the driver.)

5:36  They had trouble getting the hood latch to release. So they got the reciprocating saw and that quickly solved that problem.

Some shots of the damage.

5:45  The SUV was back on the tow truck.

5:47 They had kept the pressure hose attached to the pumper to wash down the street after the SUV was removed. 

5:50  And then they rolled up the two segments of the pressure hose.

5:51 And put them in the back of the truck.

They provided some clear shots of some of the storage compartments.

5:53  The pumper leaves.

And the tow truck leaves.

5:54  The road now has some instant potholes.

6:21  I remembered to take a photo of a clock to verify that I had the correct time set in the camera. I did.

In case you think I forgot that this is a history blog instead of a news blog, here are a couple of photos of the fire truck that is in the Downers Grove History Museum.

Dennis DeBruler

Dennis DeBruler