The past few weeks at the Griffen Estate have been weeks of repair and upgrades. New kitchen floor, new front door and carpet cleaning. I decided that carpet cleaning would be the last job as I didn’t want to get it dirty with the floor install. I picked a company to clean the floor based on a recommendation from a friend who is in the insurance business (he is a claim adjuster for large loss personal property and handles whole home loss – fires, floods and the sort. He also does post hurricane and disaster work for the company he works for). I called the carpet cleaning company and setup an appointment. Out came the owner of the company to give an estimate and time frame. Nice enough guy…huge reference list of folks I know. Done deal.
Cleaning day arrives. Eight AM sharp they are at the house, do a small repair that I need and start to clean the carpet. It is like watching them color – the carpet is now five shades lighter than it was in any area that they cleaned…then the cleaner stopped. The guys went out to the van that has all the machinery that is needed to clean the carpet and soon come back into the house. I was told “the fuel pump went out but we will be right back and fix it – this happened a few weeks ago and it is a simple fix”. Off they went.
Fifteen minutes later they are back…”fix” the pump and the cleaning resumes. I let them know that I am going to head to the office – it is now about 8:45 am and they say that all will be set when I get home.
I walk out into the garage and smell gasoline…odd. I got in the car and started to back out and REALLY could smell gas. Backing out I could not get over the smell of the gas. I stop the car and look…there is some fluid leaking from the driver’s door of the van that they are driving. I get out of the Audi (not shutting it down) and walk to the puddle and stream of fluid that is going down the driveway…it is gasoline.
I walked to the passenger side of the van and looked into the open doors (the van is backed into my drive and about three feet from my garage). In the door is an engine that runs the cleaning system – and just to its base is a hose that is spraying gasoline into the van and filling the driver’s area with fuel. There is gas about two inches deep in a corner of the rear of the van, gas dripping off of the ceiling of the van and covering the rear of the driver seat…in turn pooling near the driver’s door and leaking out.
I saw a key that was on the engine in the back of the van and turned it off…I looked at my front door and yelled “guys we have a huge problem”…two of them were walking out of the house (I have to assume wondering why the system stopped again). Just as I heard my screen door hit its frame the van burst into flames. I was thrown back in the explosion to my ass and looked at the van in disbelief. The carpet guys were also laying in the front yard – both covering their heads like a tornado drill at school. They both got up and ran down the road…not me.
For some reason some auto pilot switched on. I cannot recall grabbing my garden hose, nor can I remember calling 911…but I can recall that it took five rings to get an answer. Opening the hose into the van I am telling 911 only the basics – “Send fire dept NOW to 5745 Covey Ridge, we need the fire dept now…5745 Covey Ridge”. I was asked what was on fire; my answer was “the whole block in a minute”. I hung up the phone and aimed the hose at the fire in the van. Fire was licking out the back doors of the van and moving up the siding on my garage. I knew that my house was going to be a loss.
Looking forward I saw that there was fire under the Audi…the pool of gas was flowing under the Audi. I yelled at a guy that was there (no idea who he was) to move the Audi – he said “I don’t have a license”…yelling at him I said “move the fucking Audi!” and he got in and pulled it into the road.
I noticed that the keys were in the van and knew that if I could get it into neutral I could get it away from my house…but the entire driver’s seat was in flames. I directed the water to the seat…but could not get the fire out from my angle. Months ago Estee dug a hole and found a rock…that rock has sat on the walk for months…There was no thought at all…none…I have no idea how it happened…I reached down, got the rock and threw it into the passenger window breaking it. I then directed the water to the driver’s seat of the van.
Yelling at a guy to put the van into neutral…he declined and told me “no damn way” (or something like that). I asked him to take the hose and that I would do it. He came to the hose and sprayed the driver’s seat area (and the rear flames got even larger). I tried to reach in and move the shifter to “N” with no success. The heat was so intense I could not stay there. Reaching back in (with the hose spraying on me) I was able to grab the key and turn it to the on position – unlocking the transmission. Another heat retreat and I got back into the van and tried to pull the shifter – won’t move. The guy with the hose said “hit the brake” and then with my left hand I pushed the brakes and with my right pulled the shifter lever…the van started to roll away from my house.
Rolling the vans driver’s seat touched my arm – melted vinyl sticking to my arm. The van rolled about 50 feet from my home and stopped near some bushes.
Loves Park fire arrived and took care of the fire in short notice. The fire chief came to me some minutes later and said that he had heard of my efforts (from neighbors and the carpet guys). He said “I don’t know what you have done in your past, but this is the stupidest thing that you have ever done. This van would not burn your house down; it would blow the neighborhood off the map. It was stupid, but thank you for doing it” and patted me on the back.
Little did I know that the van had more than 100 gallons of cleaning fluid, a 25 gallon Propane tank, 2.5 gallons of gasoline, and the normal tank of gas in it. If the propane would have gone it would level the area.
My injuries were second and first degree burns to my right arm and shoulder. A sore back from falling to the ground and some singed hair. The cause of the fire was stupidity. When the fuel pump went out the owner of the company put a gas can in the back of the van and had a siphon using gravity to send fuel to the engine…he did not cap the return line from the engine…that is where the gas was spraying from. Had I not stopped I would not have a house (nor dog as she was locked in a bedroom) right now. I also can assume that my neighbor’s homes would be gone as it would have exploded before the cleaners in my home knew there was an issue (they would probably be dead).
If it was going to happen to someone – it was going to happen to me.
