Ho hum, just another day of putting fires out....

[captainsblog]

Fortunately, in this case, not literally.

A friend's father growing up used to sing a little song:

My fadda owned a candy store
Business there was bad
Asked my mudda what to do
And this is what she said:

"Take a can of gasoline
Pour it on the floor
Make a scratch
With a match....
No more candy store!"

I've never encouraged arson, of course, but yesterday was as close to the unintentional kind as I ever care to get. A little after 4, I was finishing up some relatively unproductive stuff for the week and was about to head over to the office to post it and run some copies.  The phone rang, and it was my neighbor, only I couldn't hear anything on the other end. I called the number back- her mobile, as it turned out- and got no answer. Finally, we connected: Sally was in a fast-food parking lot about half a mile from the Galleria Mall, waiting for a tow truck. She'd hit a rock or some other sort of vengeful roadkill on her way home from points south, and it popped a hole in her gas tank. Her freshly-filled gas tank. She'd pulled off at the Walden exit, got to the first accessible car park she could find, got the hell out of the car, and started calling various suspects trying to fix the problem and get home. By the time of her call to me, several bucks had been passed around several blocks, and nobody was in sight to help her get it or her out of that parking lot.

I hopped in my car and headed right over.

I was amazed at how indifferent everybody had been to this whole business. She'd parked it close to the edge of the lot, to discourage people from parking next to it,  but as things got busy for the after-work dinner rush, there were at least two occasions where people pulled right up next to her. This being Buffalo, and more particularly Cheektowaga, I'd set the odds of those people having a lit cigarette in their hands at about 4:5. I shooed the few I saw who were thinking of parking there.

Meanwhile, AAA told her to call 911, since they don't do hazmat cleanups. The fire crew that came sprayed foam on the ground to catch whatever had leaked to that point, but didn't do anything else to put tape or safety cones or anything around the car to say DON'T SMOKE HERE YOU DUPA OR YOU'LL BLOW UP REAL GOOD. Finally, assured that the fire department had been there, AAA agreed to send a tow.  It took close to an hour after even I got there before dude finally showed up- nice guy, no questions asked, but sheesh.  There would have been a lotta would-coulda-shoulda on these guys' plates if something had gone boom on account of the professionals not knowing what to do.

I never did make it to the office. I do not consider this a bad thing.

Comments

[whyaduck.livejournal.com]

Wow, I've never heard an insurance-fraud arson ditty before.

I'm sure the reason AAA wouldn't come first is liability-related, you just know that at some point a driver (most likely a stogie smoking one) did respond and the ensuing conflagration destroyed his truck too.

Another thing AAA won't touch: horse trailers with horses still inside them.