Lamborghini Fire

Lamborghini Fire Account (story below image thread):

I was working part time on a 911 ambulance and rarely were we dispatched to vehicle fires. Well, this particular day we were sent to a car fire at the gas station a couple minutes down the road from our location. As we headed towards the call we could see thick black smoke high in the sky! As we moved closer I saw a vehicle with flames shooting over 15 feet into the air. It looked fully-involved from the back, and as we came within 50 yards of the fire I said to my partner, “holy crap, that’s a Lambo! No way!!”
I have always been obsessed with Lamborghinis, and to see one on fire, my first thought was, “maybe Lamborghini is not the right car for me!” Certainly I don’t want to own a car that costs $200,000 dollar plus, with the potential to burst into flames! A slight sense of disappointment came over me.
Coincidentally, the fire was diagonally across the street from the only Lamborghini dealership in the state. I had previously seen a high-end vehicle come directly from the dealership, gas up, and go straight back. I figured that was the case here.
As we were pulling into a safe parking location, my partner said, “I am going to try to knock it down.” “What” I exclaimed!! “I am a firefighter, I am going to try to knock it back a little bit.” I was totally taken back, “dude, its next to a gas pump, you have no gear, what are you going to use, the little hand held ambulance extinguisher??”
“I am a firefighter, I have to,” he said. “Um….okay, but don’t get hurt for a material object!” I had never worked with this guy before and grabbed my camera… He didn’t even get within 50 feet of it due to the heat. Ha.
As I jumped out of the truck, I was promptly greeted by the highest ranking gas station attendant. She was highly anxious, I was relaxed, and frankly, pleasantly entertained. “I am Blah Blah Blah (her name), I am in charge of this fire” she blurted! I instantly started to laugh hysterically on the inside, I smiled and said, “no, I think the fire department will be in charge when they get here in 30 seconds.” I could hear the Presidential Cue (loud, long winding siren used to clear intersections) of the Truck and Engine company screaming down the road.
It was totally surreal, this was a hopping gas station in a busy part of town. There are 16 pump locations and about 15 storefront parking spots. There were only two cars left in the station, the cooking Lamborghini and a car parked adjacent to it. Apparently the woman next to it was blown to the ground when it exploded.
I was still for a moment, I briefly took in the scene. There was a ten foot canopy of jet black toxic smoke trapped under the high overhang of the pump station roof. As I approached I looking up at the smoke and felt the intense heat, it was a defining moment. The instant was dreamlike, I felt halfway ecstatic and half scared. “Is this thing going to blowup, should I be this close!?”
As I started capturing the event with my camera the fire department was pulling into position and getting hose lines on the ground. The fire was extinguished fast and my moment of worry for my safety was replaced with a calm, and the question, “what the hell happened here?”
While the smoke was clearing we all continued to admire the sad, yet astonishing carnage. About ten minutes passed before the owner emerged from his hiding spot. He was obviously and painfully distressed. He didn’t say much, except, “I think I am going to cry” and “my wife, my wife is going to….”
I thought that a dealership employee likely took the car across the street and the motor seriously malfunctioned. I was wrong, the car belonged to this relatively young guy, I would guess 38. And there was nothing wrong with the cars engine, except for being too hot to have a pool of gasoline vapors under it.
I was very taken back by the owners age. Being an entrepreneur myself I wanted nothing more than to ask the owner how he had made his money. However, there never really seemed to be an appropriate time for a networking and wealth seminar session. Instead, I asked him what happened.
He had clicked the nozzle handle into the automatic fill position. While he was digging around in the cockpit of his brand new, 3 month old purchase, he noticed that his tank was overfilling! He raced to shut it off, took the nozzle out, and as he set it back onto the holder his baby simultaneously burst into flames! Fuel had poured down the side and collected underneath its rear motors where the heat ignited it. He dove out of the way!
Well, the best part of the story takes place after the fire...
I imagine a salesman at the Lamborghini dealership sitting at his desk, fingers intertwined, twiddling his thumbs, thinking, “I need a sale today!” He glances out the window, pauses, then jumps to his feet. As he peers out through the blinds he says the same thing I did, “holy crap, it’s a Lambo!!” As he sprints in his suit across the busy five lane road he thanks God for answering his prayer so promptly! Ha.
While we were all standing around, still in relative disbelief, here he came, “Slick-Willy.” Late 40s, super tan skin, thick full silver slicked back hair, expensive suit, with a bright pink button-down and three buttons undone! He was unbelievably unaffected by the whole event, it was like he manifested insane sales circumstances daily. He was strictly there to close the deal.
He quickly spotted and grabbed the fuel cap memento that some of the firefighters had been eyeballing. He lightly stated that the cap was worth $200 dollars then began his sales pitch. I didn’t overhear the conversation, but it lasted a mere minute. As the owner was lead away by the master-salesman he announced, “well, I guess I’m going to go get an new one, then I’m going to get drunk!!”

C