Well... So, my truck burned down

For a car fire that has started taking off you really need at least a 10lb ABC extinguisher.

I like having the small 1-2.5lb mounted in the cab with in reach of the driver in case I get in a wreck where a fire starts and I am stuck. I also keep a 10lb Amerex ABC in the compartment behind the back seat for coming up on someone trapped in a burning car. I would feel way under-gunned with anything under a 10lb.

From having used dry chem extinguishers on car fires at the FD I would really want a 20lb one or a AFFF extinguisher...but unless you want to mount one in the bed it is not very realistic.

 

No word on the cause yet? As I have mentioned been to some vehicle fires and they burn hot. Luckily it only has been property that has been lost, thankfully no life or even severe injury.

 

Nope, I guess they didn't bother.. I'm digging around the internet and finding more and more 2016/2017 V6 4WD Tacos that have turned to crisps, I posted 2 in my update post, found at least 3 more not including mine

 

I hear burning alive is the worst way to go.. Drowning second?

I have a glass break and knife in my visor. Maybe i could cut myself out or hope Adrenalin can get me strong enough to break me free. If all else fails my sig is loaded (last resort).

 

Man that's awful...this has motivated me to pick another one up today. I accidentally set off my last extinguisher in the backseat when I was fumbling around for something (luckily I kept it in an old army surplus satchel but it still made a huge mess. Having a fire extinguisher suddenly go off on you without knowing exactly what happened at first was quite confusing)

Anyway that one's a dud now so I need to go get another one, it was just a small one anyway. Gonna get something bigger and mount it properly this time. Last thing I want is to ever have to witness something remotely as tragic as that...sorry to hear about that.

 

Gonna ramble here a bit but just reminded me of a story I feel is relevant and gave me a lasting paradigm shift in my views on CHP (California Highway Patrol). Growing up in the "fast and furious" days of car culture in SoCal I pretty much hated CHP, as kids we'd joke how they're just glorified meter maids, their only job was pulling in revenue via speeding tickets, I didn't consider them "REAL" cops. Remember this is when I was a shithead teenager so don't judge too harshly.

Anyways I was in car sales and one my customers was a CHP officer, got to talking about everything with him for HOURS and he opened up and broke down a little about how he had just lost one of his best friends/fellow CHP officer to suicide, told me they deal a lot with PTSD.... I ignorantly asked if his friend was a combat veteran or something, as I honestly had no idea what a CHP officer would suffer PTSD from, I mean its not like these guys are getting shot at on the regular right?? My ex's dad was career CHP and never even drew his weapon in 30 years on the force. My ignorance had me thinking "like honestly wtf is so bad about being a highway meter maid that you'd get PTSD?!" (obviously didn't say this part out loud and I'm not proud I had these thoughts).

He wasn't offended by my ignorance though, he seemed to understand this is a common misconception about their job, instead he enlightened me a little... "its the accidents man", he explained CHP officers are often the very first people on the scene of an accident, he said if you do the job long enough you WILL see dead bodies, and if you make a career out of it he said chances are you'll see dead kids sooner than later... and thats what really fucks you up. He told me a story of his that just had me literally in tears, he came up on an accident and saw a frantically screaming mother, looked in the car and both of her children were dead, and there was a moment there where a seemingly innocuous action REALLY fucked with his mind... as rubber necks were cruising by the accident sipping their lattes carrying on with they're completely normal routine, someone in line HONKED and mumbled some shit that the officer could tell the asshole was just really annoyed about being late to work. This officer just saw one of the most gruesome terrible things a man can see, and here is some schmuck pissed off about being inconvenienced, he was 15ft away from DEAD CHILDREN and he was mad about being late. I can't even fucking imagine the rage the officer mustve felt in that moment, he said he felt like dragging the fucker out of his truck and shoving his head into the crushed SUV to show him "THIS is why you're late mother fucker, they're dead!". Just seems like it would be so surreal, hundreds of people passing by like everything is normal, but its not, having to see dead kids on a fucking Tuesday morning is NOT normal, I just can't imagine the like cognitive dissonance you'd feel in a situation like that.

Then he had to go home and act like it was just another day at the officer, went home to his happy wife, smiling kids, and got up the next day to do it all over again. Didn't even tell them about it for months he said he just tried to bury it.

BOOM, in that very moment he completely changed my view on who these guys are and what they really do. I instantly felt terrible about all the shit I talked about them as a kid, even apologized to him for saying things over a decade ago even though it was just to my equally stupid friends.

Needless to say I look at CHP guys with a profound level of respect and it reminds me you NEVER know what other human beings are going through so try to respect everyone you meet. My life has been a fucking disney movie compared to what so many people have dealt with, I'm just so grateful.

If you made it this far thanks for reading hope I didn't waste your time.

 

Well, I'm trained to deal with adrenaline dumps and I panicked trying to get out ended up in a struggle with the seat-belt until I realized it had locked, left side of my brain was like "relax, sit back in your seat, release the latch... then get out, idiot"

 

my god... I feel like my thread has become a tacofire... I mean, campfire story time about some of the wildest shit out there

 

Better that than the 1,000th "So will these tires fit my stock height Tacoma?" threads.

 

diff howling? Lift? Sucky transmission? these threads are never ending

 

I might've missed it but are you going to get another Tacoma? I wouldn't blame you if this experience made you think twice about it lol.

 

To be quite honest, I'm not too sure I will, I'm not confident in Toyota's engineering, especially since finding many more burnt tacos (all of which are V6 and 4WD)

 

Typical thread:

"Hey Bros...Just started college and bought a stock 2019 Pro for $50K (got a great deal through my friend's dad who works at the dealership!)

I was wondering if I should get OVTune and a solid axle or just de-badge my pro for now?

Thanks,
Kyle"

 

This is a good reminder for me. My father was a 30 year CHP officer. He passed away of natural causes 2 years ago at the age of 75.
He was never an overly affectionate man nor was he an overly talkative person. There is only 1 time that I can remember that he brought home a story of an incident. It was the 1 time in his career that he was forced to use his weapon. Showed up with another officer at our home right after the incident to tell my mom.
Otherwise, he never brought home any stories of anything that happened on his shift.
The story above reminds me of why he was the way he was.


Sorry for the derail Argo. And, glad you got out ok.

 

LMFAOOOOO *has a Monster Energy logo as his avatar*

 

I mean, private bank loans for college tuition are basically just free money right?

 

Thanks for sharing and no problem, my truck is in the past now, feel free to share any more stories of your pops, sounds like he was good person. Thank you for supporting him in the work he did, may he forever rest easy

 

feelin the burn?

 

No comment as I don't want to get banned lol.

 

*laughs in APR*