Saturday, September 15, 2012
Yesterday at about 4:30pm the girls and I were on our way to meet Bret at our friends' Jamie and Neil's house in Snohomish. Afterwards, we were going to go look at a potential new car (ironically) for me, and then go see Finding Nemo 3D with the girls. On the way, while following my gps, I missed a turn. I was on Marsh Road in Snohomish. Although the area seems pretty rural to me, there was quite a bit of traffic. There was a small paved driveway on the opposite side of the road, where I thought I could do a U-turn. I accidentally passed the driveway and my U-turn ended up in some tall grass and brush instead. Since our car is/was four wheel drive, I thought I could just put it in reverse and back out. Well, it ended up I was stuck. I'm still not sure exactly why I got stuck, whether I was stuck in the blackberry bushes, or since I was on a bit of a hill. I knew that if I just worked it a little bit, I'd be able to back out onto the road. I was stuck in this spot for less than five minutes. I had just begun to work my way out by rocking the car forward and back, contemplating driving further forward to get a different angle. At this point, my biggest concern was that I looked pretty stupid and had obviously chosen the wrong spot for a U-turn.
Next thing I knew, a young guy pulled over and was walking up to my window. I opened my door and got out to talk to him, hoping maybe he'd have some pointers for me. When I stepped out I realized that the ground underneath the whole front of my car was completely engulfed in flames. He yelled at me to get the girls out of the car fast. He went around and got Harper out, and I grabbed Carson. In the moment, I envisioned the whole car exploding. I've never been so panicked in my life. Thankfully the car did not explode (yet) and we were safe.
At this point traffic was already completely backed up. A nice man gave me a bottled water and let me use his phone to call Bret (mine was in the car). A woman who was a pediatric nurse stopped and helped me with the girls while I was panicking. While this was going on, the young man who had stopped (who just happened to be a volunteer fireman) was trying to put out the raging flames that were now underneath the whole car. Pretty soon it was obvious that the fire was completely out of control and the whole car was engulfed. The girls and I stopped watching at this point. We heard multiple explosions, not sure exactly what those were. By the time the fire trucks arrived, the whole car was a raging fire. I'd guess they arrived 15-20 minutes after we realized there was a fire.
After the fire was out, Bret pulled up to the scene. He was so sweet, and was just so happy we were okay. I didn't get any speeches from any of the policemen or firemen, only reassurance that I'm not the first person to do this, and that it has even happened to a few patrol cars before. We were all a bit shaken up, but nothing too terrible. The kindness of all the people who came around us was overwhelming. The man whose phone I borrowed called later yesterday evening to make sure we were okay. The pediatric nurse who stopped let us borrow her a car seat for the girls. The insurance company will cover everything, thank the Lord. I'm feeling grateful and blessed today. Thank you Lord for your protection over our family in so many ways :)
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