Snow, Fire and the Death of a Car

Story time: So, it was the winter of my first year of college. We had a Christmas time fraternity dance. A friend of mine, Matt, said that he would drive his date and me and my date up to the dance. It was up in Park City. And it was the middle of December.

We started driving up the canyon and it was a pretty good snowstorm going on. Matt had his parents' Subaru Outback. OK, here is when the story gets a bit interesting...we are about .5 miles away from reaching the summit and we hear a snap (Like a rope snapping). Matt lets out a sigh and says, "I think my fanbelt just broke." He then proceeds to decelerate. He just wants to get to the summit and coast down and we can call some friends to pick us up. Well, right when we get to the summit, flames start curling up and around the hood. Yeah, we started freaking out.

We jumped out of the car and pushed the ladies to safety (that was the gentlemanly thing to do) and then we popped open the trunk and grabbed our bags out of it. All during this time, the flames are all over the front of the car. A lot of things go thru your mind when your car is on fire...first and foremost, you are thinking it is going to BLOW UP! I kept picturing the car going kaboom and the four of us being thrown a hundred yards away and falling into a snowbank. Alas, the car did not blow up. But we wandered away from the car in the frakkin' blizzard as we tried to decide if we would walk down to the Gas Station.

But a car quickly pulled up next to us and a lady screamed for us to jump in the car. We climbed in and she drove us to the gas station just off the exit ramp. I still remember Matt's phone call to his parents though and though I am paraphrasing, it was very close to this:
Matt: Hey Mom, how are you?
pause
Matt: Yeah, we are having fun, but we had a little problem.
Pause
Matt: Your car is at the summit and it is on fire but we are OK and we are going to go to the dance now. Sorry.
Pause
Matt: Yeah, its just on fire.
Pause
Matt: Maybe we can go up there tomorrow and pick it up.
Pause
Matt: OK, love you too. See you when I get home.

Seriously, that was the conversation. It was like he was talking about the weather. His car was on FRAKKIN' fire!

So, we called our friends to come and pick us up and they did and took us to the dance. At the dance, other people kept talking about the car that was on fire at the top of the summit. Uh, yeah, thats Matt's car. All I know is, the girls were very impressed...its not every day that they get to go to a dance, see a car burned down and walk around in a blizzard just outside of Park City. We enjoyed the dance and the next day Matt went up and looked at their car which was now a burned out shell and had it towed.

Moral of the story--if you ever have a fanbelt snap, it is probably best to just pull over immediately. And, if you happen to wait too long and your car is engulfed in flames, take it easy, smile and laugh it off.