burning the suburban

Here I was driving mid-summer back in 1991. It was a hot day, I remember. Had spent the night where Snoopy's brother, Spike, lived (Needles, CA). I was driving a black 4 wheel drive Chevy Suburban with tinted window, air-ride shocks, pulling an 8 or 10 foot trailer with the PA gear in it. This suburban had a 40 gallon gas tank in it which I filled up right before leaving Needles. The goal that day was to get to Phoenix (Scottsdale) to do a gig at a church that evening with a gig in Colorado Springs 2 days later. This was one of the times that I had my boss (the guitarist) riding with me for this first leg of the trip.

So we leave Needles, noting that it was going to be a hot day and because of the load we were pulling, I was very aware of watching the temperature gauge. Things seem to be going well. The vehicle was running a little warm but not anything near hot. There is this rise just past Yucca (a small 1 horse town before Kingman AZ) where you pass over the railroad tracks that have been on your left for miles. Just as I crested this rise, I distinctly remember watching the temperature gauge take this steady fast rise all the way over past the red and at the same time this whitish stuff (steam?) come out of the front of the hood.

I slow down and get to the side of the road and quickly and calmly as I can. So my boss jumps out and has me release the hood. Both of us were thinking that we had popped the radiator cap and that water would be spewing out onto the engine. So I release the hood and he peers through the small crack to see what is up. I am still sitting in the driver's seat watching this. He then quickly runs to the back of the Suburban where the bottled water was at. He being like many people didn't like tap water and so we kept a supply of distilled drinking water (that day I believe I had 5 gallons of it in the back). He grabs a couple gallons runs to the front (I still thinking that we were just overheated was just sitting there watching the action). Opens the hood and starts emptying the bottles. Now he has my true attention. As I got out of the vehicle, he was on his way back to get the remainder of the bottles. I asked him what was up and he said there was fire in the engine compartment. I get in front and can see flames up next to the firewall on the passenger's side. He by now has dumped yet another bottle or two (things are getting exciting now).

My boss has this guitar - an extremely old Fender - which most people would call a Telecaster, but this guitar is older than that. For you guitar people, you will know that Fender make a guitar called the Broadcaster and then changed the name to Telecaster because there is was a Gretsch drum kit with a similar name. So he has this already near priceless guitar and then he had it carved which devalued the guitar to the purists but now it is a one of a kind piece of artwork that is still a valuable guitar. It was kept in a handmade leather/lambs-wool gig bag. When I first met my boss he showed me this guitar and told me that this guitar stayed on my body everywhere.

So vehicle is on fire. Water seems to not have any effect and quickly running out. I am pondering the use of sand as I also think "guitar!". I run to the back and get the guitar and safely stow it on the sand away from the vehicle. I now think, "wallet" as I go back to the front of the vehicle to aid my boss. Because of all the travel I was doing, I was using a very small daytimer as a wallet so I could keep my schedule on me at all times. Well this daytimer was pretty big and when driving, I would put it in the center console in front. I go to the front drivers side and look in and see flames in the passengers side. I am not that interested in sacrificing myself for my wallet so I just ditch that.

I turn to my boss and we both basically agreed that we needed to get the equipment away from this fire. We go back and try to unhitch the trailer and realize that we don't have the strength to lift it off the hitch. Plan B. Unload the trailer. Which we start on. Boss jumps in and I grab from the outside and start stacking on the side of the road. I have grabbed my second piece of equipment and a guy comes right up beside me and starts helping?

Probably less than 10 minutes before all of this started, we had passed a road crew that was in transit. So as I grab my piece of gear I realize that the crew had caught up with us and had put cones out on the road and were directing traffic to the far lane. Pretty amazing for being out in the middle of nowhere. So i now have 2 other guys helping unload and I hear a helicopter. It was Lifeflight (or their equivalent) flying over past us. I turn to one of the guys and say "Why Lifeflight? No one is hurt here." He responds by telling me that they had called the fire department for us but the engine had ran off the road back on that same hump that we started burning on. One of the firemen was hurt and now that accident took priority. So the unloading continues. I did think that now we have help to try to lift the trailer off the suburban but as I look around the front I see that inside the back of the suburban is fully engulfed in flames.

I did mention that this vehicle had a 40 gallon gas tank? Just fully filled less than 100 miles ago? I learned later that having that tank full was the best thing for us but I didn't know this at that time. But working that close to flames and the tank wasn't my idea of safe. So back to the unloading. I am just reaching for a piece of gear and BAM. What a sound. Everyone stops, takes a breath. Yep still alive, Unloading continues. I ask one of the road crew what that was, he calmly responds "Tire blew up". Great. . I get to experience this at least 3 more times.

So by now we are almost through unloading and the backup fire truck shows. Its a pickup with tank in the bed and a pull start gas engine for the pump. The truck is there only a minute and it leaves. I ask someone "Where did he go?" I am informed that the guy realized that the little gas engine was empty so he was going to get some gas. We've got 40 gallons of the stuff waiting to burn and he has none. So the suburban basically burns to a shell, the road crew guys pack up their stuff, the fire truck shows up to put water on the smoldering remains and then leaves. Myself and my boss are just left there waiting for the highway patrol. We decide to kill some time and unhitch the trailer and reload it. We are basically done reloading when the highway patrol shows up. They call for a wrecker and after the paperwork is done they leave. Its another 5 minutes of desolation before the wrecker shows.

We get to Kingman and I obtain a U-haul which I drive for the remainder of that trip back to the midwest via Colorado. We get to Phoenix a little late but still in time to do the gig. My boss took the burnt steering wheel as a trophy.

Now the icing on the cake. . . I had already figured out that I was going to have a hard time getting to Colorado Springs on time before but now driving a U-haul I was really concerned. So I had decided that I would just get the to hotel and clean up and leave out that night. The church put up in this resort hotel with a PGA rated golf course (Scottsdale Princess? Don't remember due to the excitement of the day). The hotel was being renovated so the hotel upgraded us to two villas. Biggest bathtub I have ever seen - of course have to use it. A shower room - really at least 6' by 8'. The toilet in its own room with a phone on the wall! 2 sinks and a changing makeup area for the women. You know how hard it is to crawl into an amazing king size bed - dog tired from the day's events - knowing that you had to leave at 3 am (4 hours later). Did I mention that I needed to drive the remainder on my own since the boss was flying there. That drive was one of the hardest that I have done. Drove it straight with 2 hours of sleep along side a road somewhere. To this day I do not remember the route I took. I do remember crossing over a border (Colorado?) through a mountain pass with snow and other freezing stuff. I stopped at a truck stop to splash the coldest water I could get, slap myself and scream a little to try to wake myself up. Had a trucker ask me if the weigh station was open only to tell him that I don't remember because I don't remember seeing a weigh station. I got to the Springs 1 hour after we were to start playing, but the people hung around and I did the gig.