Hello friends, I think this post needs to go here. At this point it is starting to get funny, but it didn't start out that way. This morning I'm on my way to the doctor's office to get the TB test I need before I can start my training at the VA. It was about 8:10 am., and all of the sudden I smell something odd, but I thought, 'This is Houston', so I ignored it. Then a couple of minutes later, out of the corner of my right eye I see smoke, and my brain says, 'Ina, you don't smoke anymore. (not for 33 years) I stopped my 2015 KIA Sportage half in the road, and half on the dirt on the right side of the road. Right in front of where the gear shift is between the front seats looked weird so I touched it with my finger, and my finger went straight through the console. I grabbed some Lysol wet ones that I keep in the side door, and wiped the melted plastic off my finger. When I looked back at the hole, fire was shooting straight up throught the console. Now even I have a brain, and one side of it was saying, 'Get out of the car Ina, and call someone'. Instead I remembered that I had three16 oz. bottles of water in the back floorboard. So as I jumped out of the car to get the water from the back, as my brain is yelling at me, 'Fool, you just filled this thing up with gas not five minutes ago'. So I wrapped my hands in the wet ones, and start squirting water at the fire and hitting it with my hands. It took all the water, and I used all of the wet ones, but I got the fire out. Now there is a hole that a large man could put both his hands through. Then I realized I hadn't shut my car off, so I drove on to my doctor's appointment. I didn't get My TB test, they rescheduled it for Monday, instead they soaked my hands in icewater to get the last of the plastic off my fingers. Then I drove my car to the dealership I bought it from last February, and they took one look at it and asked me how that happened, and did I take pictures of it.. (I'm told that my face is very expressive.) I have a few blisters, my BP shot up pretty high, but here I am thinking about what the man at the KIA dealership asked me. Which was, 'Did you know you shouldn't pour water on electrical fires?' I asked the dealership how long it would be before I would have my car back. They said that KIA was sending out a specialest to exam the car, as they had never seen anything like this before, so it might be some time, or they will replace my car. I am now driving a 2016 KIA Sorento at their cost. It had 9 miles on it when I drove away. Tomorrow I will be purchasing a vehicle sized fire extinguisher. I'm told that my humor over the situation is shock, but I laughing about the argument I was having with myself.
Girl!..you are a walking miracle! You do have a talented way of writing in a laughable style but I had to pick my chin up off the floor first! If your hands aren't okay then Kia has a lawsuit coming to them from you. Next time, knock on wood, get as far away as fast as you can and forget trying to save it because Kia owes you a new car! Someone "up there" is watching out for you!
@Lara Moss , Now that it's all over, I do get it, but I just find it so funny that my brain was talking total sense to me, but my reactions just kept going in the opposite direction. I have always been a person that in an emergency, my brain immediately tells me what to do. I have helped and even saved a couple of people from being killed, just by following my instincts. Now that part scares me. What if I get it wrong someday? I'm hoping those instincts help me with the veterans.
Oh my Ina, what a freak-out! I would have run, crying like a baby as far away from the car as I could but you battled the fire! I'm awed. I hope you'll enjoy driving the 2016 model, at least to make up for SOME of the shock and the loss of your car!