Aftermath

It started with a light whirring noise in the engine compartment while on route 75. What goes through your mind? One, nuts, not another engine problem, and two, what is that? And now that our attention is pricked, we start to notice other things. The car doesn't seem to be moving as rapidly as normal (eyeball the speedometer, 65 mph, not the normal 75; depress the gas pedal and the engine doesn't respond as it normally would). Fortunately, my exit is coming up so I exit onto local two lane road through Weston. There's a light at the intersection for Indian Trace and the engine just doesn't sound right. I accelerate onto Indian Trace after the light turns green and the engine stalls. Night2night editorial voice: from whatever root cause precipitated the series of events for that night as I've described it so far, opportunities for meaningful risk mitigation sufficient to preserve the car, and in retrospect, me, are rapidly vanishing.

The inertia of the car's motion was enough to allow me to steer to the curb. I try to start the car, but the entire instrument panel is dark when I turn the key in the ignition. Light colored smoke is coming from the engine compartment, but I figure the radiator is busted (for whatever reason) and get out of the car to call J for pick-up (about 1 mile from home) and inform her I'll call Allstate Auto while I wait for her. I get back into the car, try the ignition again, the instrument panel lights up this time and engine starter cranks, but no engine ignition apparent. I exit car again and smell still light smoke from engine compartment and note it doesn't smell like antifreeze. Again, although opportunities are shrinking for possible responses, I'm unaware how close to the Volvo singularity I am.

I look under the car and some type of fluid is exiting the engine in a thin stream. Crap. It ignites.

Fire school training while at Shoreham with demo of car fire. Very short time until flames engulf the car.
Don't lose work. Grab laptop, car emergency kit and sunglasses.
911
Back off.
(Inane conversation with 911 operator, "What color is your car? (orange and yellow, soon to be ash black, my car is on fire)"; "What direction are you heading in? (intersection of 84 and Indian Trace Road, my car is on fire, get a blankin fire truck here lady!)" First Broward County Sheriff’s unit responding tells me when he stopped he saw some small flickering flames under the engine; three minutes later the car was engulfed in a fireball.

There's a rather rapid series of events following the start of my return home that evening (we left for Rochester at 4:30 the next morning for R's graduation from Nazareth College).  J shows up in rather wide eyed disbelief after seeing the spectators gathered to watch.  A flatbed tow truck shows up to remove the dripping wreck, and the spot where she burnt is marked by a set of brackets formed from the molten remains of the bumpers.

I get a couple of shots of the car's remains in the towing yard with Allstate's field investigator.  I'll probably start one of my infamous letter writing campaigns asking Volvo (Ford?) whether this usually happens with their cars.

Nothing was recoverable.  Time to look for another car before the boys go back to school.  I walked away and at least saved my work from the last few weeks (maybe I should consider backing up better to the corporate network).  Could it have been a worse outcome?  After I had a chance to think about it, yeah, I think it could have been worse.

Appropriately, this seems like a good place to complete this set of blog posts addressing liberty, risk, the need for both personal and public security, and those mechanisms available for addressing all of it.  I think we like to think things are more rational and predictable than they actually are.  We want all risk mitigated to the point of insignificance, but the reality is that's impossible.  And at those rare points, when we approach those singularities, when we stumble upon an ill-intentioned "black swan", sometimes we can only draw upon our gut instincts, beat the clock, and hope for the best.  Of course, in those situations, you best have your own estimation of acceptable risk, and some general plan for dealing with hostilities.  You can't always count on help arriving in time.

I suspect the occasional reader I have will look at this and say, "Ah, it's just some set-up for another crazy rant of his."  Well, maybe, but, our destinations are pretty uniform and I suspect most of the meaning to be had is in our conduct during the trip.  So here's to the guys and gals who recognize the threats out there, handle them as best they can, but understand risk is never negligible, not in this life.