Heartbreak on Highway 97

Saturday, May 15, 2010 05:22 AM

'79 Corvette suffered serious fire damage

Prince George, B.C.- For the owner of this 1979 T-roof Corvette, it is a heart break.

He and a friend were driving southbound on Highway 97 last night and were nearing Red Rock when he noticed the smell of smoke. "I thought, geez, something smells like it's burning" says the owner who did not want to be identified.

He says the odour became more intense, so he hit the brakes to pull over "That's when, poof, she went up in flames and we got out and ran". Neither he nor his passenger were injured.

Members of the Red Rock Volunteer Fire detaprtment arrived on scene within minutes, but not soon enough to spare the vehicle.

The owner says he has had the vehicle for about three years, and just recently had the motor rebuilt "I have put a lot of money into restoring this car."

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Posted on Saturday, May 15, 2010 05:22 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: whitewater on May 15 2010 6:36 AM

A lot of these old Vettes and Fire Chickens die when a crack pipe slips out of the owner’s hand and land on the old shag carpet interior.

Posted by: szd on May 15 2010 6:56 AM

So whitewater....you know conclusively that corvette and TA owners are crack users???? Talking from experience I guess?

Posted by: Andyfreeze on May 15 2010 7:12 AM

Bummer!
Fiberglass burns very well!
Looks like a complete write-off!
My condolences to the owner.

Posted by: acrider54 on May 15 2010 7:16 AM

I feel sorry for the guy, I have two classic cars and know the amount of money to restore them. I hope he had an agreed value with ICBC.

whitewater? no furhter comment

Posted by: Stompin Tom on May 15 2010 7:31 AM

With a name like whitewater, I can generalize as well, and I would suspect whitewater has a problem with firewater.

Posted by: gus on May 15 2010 7:32 AM

It does not exactly look like the passenger compartment was the origin of this fire.

Posted by: Don Frye on May 15 2010 8:26 AM

was it gang related?

Posted by: gus on May 15 2010 10:08 AM

It was. The suspicion is it was related to the gang that rebuilt the engine.

Posted by: newtechie on May 15 2010 10:15 AM

re: whitewater

Wow... are you kidding? That was such a derogatory lowlife negative comment that if I was the moderator I'd remove it.

Seriously... is that truly the first thing that came to your mind?

Who peed in your cereal this morning?

I hate to have to be near you as it must get tiring just listening to you whine all the time.

Go back to bed!

Posted by: Pojeb_sa on May 15 2010 10:41 AM

Like a rock ...

Posted by: REALIST on May 15 2010 11:39 AM

Chevrolet... the heartbreak of America tee hee

Posted by: billposer on May 15 2010 2:56 PM

I can't say for sure whether it would have helped in this case, but this does illustrate why it is a good idea to keep a fire extinguisher in your vehicle. That way you aren't helpless if a fire breaks out, and it can also save lives if people are trapped in a wreck. I see very few passenger vehicles with fire extinguishers even though they aren't expensive and are available at Canadian Tire and auto parts stores.

Posted by: millworker on May 15 2010 4:08 PM

i agree billposer however I wouldnt recommend canadian tire as they charge PST on their extinguishers.

Posted by: Eagleone on May 15 2010 5:15 PM

I saw this fire yesterday... didn't think it would make the news though.... Poor guy probably had the fiberglass catch fire as was stated above.

I once had a truck catch fire under the hood for no apparent reason.. I was lucky and was able to pull over throw some snow on it to put it out and was able to continue on. These things can just happen....

Posted by: metalman on May 17 2010 8:42 AM

To the uninitiated, 'these things can just happen' like 'poof' spontaneous combustion?
How about any number of ways that gasoline can leak due to improper installation and or a lack of maintenance, oil leaking onto hot exhaust manifolds after an extended high speed run, and on and on.
Like AC, I hope the owner had a declared value with the crooks-oops I mean ICBC.
If not, he would not get much for his 31 yr. old car.