Bad Day!!!!

Tom and I took his daughter Dana out to some state land in northern Michigan for a picnic. The carburetor was not working properly and we had sent another one to be rebuilt. However, we decided to drive the truck anyway. What a bad idea that turned out to be! As you can see from the picture we had a very hot issue. We were in the truck after lunch and backed up to leave. The truck stalled and wouldn't restart. The fuel bowl stuck and poured fuel all over the intake and back of the engine. This was only discover as the problem after the ignition lit the gas. Tom tried his absolute best to extinguish the fire under the hood by throwing a blanket over the engine to smother it. He was patting out the fire and almost succeeded until the bolt for the air cleaner went up through the blanket and into his wrist. There was a steady stream of blood, as it seemed he punctured a vein. That was the end of firefighting that day for Tom. I wrapped a pillowcase around his arm and he them began throwing whatever he could from the truck. He managed to save the puppy from the bed of the truck and also all of our camping gear as well as the chainsaw and gas can. Dana and I stood clutched together on the side lines and watched in horror. It was truly awful to watch the truck my husband loved so much be destroyed in just a few minutes. It took a long time for the fire department to find us. We were pretty much in the middle of the forest. Luckily we were able to keep the grass around the truck from catching fire but the truck was a total loss. It was and still is very sad for us to look at these pictures. We strongly recommend keeping a fire extinguisher in your truck always. You never can be too sure.