There Are Visible FLAMES; I Repeat, Visible FLAMES!! by David Moss

I was in a meeting with my General Manager going over various activities that had been going on at our shopping center in Colorado during the beginning of the summer season. As we were in our meeting discussing the various occurrences our front office yelled back “Are you guys listening to the radios?” We politely answered “No, should we be?” To the immediate response of “you might want to turn them on, RIGHT NOW!” We turned on my manager’s portable radio to hear our security dispatch yelling “There are VISIBLE FLAMES, I repeat VISIBLE FLAMES!!” Needless to say this caused immediate concern as to where the flames were… So we immediately cleared the air waves and inquired as to what was occurring. The dispatch in its haste to call the local fire department could only get us “The security Jeep is on Fire in the West Lot north of Dillard’s!” He then cleared the air-waves as he was talking to the Fire department and Police department. We shot out of the office, down the back stairs, and out the service hallway to get outside to locate the incident that was taking place. As we cleared our JCPenney store we saw the Jeep on fire with smoke billowing up in big clouds, and the perplexed novice security officer that had been in the vehicle was staring at the vehicle in complete disbelief. As we got closer to the area that the vehicle was in we realized that the officer had LEFT THE VEHICLE RUNNING!! So not only is it on fire but the engine is still pumping gasoline closer to the front to help FEED THE FIRE!!

Within a short time the fire department showed up and jammed their hose up-under the hood and flooded the Jeep with several hundred gallons of water from the tanker truck eliminating the fire and of course allowing the vehicle to be shut off. It turns out the vehicle was over-heating and the officer had just turned back from the outer ring road patrol to go to the security parking area to let the vehicle cool down and switch the vehicle out with the other Jeep for exterior patrols when the flames erupted midway through the return journey. The officer ran from the vehicle (after putting it in park but not shutting it off of course) to his own safety and then clearing the area so no one was injured or near the area of immediate impact should anything have occurred. Just one more reason Friday’s are my favorite day of week! Just goes to show you that you should always listen to the radio incase you get to hear about Visible Flames on property!