This story takes place on an early September morning at a remote camp I used to manage near Cordova, AK. I woke up and strolled out of my bed in my fleece pants and flip flops and headed toward the lodge to meet the clients for breakfast. Before heading into the main lodge, I detoured to the generator shed to restart the generator as it had just run out of gas. This lodge ran off an inverter system and a couple times per day we needed to charge the battery bank via generator. Out behind the main lodge was the insulated plastic electrical building that housed the generator which was located underneath a thick canopy of spruce trees. It was acquired from the city some time ago and used to house our generator to cut back on noise and protect it from the weather. What could possibly go wrong running a combustion engine in a semi closed environment surrounded by a dense canopy of trees.
Half asleep in a robot-like trance I grabbed the 5-gallon fuel tank like I had hundreds of times before, unscrewed the cap on the generator and fueled it up. Once full, I replaced the cap, reached for the pull cord and gave it a rip. Midway thru the pull, boom, it caught fire. I’m not sure if it was static electricity from the pull cord or perhaps some spilt fuel on the hot exhaust but regardless it was on fire, like engulfed in flames. Natural to my personality I yelled, ” oh shit, oh shit…. oh shit”. After a few brief moments of sheer panic, I tried to get myself together. I decided it would be best to remove the flaming generator from its plastic home before it too caught fire, and we really had a problem. Unfortunately, while attempting to remove the engulfed generator, I caught the edge of the housing with the base of the generator causing it to spew fuel which immediately caught fire and walked over to the almost full 5-gallon fuel jug which also caught fire. ” Oh shit” had now gone to ” Oh F#$@”. The generator was blazing more than before and now I had started a ground fire and also ignited a 5-gallon Molotov cocktail. Needless to say, things were not looking good. It was hot, very hot, like abnormally hot. Upon further inspection I noticed my pants were also on fire. I must have spilled some fuel on my pants and now I had flames crawling up my pant leg. I have to admit I didn’t stop, drop and roll as it seemed highly unpractical. Instead, I reached down and rubbed some wet dirt into my pants and thankfully the fire went out.
Now in a full panic, I was running out of options as the flames were too big for me to get close to the generator anymore. In all the chaos I had drawn the attention of our chef and a few clients from the main lodge. Tony our chef came flying out the back door of the lodge at 100 miles an hour and was greeted by 6 ft flames and a ball of fire formerly known as our generator. As quick has he arrived, he departed like a track star in full sprint, I think he was in search of a fire extinguisher. I hollered at the clients who were busy documenting this event by taking pictures, “get the hell out of here, go inside you dummies”.
Meanwhile, I decided the next step was to grab the nearby hose and play fire fighter. This was a bad idea for several reasons. First, it’s not ideal to use water to put out gas fires. Second, the hose didn’t reach, and the water pressure wasn’t strong enough to reach the fire. After a few seconds I gave up on my futile attempts at firefighting and at this point there was not much I could do. The plastic shed was fully engulfed, the 5-gallon jug had melted, and the fuel had spread and was also fully engulfed. It was now time to stand back and watch the show.
As the fire raged, I thought for sure the dense canopy of trees overhead would catch fire and the entire national forest, the lodge and everything for miles would burn to the ground. We sat back after what seemed like an eternity the flames receded and eventually all that was left was the skeleton of the generator and a gaping hole in the tree canopy that the fire had carved out. Oh boy did I get lucky, super lucky. My boss being the levelheaded guy he was took the news rather well and showed me where the new generator was located.
I immediately ordered 5 fire extinguishers and made damn sure everyone knew of their location and how to operate them. All in all, we updated our fire safety equipment and got a new generator out of the ordeal. Too this day every time I pull on a cord to start a motor I think about this special morning.
#2 Always know where your fire extinguishers are located!!!
