Goal #2078: Survive a Serious Fire Experience

I was working in Oregon on a fruit farm when this happened. My boss Mike and I were trying to get the tractor engine to start but we weren’t having much luck. Mike wanted to try an old farm trick for starting hard to start engines and had me pour gasoline down the carburetor while he turned the ignition key. Usually it works out OK. . . usually.

After gassing the carburetor a couple times, the engine belched a bunch of gas back out all over me and caught me on fire. I did the old drop and role thing that I learned in school and Mike did what he could to put the fire out. I didn’t burn any of my flesh but I did singe all the hair off my arm and some from my head. My arm felt like it was being pricked by a thousand needles for the next half hour.

This upset Mike so badly that he told me to take the rest of the day off and he went home to pull himself together. Later that night, Mike told me that he went through the same experience with this father many years ago. However, it didn’t turn out so well for Mike’s dad. I wondered how he got all the burns on his body but I didn’t think it proper of me to ask him. Now I know. That’s why it upset Mike so badly. He was with his dad when he caught fire.