Big State Festival Ticket Winner’s Truck Lost In Fire
The only suggestion April Russell had for the organizers of the Big State Festival was to “cut the grass shorter.” Russell, one of The 9513’s Big State Contest winners, lost her truck in the car fire that claimed approximately twenty automobiles outside Texas World Speedway on Saturday afternoon. The blaze quickly spread across the dry, tall grass of the unpaved parking lot, burning for approximately one hour before being extinguished by local firefighters. “There’s nothing left, just the frame,” Russell said. “I got free tickets and lost my truck.” Russell, a consultant from 45 minutes north of Bryan-College Station, said that she and her friend, Eric Watkins, were still having fun at the Festival despite the loss. “But I don’t know how I’m getting to work on Tuesday,” she added.
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October 17, 2007 at 8:15 am Permalink
The same thing happened to Robert Earl Keen back in the day and look where he is now. You have a bright future, April Russell. My condolences go out to you and your truck, I hope everything gets worked out.
October 17, 2007 at 9:45 am Permalink
Ouch. Hope things get better.
October 17, 2007 at 11:08 am Permalink
Maybe I’m not understanding a Texas phenomenon. The fire was caused by spontaneous ignition of dry, dead grass? Or it started some other way and then spread across a field of dry grass?
Car fires like this happened occasionally where I grew up in Wisconsin, but they were caused by idiots who finished their tailgaiting and then stuck a grill full of hot coals underneath the car. I can’t think of a grass field dry, long and dead enough to start or propagate a fire.
October 17, 2007 at 11:20 am Permalink
No, Matt, the fire was not caused by a “spontaneous ignition of dry, dead grass”–it was a car fire, not a grass fire that happened to take place around a series of cars.
Unfortunately, no media was allowed back by the area where the fire broke out, and authorities had not, as of the time of this post, released specific information related to what caused the car to ignite. There is an Austin resident who has been quoted as saying that he saw smoke coming from under his car as he parked it, but whether the fire was electrical in nature, or related to some other mechanical problem, is still unknown.
October 17, 2007 at 3:39 pm Permalink
Then I guess that I don’t understand all the fuss about the length of the grass. Cars were probably packed in and the fire would have spread no matter what the ground cover.
October 17, 2007 at 8:29 pm Permalink
“The blaze quickly spread across the dry, tall grass of the unpaved parking lot.”
1) This is a fact. The blaze did, in fact, spread across the dry, tall grass.
2) Had the grass been shorter, perhaps the fire, having less fuel, would have spread less quickly. How much less quickly? Who knows, but the difference between nineteen automobiles and twenty automobiles is probably a significant difference to the owner of the twentieth.
3) I’m glad we’ve been able to have this little discussion about the accuracy of my word choice :-)
October 17, 2007 at 10:03 pm Permalink
I’m not disputing your word choice. I’m confused about April’s complaint about the length of the grass.
October 17, 2007 at 11:02 pm Permalink
I don’t know who would put a “grill full of hot coals underneath” a car. But in Texas it has been known for a muffler or a catalitic converter that is hot from driving to ignite fires when parked in tall grass. I’m not saying this was the situation Saturday night I have not read the fire report, it’s just my guess having known it was a short vehicle in tall grass. If I get to see the report I will let y’all know what officially happened, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t “hot coals”.
October 18, 2007 at 1:25 am Permalink
Hot coals causing fires and car explosions is a not uncommon event in my home state of Wisconsin where tailgaiting is like a religion. I have no idea if this happened at Big State; for one thing, I don’t even know if a significant number of people were grilling.
October 18, 2007 at 6:20 am Permalink
Tailgating is a big deal here in Texas as well, but it mainly goes on at football games and it’s usually in paved parking lots. There wasn’t any tailgating or grilling at Big State that I’m aware of.
From what I’ve read, there was a couple that drove from Austin and when they parked, their car started smoking. They tried to start it, but when it didn’t work, they jumped out and it burst into flames. This hasn’t been confirmed anywhere, but it does sound like the fire did start from a hot car parking in tall, dry grass.
October 18, 2007 at 7:30 am Permalink
Just wanted to thank you guys for the tickets again…I had a blast!!!
October 18, 2007 at 9:54 am Permalink
No problem, April. We’re glad you were still able to have fun. At least you’ll have a great story to tell whenever you look back at this.
October 18, 2007 at 7:57 pm Permalink
So anyways…I met Trace Adkins!
October 19, 2007 at 10:58 am Permalink
That’s cool, Jenna.
Too bad you had to miss Willie’s set while he was playing, though.
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