Comments on: Big State Festival Ticket Winner’s Truck Lost In Fire

By: Linda Banks

Linda Banks — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:58:15 +0000

That’s cool, Jenna.

Too bad you had to miss Willie’s set while he was playing, though.

By: Jenna Vercher

Jenna Vercher — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:57:28 +0000

So anyways…I met Trace Adkins!

By: Brady Vercher

Brady Vercher — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:54:05 +0000

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.

By: April

April — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:30:07 +0000

Just wanted to thank you guys for the tickets again…I had a blast!!!

By: Brady Vercher

Brady Vercher — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:20:42 +0000

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.

By: Matt C

Matt C — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:25:07 +0000

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.

By: April

April — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:02:48 +0000

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”.

By: Matt C

Matt C — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:03:31 +0000

I’m not disputing your word choice. I’m confused about April’s complaint about the length of the grass.

By: Jim Malec

Jim Malec — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:29:13 +0000

“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 :-)

By: Matt C.

Matt C. — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:39:19 +0000

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.