Big State Festival Ticket Winner’s Truck Lost In Fire

Ouch. Hope things get better.

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.

“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 :-)

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”.

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.

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.

That’s cool, Jenna.

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