Thank you so much for the acknowledgement! I'm very proud of my husband. He will be a great asset to any company.

 

As stated earlier, he didn't load it, and apparently didn't even know about the engine. By all means, see what the company has in his file about it. But I doubt it will be an issue if all the information is accurate.

You didn't mention what kind of engine it was. A complete small engine with a fuel tank attached? or a larger engine like from a car ro SUV? Even with the fumes, it requires a source of ignition. And, if the trailer was full of a combustible mixture (fumes), there should have been an explosion, not just a fire. Something about the fire doesn't make sense. Unless, it was something like an engine powered generator, where a battery would have been included, and some of he wiring would have shorted out to cause the fire.

 

I'm not entirely sure. It might have been a generator. I'm a girl so my mind could have easily switched those words in my mind. My memory isn't what it used to be. LOL

I remember the concensus of the safety manager and the fire chef was that there must have been a spark from metal hitting metal within the trailer.

For all we know, an entirely different entity shipped something that had wires that shorted. Mutliple shipments are put on the trucks at once, not just a shipment from one source.

I'd ask my husband to refresh my memory, but he's sleeping until he leaves for work tonight. I'll ask him if I get a chance to see him before he leaves.

 

Well, I have this nagging thought in my head... Gasoline vaporizes and mixes with the air to form an explosive mixture. Any source of ignition would have caused an explosion that would have blown the trailer apart.

About a year ago or so, there was a truck load of used batteries on the southeast side of (I think) Nashville, TN. It was rear-ended by another truck, and exploded. When it was all over, both trucks were demolished, and including both drivers, they had something like 8 people dead. Used and shorted batteries are known to produce hydrogen gas, and mixed with air, it blew.

Gasoline does much the same thing. If that was it, it should have blown up too. It would suggest that your husband was extremely fortunate that it simply caught fire and burned. And, so is everyone else in the area. Put a couple of drops of gasoline in a coffee can with a source of ignition, and you get a bang out of it. If it was gasoline, why didn't the trailer do the same thing?

 

Remember, the cause was undetermined. They only assume it was because of the engine/generator thing being shipped. Not sure if it was a coincidence that two weeks after the fire another one was found leaking gasoline in the trailer. Also, keep in mind that your example was a truck load of batteries. My husband was hauling lots of different types of freight, not just engines/generators. Out of the entire freight, there was only one or two of these things in the entire trailer at a time. The fumes might not have been great enough to cause an explosion in the large inside area of the trailer. The trailer doors being closed kept the fire from having oxygen. Who knows? All I know is that my husband made smart decisions. Not only did he save the gas station, tractor, but he saved lives of other truckers and his own life. I'm glad to still have him around.

 

I was not trying to take anything away from his credit. I agree with you. But, I also know how explosive gasoline fumes are. I just don't understand the source of ignition. Unless the gasoline was so old that it actually had to be heated to start burning...

Without a doubt, your husband certainly did do something right.

 

If it's not a preventable I doubt it's on his USIS file.

 

I agree. I had a non-preventable accident north of Baltimore just over a year ago, and when I went to get hired here at Con-Way, it wasn't even there.

 

Tom are you at Conway freight or truckload? I worked for freight a while back and I've been to the terminal there off Reynolds road.

 

Muffet I read your other post and I dont think either one would prevent him from being hired. I would be tempted to just leave them off the app based on what you said. If he can talk to the person hiring him maybe he could mention it before filling out the app. If he's applying on line thats a little tougher but it doesnt sound like either incident has been reported to DAC. Get a copy and go from there.