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Subject:Re: FRIDAY TOPIC: what's the worst thing that ever caught on fire in your Westy?
From:J Stewart
Date:Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:31:09 +0000

Wow, and to think I always thought crap like this just happened to me... Jeff Stewart ----- Original Message -----
> I know there isn't much time left in the day to discuss this important
> topic, but here goes:
> For years, I thought the worst thing that ever caught fire in my Westy
> was
> a down sleeping bag. While it only burned for one or two seconds, the
> heat
> from the fire made the down rise instantly through the air and festoon
> the
> inside of the Westy in a snowy wonderland that took two rolls of
> packing
> tape to remove.
> But this past weekend, I think the down bag episode was surpassed by a
> gigantic moth, its body the size of a man's thumb and a wingspan of
> about
> 3.5 to four inches. It flew in through the sliding door and careened
> toward
> the fluorescent light over the stove before it hit the raised stove
> lid and
> thudded to the stove deck next to the burner, where it instantly
> caught
> fire. Whatever it was it could fly about 35 miles per hour
> pre-ignition,
> twice than when aflame. I was busier than a pair of jumper cables at a
> trailer park funeral trying to catch it and get it out of the camper
> before
> it flew into a pile of clothes or a roll of toilet paper, or worse as
> I
> knew, my down sleeping bag. It burned for an amazingly long time,
> flying
> out of the stove flame again and again and threatening to set fire to
> everything it collided with in its fire-stoked death troes, with me
> being
> about two moves behind it during the perilous half-minute of its life.
> It
> came to an ironic final rest near the burner that literally started it
> all.
> Jim