Where's the Fire?

I’m a bit of an ‘ambulance chaser’. Not in the literal sense, but in the way that I am fascinated with tragedies.

I reminded myself of this fascination this past weekend when I was reading the article about the big I-69 crash that happened on February 3rd. They’re calling it a deadly crash, which yes, technically two people did lose their lives… but I think it could have been FAR worse considering the circumstances. White out conditions… 34 vehicles involved, including 9 semis. Yes… it could’ve been worse. But thanks to the quick reactions of some, the fact that there was a cable barrier between the north and south bound lanes, and the fact that it was after rush hour, spared a much worse fate. But as I read the stories about the ‘little decisions’ made that morning by some drivers and read through the facts and findings of the investigation, including a diagram of the vehicles final stopping points, I was just further amazed at how it wasn’t worse.

My fascination started young. I lived out in the BFE area of Palm Bay, FL, which is now a fully developed, thriving part of the City. But there were very few house and lots of wooded areas. So there were lots of brush fires that would spark up. I’d see smoke in the distance, get on my bike and ride till I found the source. There were a few times where I even beat the fire department… at least to the area I found – they may have been on the other side. I would just sit there and watch it burn with complete fascination. When it’s a brush fire like we had, there’s no raging fire to be afraid of. It was more than a smolder, but the scrub pines and palms just burned slowly. It was actually cool to watch. Once I got my fill, I ride back home like it was no big deal.

As I got older and got my driver’s license, my obsession continued and grew, moving on to car accidents. If I knew of an accident or saw one, I’d make a point to drive by it, sometimes more than once. Not because I wanted to see blood or gore, but because I liked to try to figure out what happened. I was more fascinated with the crushed metal than any injuries (if there were any). I even toyed with the idea of becoming a volunteer EMT… but I wouldn’t have been able to deal with what I was fascinated with – the accident itself.

Even today, I find myself looking for that accident to figure out. Most of what I see anymore, though, are cars being rear-ended. Nothing too exciting about them… except when there’s a really busted up hood or trunk. But it doesn’t lessen my fascination. Even the I-69 crash incurred enough interest to cause me to detour my route home so I would go over the 126th Street bridge so I could catch even a glimpse of the chaos just north of the bridge on the interstate below. Now my obsession has just grown to a bigger scale, like the US Air flight that landed in the Hudson. I couldn’t find enough media on that incident, though wasn’t much of a tragedy, since everyone survived. But the plane crash landing into the river was all I needed to get me going.

So I guess 'ambulance chaser' is the wrong word since it’s not the human component that fascinates me - it's the other stuff of the tragedy. But none the less, just tell me where the fire is.

I know... I'm a strange one.