Little-Known Campus Vehicle Fire of ’23 - Nobody Died - True Story of the “Rt 29 Mystery Scorch Mark”
Nobody Died
exPRESSion InvestigatesTrue Story of the
Campus Turn Lane
“Rt 29 Mystery Scorch Mark”
(from Little-Known Vehicle Fire of ’23)
As documented on GoogleMaps,
StreetView, a vehicle fire raged on
the edge of campus recently.
In the summer of ’23, the telltale burn
mark appeared in the right turn lane on
Route 29 southbound about 30 feet
before the school campus driveway.
There’s a distinctive look to vehicle fire
scars: the top half-inch or so of
pavement will be burnt black and will
be roughened from heat effects. Melted
plastic and carbonized rubber leave very
dark and sooty black residue.
Perhaps twice a year, vehicles
straining uphill while climbing Afton
Mtn. / Rockfish Gap while westbound
on US Rt. 250 or on I-64 overheat and
ignite. Every few miles in the right
lane, one will find an old car fire mark.
But at school? What goes? And was
anyone hurt? Anyone die? (Gasp) Is
the site “haunted”?
Quick surface-survey (noting what’s
sitting on the ground without digging)
“archaeology” found taillight-colored
melted plastic, safety glass cubes, and
multiple hand-sized blobs of melted
aluminum --likely from a burnt-out
and melted engine block.
Encyclopedias say that aluminum melts
at 1,221 degrees F: very hot indeed!
It’s well-known that organic matter
(including paper, wood, and people)
combusts at 451 degrees (hence the
name of that famed novel, Fahrenheit
451); most home ovens don’t go over
500 (broil), though a few can hit around
800 during “self-clean” mode.
Googling revealed nothing about an
NCHS/NCMS campus-area vehicle
fire: no news coverage, even nothing on
Facebook’s “Nelson Knows” group
--mysterious!
No teachers or campus LEO (law
enforcement officer/s) we spoke with
recalled a campus car fire.
One teacher thought there might have
been a crash there “maybe 14 years ago.”
An official with the Lovingston
Volunteer Fire Department, Jade Ashley
Bunner, said that LVFD's assistant chief
recalled that the vehicle fire happened in
July of 2023. The LVFD crews quickly
contained the blaze, keeping the fire from
spreading. There were no injuries.
"As for the cause of the fire, we do not
know," Bunner said. "It is not often that
we know the causes of vehicle fires
unless the person we helped later
contacts us, or it is obvious to us."
LVFD’s Bunner added, “depending on
the type of vehicle, the fire was likely
burning somewhere between 1,000-1,500
degrees Fahrenheit within minutes,
which resulted in the mark in the road.”
That’s consistent with the melted metal
the student/staff team kept finding on
site during “Project Forensic.”
Just which local heroes quenched that
very hot fire, prevented injuries, and kept
the fire from spreading will remain quiet.
Lovingston’s fire brigade takes privacy
quite seriously --not just of victims but
also of responders. “We are not allowed
to share any names of those who
responded to the call or the people
involved,” Bunner said.
This is (Nelson) exPRESSion’s first
“investigative” piece. Should we do
more? Please speak up. Use the
contact info online, or reach out to
the NCHS art teacher via e-mail.
(by NCHS Art [and Photo- ] Dept.)
 |
| 10-20 foot long car
fire burn mark visible in the lower right of this StreetView screen dated September, 2023 (image portion courtesy of GoogleMaps). In our printable PDF version online at NelsonExpression.BlogSpot.com, this link is clickable: https://maps.app.goo.gl/c5AwoZwrGXPKeBVf7 |
 |
| The same place as
above, but from August of 2022 and with no burn mark (image portion courtesy of GoogleMaps). BTW, GoogleMaps StreetView now offers a “time machine” effect in places: the image location black box in the upper left might say “see more dates” |
 |
| Even after weathering
for half a year, the very dark and sooty burnt rubber and plastic residue is visible on the pavement and especially in the grass. In the upper right, just beneath the darkest area, the two whitish shapes are blobs of melted aluminum. |
 |
| In the foreground,
the whitish shapes are blobs of melted aluminum reflecting sunlight. Some bits of plastic and cubes of safety glass are visible. Some tufts of grass are pioneering the regrowth in the burned ground. These “Project Forensic” images are from late fall of ‘23. |
 |
The vehicle fire site
yielded several pounds of aluminum, which, after removal of surface |
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