You on fire.. Thats how ya know you're on a roll

Yesterday started off as a pretty normal day. I got up, went to work, and met friends for lunch at 13h. I was back in the office by 14h, and had just started to attack the pile of work left on my desk, when I heard a bang. A proper, loud, could-be-a-bomb-type bang. I jumped up from my desk and ran to the window in my office which overlooks the port of Monaco which is currently overrun with barriers, tyres and viewing stands ready for Sunday's Grand Prix.

I stood at the window and watched in horror as a truck parked in the middle of a traffic roundabout caught fire in the middle of a heavy traffic/pedestrian area of the port. I yelled for my office mate to come and look and together we watched in silence as the truck burned, the fuel tank caught and petrol on the road started to flame.

Then there were 4 more loud bangs which we realized were the 4 tyres on the truck exploding with the heat. It was a scary experience, made even more so by the way the petrol leaking from the truck's tank was heading towards a restaurant just behind the roundabout. The air all around the truck was choked with thick, black smoke and people were desperately trying to pull u-turns to go back up the road by my office and avoid driving into the middle of the fire.

After what felt like an eternity but was actually only about 10 minutes the Fire Brigade arrived and swung into action with hoses and foam and within minutes they put the fire out, leaving only the smoldering carcass of the truck in the middle of the street. Because of the heat, the metal truck bed had sunk into the freshly laid Grand Prix perfect tarmac so for the next couple of hours, they battled to free the truck and clear the area.

And then, within minutes of the truck being winched away to wherever it is dead trucks go to, a road team came in, dug up the fire-scarred road surface and starting laying down fresh smooth black tarmac. By 18h that same evening when I drove past the area, unless you had stood in your office window with your heart pounding, watching that truck explode, you wouldn't have known anything had ever happened. Unless of course, during all the excitement you had managed to whip out your phone and fire off a couple of photos for your blog......

I found out afterwards that nobody was hurt during the fire, the driver managed to escape as the truck blew and it was apparently started by an electrical generator being used in the back of the truck. Just another normal day in the office then!