Taxi Inferno Outside Rockefeller Center

Maybe you could choose your headline a little better because my first assumption was terrorism. The cab caught fire and then exploded although I am skeptical to if it actually "exploded". Regardless, your headline made me think an otherwise intact cab exploded like a bomb.

Was anyone in it?

Holy crap.

"stinks of 9/11..."

Literally or figuratively?

#1 - good point, thanks.

#1, does this headline meet your definition of "better-chosen"? It meets mine, but mine was "more danceable".
Burn, baby, burn! Taxi Inferno! Dah da-da da-da!

#11, yes, "Taxi Inferno" would not have made me assume terrorism.

Same thing happened in midtown last month, it was cleaned up in 20 minutes, no one reported anything on it.

I work in 50 Rockefeller Plaza & watched the aftermath of it from my office window.

Here's the story without the dramatics: flames started coming out from under the hood. The cabbie got out of the cab & wasn't hurt. The cab never exploded (apparently, the gas tank wasn't full), but it did burn until it was a hunk of metal, plastic & glass. They just took it away on a forklift (picture from my office window here). I walked right past the whole thing at around 1:30 & didn't notice much of a smell at all. Now, it's 2:45 and the street is cleaned up & open to traffic.

-Brian Greenberg
-http://www.familygreenberg.com/blog.htm

Cars don't explode like in the movies, gas tank full or not. If fuel leaks from the tank or a ruptured fuel line under the hood, of course it will burn. If a lot of fuel is released from the tank all at once it will burn really hot and really fast. But in order to actually explode, the fuel tank would need the ideal mixture of gasoline vapor (not liquid) and air. So actually a full gas tank would not be a good candidate for an explosion. A nearly empty one would be much better, as you have lots of space for vapor and if you get the right amount of air in there (and an ignition source of course) then KABLAMMO - TWA 800 is a good example of that kind of scenario.

Note to readers: movies and TV shows are not always the most reliable sources for real physics (shocking, I know). The movie is a lot less exciting if everybody runs for cover in slow motion but the burning car just sits there burning. Cars blow up in movies because they pack them with explosives. Cars don't blow up in real life unless they are similarly packed with explosives.

I saw the exact same thing happen last year by the Roosevelt Island tram. Cab just burning and windows blowing up while the cabbie stood by. Makes me wonder how often this happens.

Can we have a single bad thing happen in this damn city without somebody invoking 9/11? Is that too much to ask?

The gas tank could actually explore, especially if it is more fumes than liquid. This is why airplanes have special systems to keep jet fuel vapor out of the tanks.

We can now add Spontaneous Taxi Combustion to the list of Earth's weird phenomena. Like Ball Lightning.

this is my biggest nightmare (and my brilliant idea for a hollywood blockbuster): attack ny by having all the iraqi/pakistani cab drivers set off suicide bombs in their cabs at the exact same time all throughout the city.

It looks like this cab may have had the flowers on the hood... I wonder if that contributed to it? I hope not.

Hey Ace, I didn't force Jen to change it. It was a suggestion and apparently she agreed. And it may have been in fact wrong to say the cab exploded.

does anyone know if jen chung's boobs were hurt in the explosion? 'cause that would be a tragedy.

Excuse me driver, can you roll down the windows back here? I'm burnin up!

#35- damn right it would be a tragedy!!

On another post someone mentioned a picture of Jen bending over showing off her cleavage. Anyone know where it is?

It was a plan by Aswad (medallion 46t5r) for insurance fraud. His brother, Aknob, did the same thing not more than 20 days ago.

I was eating lunch outside at Rockefeller Center, around the corner from this when it started. It certainly got everyone's attention. And there were a couple of small explosions--although most likely just the tires exploding from the heat.

I new a woman whose crotch smelled like 9/11.

Channel 4 News just said the cab driver said he was the way to a mechanic.

guest #20 - glad you liked the pics of the kids. ;-)

guest #19 - sorry about the physics error - the point is, the gas tank didn't explode. There were several small pops (most people assumed them to be the tires, although I assume at some point, whatever gas was there ignited as well). In any case, my point was the car wasn't propelled into the air with debris flying everywhere, etc. It was a very controlled burn...

In other news, my colleague sent me his cellphone pics, which I've now posted on my site as well:

http://www.familygreenberg.com/2007/09/taxi.html

-Brian Greenberg
-http://www.familygreenberg.com/blog.htm