{"id":13923,"date":"2025-07-10T13:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=13923"},"modified":"2025-07-17T13:54:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T20:54:06","slug":"death-valley-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2025\/07\/10\/death-valley-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Valley Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/national-parks\/article\/death-valley-national-park-car-fire-deaths-20421436.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from SFGate<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Death Valley National Park is so hot that cars keep catching on fire<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Cars, not heat, are the biggest problem in the deadly park<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/author\/farley-elliott\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Farley Elliott<\/a>,\u00a0SoCal Bureau Chief<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.hdnux.com\/photos\/01\/53\/41\/61\/28187721\/3\/ratio3x2_1440.webp\" alt=\"Panamint Valley looking west along Highway 190, Death Valley, Calif.\" title=\"Panamint Valley looking west along Highway 190, Death Valley, Calif.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Panamint Valley looking west along Highway 190, Death Valley, Calif.David Toussaint\/Getty Images<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Somewhere around Towne Pass, elevation 4,956 feet, the tractor trailer\u2019s brakes started to squeal and sputter. Descending through\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/california-parks\/article\/death-valley-scotty-19920068.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Death Valley National Park<\/a>\u00a0in the predawn hours, the big rig \u2014 with cargo in tow from somewhere deep in Nevada \u2014 struggled to slow down. Then, the cab began to heat up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DLSbTZKPj_r\/?img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first light<\/a>\u00a0on June 19, the 18-wheeler was toast, having succumbed to the heat and inevitable flames from overheated brakes while trying to maneuver through the hottest place on Earth. The tractor portion of the rolling beast was burned beyond recognition, its engine block seemingly melted solid. The white cargo trailer had, smartly, been disconnected by then. It sat on the rocky desert shoulder, waiting for a ride. Hopefully this one wouldn\u2019t burn to a crisp, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/national-parks\/article\/death-valley-national-park-car-fire-deaths-20421436.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click to continue reading at SFGate<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from SFGate Death Valley National Park is so hot that cars keep catching on fire Cars, not heat, are the biggest problem in the deadly park By\u00a0Farley Elliott,\u00a0SoCal Bureau Chief Somewhere around Towne Pass, elevation 4,956 feet, the tractor trailer\u2019s brakes started to squeal and sputter. Descending through\u00a0Death Valley National Park\u00a0in the predawn hours, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}