Where There's Smoke, There's Fire - OUCH!

Ariel was driving me on Interstate 70 a couple of weeks ago, when she noticed that I wasn't running as well as I should. Then she and her sister smelled smoke. She pulled me over to the shoulder and as soon as I stopped moving, my engine died. They got out and saw smoke rising from my engine compartment. Ariel immediately called her dad who told her to move away from the car and wait for him to arrive to take them to school. He said that he'd deal with getting me home and fixed. About five minutes later, a man driving down the interstate noticed sparks coming out under the car, so he pulled over and called 911. Ariel then called Tom to tell him that I was on fire. Within ten minutes two fire trucks and two State Troopers had arrived and the fire under my engine lid was extinguished. Here's a picture of the burned area.

Tom had me towed back to their house and put in the driveway. After close examination he discovered that my harmonic balancer (pulley wheel on the end of the crankshaft) had failed. This meant that the fan belt wasn't turning the engine fan, so my engine overheated and melted the insulation on some wires which in turn shorted and started the fire. I am updating my To Do list based on the damaged parts that Tom and Ariel will have to replace.