Bob Hodel was driving home from work one cool Wednesday in March when it appeared before him like a ghoulish apparition: a geyser of orange flame, rising from the road we now call Santa Fe Way, directly ahead a mile or so.

Suddenly wide-eyed, he leaned into the gas pedal of his company car — the bright green Volkswagen that brought him to Cal Kern Farm Supply most mornings at 6 and home again, to his parents’ house, at the end of the workday.

Robert Price, an award-winning reporter for KGET-TV, is a former longtime editor and columnist for The Californian. Reach Price at RPrice661@gmail.com.