Went to a small mall yesterday. Not something I'd normally do two days before Christmas, but I'm getting on a plane today and realized my jeans have a hole in them.

So off I went to the underground parking beneath my closest Gap store. As I'm pulling through, I notice smoke coming out of the front left wheel well of a Mini Cooper.

So I pull over to the side and yell for the rent-a-cops who were directing traffic by the entrance. A few of them come over and stand there staring. Slowly a couple of others arrive. Now there are six of us, five rent-a-cops and me, staring at black acrid smoke coming out of the wheel well. My CERT training kicks in, I look at them, ask if they called the fire department. Yeah, one of them says, dispatch is calling them.

I ask if there's anything else they are going to do.

No. They're supposed to call the fire department and keep people out of the area. "The area" apparently being defined as the parking spot occupied by said Mini Cooper because people are coming and going all around as the area fills with smoke.

I walk to my car, which is still sitting there 20 feet away, open the trunk, get my little automotive fire extinguisher, pull the safety and let fly around the tire and into the wheel, as well as into the front grille, where some additional smoke is now emerging.

They continue to look around.

Eventually one of them asks me for some identification and information "in case there's a problem." I tell him I'll be happy to provide it to the fire department when they arrive. He shuts up.

Fire department eventually show up, determine there are no hot spots remaining, and leave a note on the guys windshield suggesting that he not drive it until it is checked out.

In retrospect, the big mistake was not walking 30 feet to a fire extinguisher that was mounted on the wall instead of using my own. Didn't notice it until after the fact, but they're required to be in spaces like that, so I should have known.

And yeah, I stopped and got a new one on the way home. $10.