When Joey Kramer Barely Escaped a Burning Ferrari
Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer made it through the band's hard-partying '70s and turbulent '80s unscathed, only to find himself staring death in the face on July 15, 1998 at a gas station in Scituate, Mass.
Kramer pulled into the station in his 1998 Ferrari 355 to fill up, and a matter of moments later, the car was on fire. He escaped the blaze, MTV News reported, but only after suffering "minor burns to his hands, arms and one leg."
"Definitely somebody is looking out for me up there, and I’m grateful to him," he told the Boston Herald. "From the time I pulled up to the pump to the time of the fire was only about 10 seconds. I was sitting in my car, I looked down into my wallet to get my credit card, I looked up and the car was engulfed in flames. My only thought was to get out. The only way I could get out was through the flames."
A defective fuel line in the vehicle's gas tank was apparently to blame. "The hose fell out of the car and filled the ground with gasoline, and it ignited by spontaneous combustion," Kramer told NorthJersey.com. "The car caught on fire, and it was engulfed in flames, and I had to get out of it. In the middle of it. I got burned badly, all second-degree burns. I didn't get scarred from it, but it was a freakin' nightmare. A nightmare in the flesh."
As Kramer reminded the Herald, a man who purchases a Ferrari feels he's earned the right to a certain level of quality: "Yes, I went to church a few days ago. No, I was not smoking in the car; I don’t smoke. I’m definitely going to look into why my car caught fire. You don’t expect a $150,000 car to burst into flames. If they’re at fault, Ferrari will be hearing from me."
Investigators later determined that Kramer had left the engine running while filling up, which likely contributed to the gas combusting after it spilled, but neither side seemed willing to press the issue. Either way, Kramer wasn't rushing back to the Ferrari dealership to get another one. "Well, I’ve had four and they’ve all ended up pretty much like this one," he quipped. "I guess the writing's on the wall about that."
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