WORLD WIDE WEB — Driving down the road in a recreational vehicle and headed for Jean Dry Lake, Nevada, Tim Lehr of Wildman Rocketry got the suprise of his life when he looked in his rear-view mirror: the sight of a blaze trailing his vehicle.  The trailer he was hauling was on fire.

Remains of Wildman's trailer after fire. Photo: Rocketry Online. 

According to an online report, Lehr left town on July 5th, hauling a trailer loaded with the contents of his rocket store. Wildman was expecting record attendance at this year's LDRS, scheduled to be held July 12-17 on the dry lake. Lehr had stocked the trailer with hundreds of pounds of rocket motors, dozens of Performance Rocketry kits, numerous parachutes and an array of other items, all to sell onsite at the launch.

Driving down I-80 approximately 30 minutes into the trip, Lehr looked in the mirror and witnessed a fireball following him down the road: the trailer holding his inventory was on fire. According to the report, Lehr pulled over and was quoted as moving "faster than I've ever moved in my life, to get out of that RV," and away from the fire.

On board were hundreds of kits as well as hundreds of pounds of ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) rocket motors to fuel the fire.  In the end, the trailer was a complete loss. The report stated that the RV suffered enough damage to be a total loss as well.

The blaze ended up shutting down I-80 for 30 minutes and caused a back-up of traffic 10 miles long. Fortunately nobody was hurt.  Commenting on the flammable nature of the rocket motors he was hauling, Lehr added, "if APCP truly was an explosive, I wouldn't be here right now!"

Lehr refused to let the incident get in his way. Undaunted, he made arrangements to pick up shipments of Cesaroni and Aerotech motors as well as Performance Rocketry products and will have them for sale in Jean.

Lehr stated, "I realize this may affect some people who placed pre-orders with me, in anticipation of having them delivered at LDRS. I will take care of everyone as quickly as I can, although I am not 100% certain what I will have available. I appreciate everyone's patience and understanding while I get Wildman Rocketry back to 100%."

07-07-2007 10:17 PM  #1
Dwatkins Certified Level One   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 22	Damn glad everyone is alright Wish Tim the best of luck getting back on his feet.

07-07-2007 11:36 PM  #2
Darian New Member   Joined: Nov 2006 Posts: 6	I wonder what the cause of the fire was?

07-08-2007 01:16 AM  #3
DAllen Certified Level One   Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 17	That sucks! I've been in his trailer and seen his RV and he had a sweet setup. Glad to hear he's okay.

07-08-2007 01:36 AM  #4
charger 2039 New Member   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 4	Dallen you said it right!!!

07-08-2007 12:34 PM  #5
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2585	Quote: I wonder what the cause of the fire was? The primary suspect is the trailer's electric brakes.

07-08-2007 12:43 PM  #6
dixontj93060 Certified Level Two   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 39	Few are as supportive and zealous about rocketry than Tim Lehr. I'm glad to hear both he and those in his party were not hurt. I hope his loss was insured and his business recovers with flying colors.

07-08-2007 03:32 PM  #7
H_rocket Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 325	I think it is amazing, this community of ours. In most hobbies, the general sense would be... "Well that sucks, now I need to find another source." In our group of whackjobs we do everything possible to help the guy out. Heck any intelligent vendor would swoop in to steal the business. I have heard Andy of Polecat is even sponsoring a raffle of some kits to help Tim out. Damn we are a good bunch of folk.

07-08-2007 11:09 PM  #8
SpartaChris Certified Certifiable   Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 87	That is confirmed, Andy from What's Up Hobbies/Polecat Aerospace will be raffling off a couple of his kits and will be donating all of the proceeds to Wildman. In this land of competition, I think it's great that our vendors are willing to help one another like this.

07-13-2007 10:52 AM  #9
R2K Certified Level Three   Joined: Jul 2007 Posts: 145	Darian I wonder the same thing. Maybe just lots of paper from kits or boxes? Some BP to spread it?