Fire On The Highway

This week a California brush fire engulfed a highway and trapped twenty cars. There was one family who escaped the fire just moments before the flames reached their car. They said that they could feel the heat due to the flames from their car. The driver of the vehicle, the father, was worried about how many more cars they would let through until they would tell everyone to evacuate their cars like some people did. Many cars were torched from the flames and so the passengers had to leave their cars behind and evacuate on foot. The family that escaped the fire by driving through it captured their drive on video. In their interview they showed the video. The video used the rhetorical appeal of pathos because it appealed to the viewer’s emotions. The mother was saying that you could feel the heat from the car in the video. The two sons that were in the backseat were also saying things. They were in shock that they had made it out. the pathos is seen here because the viewers know what it’s like to be in a family. The fathers know that he was probably freaking out and worried about keeping his family safe. The mothers know that that she was probably trying to keep everyone calm. The sons know that they were probably scared to death. The rhetorical appeal of pathos really makes it seem like the viewers are in their shoes. This rhetorical appeal really works well in this situation. This family was lucky.

3 thoughts on “Fire On The Highway

  1. Jill, I really liked to topic of the post. It’s kind of an unusual one and something that I have not seen much reported on. Really infomrative

  2. I really like this topic, and being from California I remember many roads being closed down occasionally. Wildfire season can be a dangerous time in certain areas in the west. I also agree that a video like that would create many emotions in a viewer.

  3. This was a very interesting post! I like how you gave a brief summary of the incident as well as included rhetorical appeals. Nice job!

Leave a Reply