Community Corner

The Hottest Wedding of the Year, Thanks to a Burning Limo

A limo that caught fire on the way to a wedding could have ruined the day, but fast-acting firefighters and a good-natured bride and groom find the bright side of the flames.

When Lena Venn and her brand-new husband, Bob Marshall, say their wedding was hot, they aren’t exaggerating.

The San Jose couple and a handful of relatives were headed up twisty Mt. Umunhum Road in a limousine Saturday to get married at Bald Mountain trail—a romantic revisit of the place where Marshall popped the question to Venn last year.

But the Le Grande Affair limo they rented had other plans.

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First there was the odor, then came the smoke—lots and lots of smoke.

“I looked out the back … wow, it's smoking like crazy,” says Venn, who grew up in Cupertino.

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In the limo with the couple were Lena’s son and daughter, Tarah and Nick Venn; Marshall’s parents, Jim and Norma Marshall; and their officiant, Keith McCaffery.

The Venns—Lena, Nick and Tarah—all work at Cupertino’s , which is owned by Earl and Paula Sutton, who are Lena’s uncle and aunt.

The wedding party told the limo driver he needed to stop, because there was smoke pouring out the back. At first he wanted to forge ahead to get them to their destination; after all, there was only about a quarter-mile more to go.

“It started to smell really awful,” Lena says, and the smoke was thick and scary looking. They insisted the driver stop on the narrow road.

Nick Venn, 25, a professional photographer, jumped out with his camera in hand and started shooting; it’s a photographer’s instinct, Lena says.

The limo was in flames. Surrounded by the region’s signature golden, dry brush, the group knew they were in trouble. One explosion in the car led to another, and one side of the road caught fire.

“I’m standing there thinking, ‘Really? It's my wedding day, and we're trapped on a mountain with a forest fire, and there's no place to go,’” Lena says.

Cell reception up in this mountainous area is sketchy at best, so Nick headed to a higher elevation to try to catch a signal.

He got one. Help was on the way, but there was still a wedding to be had and a bunch of people waiting on flat ground to celebrate at the reception.

Hiking to their final destination wasn’t an option; there were members of the wedding party with bum knees, and the treacherous road prevented a reasonable route.

They waited for help to show up.

“We were waiting and waiting, and you know how when you’re waiting, every minute seems like 20 minutes?” Lena says.

Relief arrived with the sound of the helicopter, but Lena laughs as she recalls the sight of one, lone firefighter coming up over a hill—there’s Superman, they called him. Their view was obstructed of the other firefighters arriving on the scene.

By that time, the other side of the hill was burning as well. But no fear, Cal Fire was here.

“They are amazing,” Lena says of the firefighters, which included responders from San Jose Fire, too. “I don’t think they get enough recognition.”

They took what could have been a grave situation, she says, and not only prevented it from escalating but did it with poise and professionalism.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jim Crawford has an “it’s all in a day’s work” approach.

“We wouldn’t be doing this job if we didn’t love it,” he says.

But there was still the matter of a wedding, so the wedding party held it there, on the side of the road. Not very fancy or romantic, but practical.

The limo driver called his employer, Le Grande Affair, to explain the situation. He asked them to send another car, but they wanted to just send a tow truck.

Standing nearby, Lena says this is what she heard the driver respond to that idea:

“A tow truck? You don't need a tow truck; you need a dust pan.”

Le Grande Affair did not return a call from Patch for comment, nor has the company contacted Venn or Marshall to apologize for the inconvenience.

Did the families make it to the reception? Yes, and the wedding day that would have been memorable in its own right is now emblazoned in their memories. (Editor’s note: Sorry about that; I couldn’t resist the pun.)

“I gotta pat myself on the back for not freaking out,” Lena says.


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