Car Fire

[BwanaDik]

Some car just burned up in the Landry's parking lot across the street from my office building. Apparently the guy came down the street, realized he was on fire, turned in and jumped out. I saw it maybe 1-2 minutes after he had pulled in (all the folks on the floor had not all gathered around the windows yet so apparently it had just happened) and what surprised me was that the car was already totally engulfed. Massive black smoke and big flames coming out of the windows within 1-2 minutes. Several fair sized explosions too, not the tires though. Wonder what they were? Fire department showed up about 5-7 minutes later and put it out.

So, my point, or question, have any of you had the misfortune of having your car (or a friends car) catch on fire and what did you do?

I have a restored '69 Datsun 2000 and a "work in progress" '72 BMW 3.0 CSi, I carry a fire extingusher in both. Am I simply doing this to make myself feel safer or will these little things actually make a dent in a car fire?

BTW, the burnt up car appeared to be a fairly late model, not some broken down old klunker.

 

[SkooterG]

Good for toasting marshmallows! S'mores.......mmmm.......good.

 

[Geezer]

Most likely he had an oil leak that accumulated oil on things over time and eventually got to the exhaust where it was hot enough to light it up. If you don't have a leak, or you keep the engine and transmission area clean, you're probably safe from that kind of catastrophic fire.

 

[ionbeam]

Was he a smoker? :evilgrin:

Could be a self inflicted wound from a botched owner installed electrical doohickey, perhaps a high pressure FI leak, catalytic converters ignite anything nearby from cat con issues and then as the always, the insightful geezer offers -- oil leaks suck.

My sister-in-law loaned me her ~150k mile KIA to drive (because I am currently earning $0.00 dollars and can't buy a car) and on the first outing the fan blower resistor burned up and filled the vehicle with smoke. Fortunately I realized what was happening and shut off the vehicle and did a dead stick landing on the shoulder of a busy state highway. After a quick wiring disconnect I was able to continue on.

Lots of things can fry a vehicle. Including insurance claims for a vehicle on which the payments can't be met.

 

[SacramentoMike]

I had a little extinguisher in my car that I'd gotten courtesy of the USAF. It was going to be thrown away; either the date had expired or some little retaining pin broke off--don't remember which. Your tax dollars at work. Anyway, I came up on a car fire some time after that, hood open, flames coming out, distraught older couple watching it go up. So I used the reject extinguisher on it, put it out right handily. So yes, they work, at least that once. Of course, for a proper test, I should have left it burning till it was completely engulfed, and then tried it. Live and learn.

 

[fjrchooser]

When I was a little kid our family was returning from a 4th of July airshow on a backed up freeway. The car ahead of us pulled over to the guard rail as flames burst out from under its hood. Nice newer car. Dad's in a panic cause we're trapped nearly along side it.

Poor guy that owned it popped the hood and was trying to scrape handfuls of sand off the painfully clean new freeway. He got two or three pitiful tosses in and took off for the shoulder.

Traffic scrunched up as everyone tried to get some distance, we drove slowly by bumper to bumper watching it burn while the owner wrang his hands and paced to & fro.

Every new car I get also gets a new fire extinguisher because of that guy.

 

[FJRBluesman]

I hope it didn't burn the fishies... :dribble:

I love Landry's fish!!! I discovered that place in San Antonio, TX on the River Walk. I wish we had one here in SoCal. I just ate at the one in Las Vegas a couple weeks back, mmmmm goooood. :yahoo:

 

[C&C]

Happened to me in 1973 while in the Navy (stationed in Bethesda Md). One night coming back to quarters (with a fellow Navy buddy) down the Rockville Pike, I noticed some flames blowing out the bottom side of my car (maybe wouldn't have noticed as quickly had it been daytime) as the car was still running fine. Anyway, quickly pulled over to the side of the road, got out and watched as the fire quickly spread; quite impressive by the time the fire department got there (flames perhaps 15 to 20 feet high). She burned from the front bumper to the rear window. Good news, we both got out (no problems), bad news, it was a '68 GTO.

 

[Bounce]

it was a '68 GTO.

 

[kaitsdad]

it was a '68 GTO.

Very, very sad.

 

[Checkswrecks]

I've looked into a number of fires, mostly in airplanes, and the short story I tell everybody is this:

[SIZE=12pt]Once you even think you have a fire, get out as fast as possible because the insurance company is about to own the vehicle.[/SIZE]

No BS, exaggeration, or bravado. When the urethane in the seats starts to burn, you aren't going to put it out with a hand-held fire bottle. The fire department will have trouble putting it out. Likewise, if the fire's under the hood or dash, by the time you are able to do something, there will be more damage than is worth a repair.

Instead, go the other way and get what you want to keep from the back seat or trunk and walk to the nearest bar. Order up a drink to watch the fire department guys work.

Checks

 

[LDRydr]

Had it happen to me and my uncle back in the summer of '77 between my junior and senior years of high-school. I was just 15 at the time and was going to spend the summer with my aunt & uncle, mostly to clean out and organize their garage and earn some spending dough. He said I could use his '59 Chevy stepside pickup to run to the hardware store if needed, even though I didn't yet have my license. I was jazzed.

Before I even had a chance to drive it we ran out in the truck for an errand. My uncle backed it out of the driveway and headed down the street. Not even 4 doors away from home he looked at me and said "you smell smoke?". I was in the middle of replying "yes, I smell..." when flames burst through the floor shift-lever boot. Before I even got the door all the way open his dog was over my lap and outta there. Real quick-like we opened the hood and saw flames and a red-hot carb choke cable. My uncle sprinted the short distance home, grabbed a fire extinguisher (sodium bicarbonate) and doused the entire engine compartment. But the choke cable, which was shorted against a positive battery lead, quickly sparked and started the fire back up. Next he grabbed some bolt-cutters out of the truck and cut the lead and stopped the fire once and for all.

We towed the truck home the 1/2 block and surveyed the damage. The custom chrome and foam-filter air cleaner had melted down into the four-barrel carb, all the fuel and vacuum lines were melted, all the firewall wiring was toast, and of course the hot-lead to the battery was cut. A good portion of the paint on the hood was missing and the hood looked like a cast-iron skillet.

Along with organizing the garage my summer was spent installing a new wiring harness, rebuilding the carb and replacing the carpet. I didn't quite get the job done before returning home to the big city, but my uncle said after he finished the last few electrical connections the truck fired right up. I was hoping he'd give me the truck for graduation and I could get a new paint job on it and have me a nice ride, but he sold it off while I finished school and I never saw it again.

This isn't the actual pickup, but it looked like this:

 

[Silver Penguin]

So, my point, or question, have any of you had the misfortune of having your car (or a friends car) catch on fire and what did you do?

My daughter drives Demolition Derby where small fires are commonplace. Every car must carry an extinguisher. She has the nickname 'HotStuff' after her car was involved in a major fire on the track. The car was engulfed very quickly. Fortunately she was wearing a fire suit, purpose-built helmet and leather gloves. The gloves actually slowed down her escape since she had a regular seat belt and couldn't open it quickly with the gloves on. There were already flames inside the car, so she didn't remove the gloves.

Track officials brought a fire truck immediately and then a second rig shortly afterwards. The fireman who helped her out actually lost his eyebrows. I didn't begin to officially panic until the rolled the ambulance but by the time I got to the pits, she was signing her refusal of treatment papers. The next race was just about to begin, and she was to become the first female driver in California to participate in an RV Demo derby.

It did shock me though, how fast the fire spread.

 

[SacramentoMike]

This isn't the actual pickup, but it looked like this:

Damn, when I saw that pic at first, I thought "My God, his uncle is Chip Foose!" :lol:

". . . My daughter drives Demolition Derby . . ."

Crap, Jill!

My dad was driving around town (Syracuse) in his work vehicle way back when. Smoke started pouring out of the engine compartment so he pulled into a driveway where the employees were sitting outside on chairs, getting the cool evening air. They all jumped up and managed to get the fire out. Helped that it was a police car and he pulled into a fire house.

 

[7xray]

I've looked into a number of fires, mostly in airplanes, and the short story I tell everybody is this:
[SIZE=12pt]Once you even think you have a fire, get out as fast as possible because the insurance company is about to own the vehicle.[/SIZE]

No BS, exaggeration, or bravado. When the urethane in the seats starts to burn, you aren't going to put it out with a hand-held fire bottle. The fire department will have trouble putting it out. Likewise, if the fire's under the hood or dash, by the time you are able to do something, there will be more damage than is worth a repair.

Instead, go the other way and get what you want to keep from the back seat or trunk and walk to the nearest bar. Order up a drink to watch the fire department guys work.

Checks

You're right Checks. In addition to the respiratory assaults due to the ethyl-bethyl-bad-stuff and the actual fire, there are plenty of other real hazards. When we attack car fires we teach our guys to approach from the corners at a 45 degree angle because of the pneumatic cylinders that are in bumpers and hatchback and hood lifters. They can launch real missiles. One training video shows a FF's leg pierced by a pneumatic cylinder that let off, bounced off the wall of the garage and then penetrated through the guys leg!

7X

 

[SnowAviation]

Yep to what 7X said, I was a volunteer fireman for a couple of years and saw a few car fires. By the time the Fire Department gets there it is always too late to save the car. Once I saved a VW bug, but only because I was right behind it when it caught. I stopped behind them, I opened the engine compartment and started throwing sand, put out the fire and saved the car. Pure luck.

A fire extinguisher gives you a fighting chance but if it doesn't go out right away, you need to step away smartly as it will get hot - mucho pronto.

 

[madmike2]

Some car just burned up in the Landry's parking lot across the street from my office building. Apparently the guy came down the street, realized he was on fire, turned in and jumped out. I saw it maybe 1-2 minutes after he had pulled in (all the folks on the floor had not all gathered around the windows yet so apparently it had just happened) <major snippage>
BTW, the burnt up car appeared to be a fairly late model, not some broken down old klunker.

Er...uhm...was it a Toyota?

This guy may have found the ultimate solution.....

I'm jes' sayin'.

 

[FJR-RemingtonRider]

Having the mis-fortune of having one of my employees car catch on fire in our parking lot, early am; I can attest that Dry chemical had no affect on the engulfed flames. The car was on fire with the hood down, and as you witnessed, the black smoke is totally overwhelming. We got the hood up and tried water, I brought out and used up 2 fire extinguishers, and the thing still burned till the fire department got there and blasted it all to hell...Ripped open doors, broke some glass and thankfully did a fantastic job of containing the fire. And then they drove off happily on their way leaving not only a job well done, but the car, and black smutty debris every where for us to clean up. Which, we were more than happy to do, because the fire was right under a huge transformer, had they not gotten there and the rubber on the tires started, it would have been ....whew; glad it didn't.

 

[SacramentoMike]

Having the mis-fortune of having one of my employees car catch on fire in our parking lot, early am; I can attest that Dry chemical had no affect on the engulfed flames. The car was on fire with the hood down, and as you witnessed, the black smoke is totally overwhelming. We got the hood up and tried water, I brought out and used up 2 fire extinguishers, and the thing still burned till the fire department got there and blasted it all to hell...Ripped open doors, broke some glass and thankfully did a fantastic job of containing the fire. And then they drove off happily on their way leaving not only a job well done, but the car, and black smutty debris every where for us to clean up. Which, we were more than happy to do, because the fire was right under a huge transformer, had they not gotten there and the rubber on the tires started, it would have been ....whew; glad it didn't.

If they'd used a bucket of water it would have gone right out. The right bucket . . .