Car Fire

My '89 Taurus is gone
For reasons unknown it lit itself on fire in a co-workers driveway. We had to drag it away from the house through the snow, flames licking from the front wheel wells and grille. A tire blew as I was hooking up the chain...pass the underwear. We got the hood open and packed it full of snow but couldn't get the fire out. This occurred in a small mill town about 40 miles from wear I live. The fire crew from the mill arrived and watered and foamed. I'll stop and get pics tomorrow before it gets towed,and post them.

 

Ouch! I hate to hear that about the car. Vehicle fires are tough to put out once they get started, I've had my share of them in the 6 years I've been a fire-fighter.

Never have got to use snow on anything, would be pretty cool though.

 

That sucks, its always handy to have an ABC fire estinguisher(s) around, specially near vehicles / machinery since water doesn't always put out a fire. Saw a taxi catch fire out of the blue when crossing Queens -> Manhattan bridge, luckily a trucker stopped in the middle of the road and did a nice dash through 4 lanes of traffic and put out the fire quickly with one of those.

 

Three extinguishers were used. The engine compartment was completely involved before we were alerted. The hood release was melted so we used an axe. There was no gasoline involved mostly plastic.

 

Look on the bright side. For a few minutes, you had the hottest car in town.

 

Here's some pictures

 

Ok, here's the pics

 

Worst joke ever

Any thoughts as to the cause of the fire?

 

Unless your car was a electric car, then gas would have been a part of it…….spent about 15 years as a firefighter…..a few ideas of the why it might have happened. Fuel pump, fuel injectors the use a electric switch to control fuel….did you have block heater, to keep the car warm…….and you said, that the hood latch was plastic and melted from the heat, same thing happens with the fuel line, most have some kind of rubber, that would melt, and the pressure in the fuel line, might add to the fire…..when things are cold, crap happens, and the battery adds to the problems…when it’s cold, cars can lose ground -…….we had so many problems, with cars that were part of an crash, that we started cutting their battery wires with bolt cutters…….the cars had already been on fire, so it was a way to remove a source, to restart a fire………wobbles

 

Bad fire, but whoever tried to put it out did a good job. When we get a call for a vehicle fire, 99% of the time there is nothing left and we are a Class 2 fire department.

Must have been bad for them to use foam? Unless there is gasoline spilled we dont ever use foam.

 

My car went up in flames when I was in my last car accident. It definately doesn't make you want to buy that car again.

 

This is the company that built the Pinto!

 

@Wobbles. Fuel was involved in that the fuel injectors and o rings melted, but the car was not running at the time, so there was no ignition source, even if there was a fuel leak. The exhaust manifolds on this engine are not easily contacted by leaking fuel, and likely aren't hot enough this time of year. I would have smelled a fuel leak.
@Adrynalyne. I've had electrical problems with the car of late...lights dimming, no starts etc. These problems seem to be resolved with a new battery. However it was a little too tall for the car and I broke the battery holddown when I was changing it. It's possible the battery worked it's way out of the tray and cocked the battery post up against the hood, causing at short circuit, causing the battery cables to melt and burn, lighting the rest of the plastic to ignite.
@bj. The guys put the fire out with water but were concerned because it was still steaming. So they filled the car for peace of mind. These guys work at the sawmill and are volunteers on the firetruck. I think they were practicing and having fun.
@Just Playin. Yes that was a bad joke. I'm still smouldering from reading it.

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your car sibeer. I've had a couple of batteries blow up, but never had flames. I hope insurance will cover it so you can get a replacement fairly painlessley. The good news is that almost nobody shops for a car at Christmas time, so you should be able to negotiate a good deal from some desparate dealer.

 

I'd like $800 from insurance, plus additional for the stereo which I valued more than the car. I work for a desperate dealer, but I only buy beaters, because my commute is rough on cars in the winter. My boss has a similar Taurus at his other dealership that I can have for $50. Scary eh? I've gotta look at it though.

 

I traded one in 2 years ago when I bought my new car. Same year, same color............just a coincidence, I'm sure.

 

Junk it or tax it, probably get alot more for it.

 

Sorry to hear you ride went up in flames, Sibeer!

Not the best of Christmas presents. Sounds like you said, the battery may have shorted and done some bad things.