My wife and I were driving to Austin on Friday afternoon when we encountered a truck pulling a 5th wheel trailer. As we got closer to it we could see it smoking heavily. When we were within 10 car lengths we could see flames coming out from under the rearend of the truck. Another truck was flagging them down as we got close enough to do anything.

I grabbed my fire extinguisher and jumped out of the car. The rearend housing was on fire so I shot some halotron on it and the surrounding area. The flames went out for a few seconds but came right back. Clearly the metal was so hot that the flames weren't going to go out without some serious amounts of water to cool everything off.

I told the guy to unhook the trailer if he didn't want to loose it as well. So he threw the release and drove out from under the trailer. The front of the trailer crashed to the ground but there wasn't much damage to it. He moved the truck to a safe distance and that was about all that could be done. Within 20 minutes the rural volunteer fire truck arrived but the flames were starting to burn the interior buy that time. They got the fire out but it took a lot of water.




I relate this story for two reasons. 1. Regular maintenance and inspection of your vehicle is very important to your safety. I have no doubt that the truck ran out of gear oil and the heat from the unlubricated gears ignited the oil that had leaked to the underside of the bed. 2. Always carry a fire extinguisher with you. While it didn't help in this situation, in most others it would have. The biggest factor in this case was that the driver and their traveling partners both ignored the smoke and unusual smells for miles because they thought it was just diesel smoke.

 

it is scairy,

 

Actually I've seen a similar thing happen when the diff. bearings went out on my Dad's old truck. They sawed the axle right in two, and then the pumpkin belched out a flaming trail of gear oil. ...no weird sounds or smells or vibration ... just a *klunk* then a *thud* then a, "Hey, that looks like our wheel and half an axle there behind us." That doesn't sound like the case here, but it can happen.

Sound advice regardless

 

That's definitely not cool. It probably ruined a perfectly good vacation.

On a lighter note, I was at the local circle track last week.
The Chitwood stunt show was there, and they raosted up a
couple of junk cars with their jet powered truck.
Pretty cool seeing flaming debris shooting 200 feet back like a comet.

 

halotron is expensive stuff to waste on morons like that... I am sure you weren't thinkning about that at the time...

 

Yeah, the suff is expensive but not compared to what the guy's truck was worth. I only wish the problem had been discovered sooner so it could have been saved. Every chance I get I tell people to get fire extinguishers for their cars so let me say it again. Go to the store and at least get a cheap 2 lb dry chemical, they are only $10. Get one for every car, regardless of its age. It's way better than watching your car burn to the ground.

 

My $.02... as long as no one is in the car, or in harms way...I would rather have a completely burnt ride, and collect the insurance $$ than a partially burnt one to deal with.

 

Just reminded me of the day my Mustang engine caught fire.
I was at the Home Depot, picking up some top soil and fertilizer.
The cheapo foam air cleaner caught fire. Thinking quickly, I
ripped open the topsoil and started throwing handfuls onto the air cleaner.
that put it out, I yanked the cleaner away - brushed the dirt
aside, and drove home to vacuum off the intake.

So, if you can't afford the fire extinguisher, get a bag of dirt.

 

This is a repost, but it ties into the thread. Fires are not pretty.

http://www.dynamiccorvettes.com/burn/

 

Saw a newish Toyota Corolla catch fire the other day.

Flames shot out of the engine compartment at least 5 feet into the air, belching a column of foul-smelling smoke at least 150 feet high.

I hope my Vette does not get ideas from this.

 

This one was in the dragracing forum
http://206.61.16.155/_vid/piedmont/2...dmont-fire.mpg

 

i hate it when that happens!

 

A few years ago, the Body Shop that I worked at, sent a tow truck to recover a car that had been burned in a house fire. The car was in the Basement and the fire started on the 2nd floor which landed on top of the car in the Basement. Totally Burned this 67 Cobra(owner says it was not a kit car) up. to the Ground. Just a piece of molten metal and fiberglass. I could not even tell that it was a cobra. Nothing was left.
Car Fires can happen anywhere. Even at home.
Larry

 

Holy crap eddie, did driver of that car survive the fire? That looked bad.