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Scenario; engine fire what do you do?

Now let's talk tactics. First, consider what would happen if the truck burns to the ground- what else is nearby to burn? Are you on a trail in the desert or are you in your driveway right next to your house? If your truck is running in your driveway or shop, best choice is probably drive into the street (if it is safe to be in the truck for another 10-15 seconds), accepting more damage to the truck in return for not burning the house down. If you're in Moab, just stop, take the truck out of gear, and turn it off.

I say take it out of gear because I went to a early 70s Ford pickup that was burning, just a small carb fire that had spread but still contained under the hood. The truck was left in gear, and as wires melted the starter shorted and engaged, and the burning truck began driving forward on the starter for a few seconds. So take a second and take it out of gear.

Don't discharge your extinguisher without a clear shot at what is burning. Shooting a dry chem through the grille may have put out a few fires, but it's more likely to waste your extinguisher because the agent has no direct path to the fire. If your inner fenders are no longer there, through wheel wells is a good first attack. If they're still there, you'll face the same problem as shooting through the grille.
Most of the time, you will have to open the hood. This is best as a two person operation- one to open the hood and the other ready to discharge the extinguisher the second the hood is open. The fire is extremely unlikely to suddenly flash or explode the second the hood is opened. It will however start growing much faster. I wouldn't be afraid of opening the hood, but I also wouldn't do it without having an extinguisher immediately ready.

Fact is opening the hood will give you the most direct (and therefore effective) shot at the fire. Any other options are risking wasting your extinguisher and not using it to its fullest capability.
 
6872xtc said:
If you have a dry chemical one, I hope that everyone knows to knock the powder loose every so often. I know that I don't do it often enough.

Just an FYI, what I am referring to is to turn the extinguisher upside down and hit the bottom of it with a rubber mallet several times. Then rock it back and forth between upright and upside down. You can sometimes feel the powder falling inside.
I don't know if the powder packs down more in a vehicle from vibrations or not, so this may need to be done more often. I honestly don't know.
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We do this once a week with the dry chem extinguishers on the fire trucks. I don't really know what the optimum frequency is, but it is important maintenance.
 
I'm reminded of a situation I had to inspect on a RV that caught fire back in my Workhorse days. The customer had a recall repair performed at a dealer. The recall was to replace the fuel pressure dampener clip on the fuel rail of the 8.1. We had very specific instructions to de-pressurize the fuel system and to use a pair of large jaw pliers to hold the dampener in place when the clip was removed and the new one installed. Not following the instructions to the letter typically resulted in a major fuel pressure leak causing fuel to spray over the passenger side exhaust manifold. Meaning it was a hell of a risk for fire if done wrong.

The owner picked up the coach and headed north making his way back to I-25. He passed the interchange of US 36 near Loveland CO and started to smell something burning. He told his wife they would get off at the next exit to check it out. About a mile later he told the wife to grab the dog and get out as soon as he stopped the coach. The owner was retired from the Denver Fire Dept so he had a fire extinguisher mounted right at the door to grab on the way out. He made his way to the front to find flames coming out of the fender openings. He could also see smoke coming out of the interior. He never fired the extinguisher. Within a matter of less than a minute, the fire was well out of control that his extinguisher couldn't handle. Key thing is recognizing when to fight and when to pull back for safety.

As it turned out the shop did everything wrong when it came to the repair. The fuel pressure was never released. Then the tech pulled the clip on the dampener and it shot across the inside of the coach spraying fuel all over the passenger seat, carpet and wall. He then shoved the dampener back in and rolling the o-ring seal in the process which caused the leak. It's a good reminder to make sure all fuel connections are tight and leak-free.
 
It's best to call the fire department first,then try to put it out yourself..
They would rather come "for nothing" than have you wait until you've decided you cant put it out and lose response time..those few minutes could mean the difference between not losing the vehicle or anything it is parked near..or losing both..
 
@bigred88

Thanks for your input. And also thank you everyone else for the input. Very worthy topic to consider in andvance
 
Bent77 said:
@bigred88

Thanks for your input. And also thank you everyone else for the input. Very worthy topic to consider in andvance
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Glad to, I hope it helps someone.

diesel4me said:
It's best to call the fire department first,then try to put it out yourself..
They would rather come "for nothing" than have you wait until you've decided you cant put it out and lose response time..those few minutes could mean the difference between not losing the vehicle or anything it is parked near..or losing both..
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100% correct. It's going to take the FD a few minutes to get there at best.
 
If your in town maybe.... Not gonna help on the trail lol. There it's all up to us.
 
I have an ABC or two in each vehicle and pretty much everywhere in the house. Like behind bedroom doors and everything. Different sizes for different places. Some people make fun of me for it.

Never had any of my own shit catch on fire but twice in my life have neighbors come running to *my house* to get *my* fire extinguishers to put out *their* car fires.

Have put out 4 car fires in my day (the above two and two more on the road). If you can do it without opening the hood then that is a good plan. If the car gets on fire long enough to get into the cabin or make a strut/shock leak you're better off saving your extinguisher to put out other shit nearby. If you think gas is bad, you should see what happens when boiling brake fluid is squirting or a shock/strut ruptures. Once the interior of a car is on fire there really isn't much stopping it.

This happened at the local dragstrip this week (it is kind of funny, look at the retreads standing around watching it burn and all of their PPE):
 
Just sayin... the extinguishing agent (dry chem, water, foam) has to actually get to the fire. Turning the hood yellow by dumping an extinguisher on it does nothing to extinguish the fire...

The first guy that walked up and quickly put out everything under the car was perfect. Had they followed that up with immediately opening the hood using that dry chem extinguisher under it instead of on it, it probably would have went out much quicker.
 
I haven’t been impressed by anything at Milan. This confirms my thoughts.
 
Anyone that hasn’t looked up the element, it’s $80 and has a 50 second extinguish time
 
Very interesting that this thread pops up. A few weeks ago I experienced an engine fire. We were at a car show/vintage camping event in central wisconsin. Some friends are sitting by my camper and we were enjoying a beer. We all start smelling gasoline. I turn around and there is a 1959 Chevy wagon idling about 70 feet away. I turn back to my buddies. The car started driving down the campground road and all the sudden we hear the horn going off nonstop. We turn around and smoke is pouring out from under the hood.

Of course a whole bunch of people crowd around the car.... I grab my fire extinguisher that I keep in my camper and head over there. One guy was using a disposable extinguisher through the wheel well. Somebody opened the hood and I gave one quick blast. I guy I know was at the front of the car and yelled for me to go to the driver side. He was closer so I just handed the extinguisher to him and he put the fire out.

I'm still not exactly sure what the cause was, I believe somebody said it was a leaky fuel line at the carb. Car back fired, fire started, wires melted and shorted out causing the horn to just keep going off. Probably a good thing cause who knew how much farther the guy would have drove. He was on his way back to the car show.
 
I had to think about this thread while at Blazer bash last week when Watson flopped the K30 Convertible in the hot tub. It wasn't on fire, but he did break the filler cap on the fuel cell and it was dumping fuel fast. Stephen called it out that the fuel was leaking and scrambled out of his harness to stuff a t-shirt in the hole and hold it in place. Somebody else made the call to the crowd for fire extinguishers. I sent my son to our truck that was right next to the tub and practically every other truck that was parked around the hot tub produced a fire extinguisher at the same time. We must have had a dozen at the ready within 30 seconds of the call being made.

Thankfully they were not needed but nobody put them away until the K30 was on it's wheels and the fuel stopped leaking out. It was a proud moment that everybody there was on the same page and had the equipment ready for use at a moments notice.
 
:waytogo:
ZooMad75 said:
I had to think about this thread while at Blazer bash last week when Watson flopped the K30 Convertible in the hot tub. It wasn't on fire, but he did break the filler cap on the fuel cell and it was dumping fuel fast. Stephen called it out that the fuel was leaking and scrambled out of his harness to stuff a t-shirt in the hole and hold it in place. Somebody else made the call to the crowd for fire extinguishers. I sent my son to our truck that was right next to the tub and practically every other truck that was parked around the hot tub produced a fire extinguisher at the same time. We must have had a dozen at the ready within 30 seconds of the call being made.

Thankfully they were not needed but nobody put them away until the K30 was on it's wheels and the fuel stopped leaking out. It was a proud moment that everybody there was on the same page and had the equipment ready for use at a moments notice.
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