Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 11:11:43 -0600
Reply-To: Al and Sue Brase <albeeee@MCHSI.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Al and Sue Brase <albeeee@MCHSI.COM>
Subject: Re: Another Vanagon Burns Up
In-Reply-To: <005901c536d9$e8402c10$687ba8c0@MAIN>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Amen, brother! Basic life skill!
Though I've never had a fire, I've bought 3 type 2/ vanagons that had.
Because of this awareness, we always had fire extinguishers on board.
With one of these, my wife was able to put out someone els's engine fire
on her way home from work one day!
My 1980 westy was slightly burned when I got it. The guy said he was
backing out of his driveway one mornigh when it caught fire. the garbage
truck driver put it out very quickly with a shot thru the license plate
door. Just got the wires, hoses soft stuff. Alternator, AFM were okay..
But you would expect a garbage truck would have at least a 25 lb
extinguisher!
Al Brase
Robert Fisher wrote:
> You can probably arrange for some free (or at least inexpensive) basic
> fire
> training through your local fire department. It's worth doing in general,
> nevermind for vanagon owners. They'll get into the whys and hows and
> chemicals and capacities and applications and such. Should be a required
> course in high school if not earlier, IMO.
>
> Cya,
> Robert
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jimt" <camper@TACTICAL-BUS.INFO>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 8:00 AM
> Subject: Re: Another Vanagon Burns Up
>
>
> On 4/1/05 8:22, "Aaron Pearson" <Aaron.Pearson@GXT.COM> wrote:
>
>> so apart from the preventive maintainenece, what's the best way to
>> handle
>> a
>> fire? i hope i'll be able to smell smoke/fuel, or maybe some other
>> driver
>> will wave to me. what happens after i pull over? i can't imagine that
>> i'll
>> be able to calmly open the hatch and engine lid and spray my
>> extinguisher
>> around... everything will be a mass of heat, smoke, and confusion,
>> right?
>> I
>> have this nice new extinguisher in the back of my van, but i haven't the
>> slightest idea how to handle a fire. any advice from someone who has
>> handled
>> this before?
>>
>> aaron
>> '87 syncro gl
>>
>
> Big note...I believe that almost all engine fires have had warnings that
> were not heeded.
>
>
> Use the proper type of extinguisher and normally the single little one
> pounder is not going to be enough. Spray from below into the flame
> area as
> best you can without opening the top deck lid. (except on the air cooled
> where the fire will probably be between the tin and the lid) Opening
> the top
> lid can lead to explosive flames being directed right at you. Also sends
> the heat and flames straight up into the very flammable and easily
> ignited
> lining of the top of the van. Engine fires if caught before heavy rubber
> has gone to full burn are usually put out quite quickly. Once rubber
> starts
> to get to full burn it becomes very difficult and then the temps will
> rise
> to the ignition (flash over point) for almost everything in the
> compartment
> that isnt already burning. At that point it is probably a loss even
> if the
> fire dept is right there. Metal that was extremely hot will now go very
> soft with drooping and warping and even melt in some cases. Certain
> aluminum alloys (though very rare) can ignite.
>
> note on my near explosive fire incident.
>
> When my vehicle still had the Air cooled engine I noted a strange gas
> vapor
> smell. Two days later when pulling up to my driveway I again got the
> heavy
> smell and realized it was when I had hit the heat fan. Fan off not gas
> smell, fan on gas smell. I immediately shut down when on the driveway
> realizing the only place that smell could come from on the aircooled
> vehicle
> was the engine compartment. I had new hoses everywhere. Waited a
> while for
> cooling and then opened lid. Found no sign of leak. Started engine and
> engine had immediate gas odor very strong. Shut down and looked
> again. In
> the morning examined area still not finding leak. I then activated
> just the
> fuel pump to pressurize and saw a really fine fog rolling across the
> engine.
> I had a pinhole leak in the metal line where it had been rubbing
> against the
> intake. When I pulled that section of line it took something like 25
> psi to
> actually leak at that rub mark. That rolling mist would have been
> explosive
> if spark had hit it and would have had a pressurized feed of fuel for
> several seconds even after engine shut down as the system pressure bleed
> down. Very similar to other fuel/engine fires I have been looking at.
> ........................................
> jimt
> Planned insanity is best.
> Remember that sanity is optional.
> http://www.tactical-bus.info (tech info)
> http://www.westydriver.com
>
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