Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 18:28:31 -0400 (EDT)
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Stefan Ufer <sufer@email.unc.edu>
Subject: sad event/check your fuel lines
I have a story to tell which started great and ended not so great:
Together with two friends of mine I flew down to New Orleans for the Jazz
Festival last Friday.
For me another purpose for this trip was to pick up and buy my friend John's
'71 Camper who lives in New Orleans and to drive it back to NC last Monday.
I had never seen his bus before, but after driving it over the weekend
I was more than impressed about it. No real rust problems, camping
interior in very good shape, clean engine etc. To make it short,
everything looked great.
I left in the bus by myself Monday morning heading back to NC. After about
3h of driving the gas gauge got close to empty so I wanted to take the next
exit to get some gas. This BTW was in southern Alabama on I65. I never
got to that exit.
I experienced a sudden loss of power. I figured that the gas gauge didn't
work right and that I was already completely out of gas. As soon I stopped
at the side of the interstate I could smell that something was burning. I
turned around and saw black smoke comming out of the engine compartment.
Got out of the car walked to the back and the driver side of the engine
compartment was in flames. Tried to open it but the heat already had
messed up the lock so I couldn't get it open. Tried to pry it open, but
that didn't work either.
At that time somebody with one of these small car type fire extinguishers
had stopped, but they are no good at all. Maybe 5 seconds of foam and
they're empty. By that time the whole engine compartment was up in flames
and the interior of the bus was about to catch fire.
I got my stuff out of the car. Everything was up front. Within minutes
the whole thing was one big fire. Tons of black smoke, both rear tires
exploded. Everybody on the Interstate stopped afraid that something will
blow up any time.
All I could do was watching this nice bus burning. After maybe half an
hour a state trooper and fire truck arrived. They took care of the fire,
but at that time the whole bus was burned down to the frame. I never
thought that a bus could completely burn so fast. Poptop gone, interior
not there anymore, just some black stuff left.
I had checked the fuel lines before. They all had hose clamps on them. So
I still don't know for sure what had caused the fire. All I know is that
it started at the driver side of the engine compartment.
It was one of the sadest things I've seen in a long time, a before lovely
bus completely burned out at the side of an Interstate. The State trooper
was very nice and friendly. He gave me a ride to the next town where I
got a bus ticket and spent all night in a Greyhound on the way home.
For LILA I will get in addition to the small fire extinguisher I already
have a full sized one which I will mount underneath the dash board. I'm
sure if I would have filled the engine compartment with foam right after I
had noticed the fire I might have been able to stop it.
So all you bus owners out there, check your fuel lines and get a fire
extinguisher in your bus easy to reach. I don't wish anybody to
experience something like this!
Stefan
'76 Camper Bulli (LILA)
'78 Rabbit Diesel
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