Date:         Fri, 3 May 96 18:48:03 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Sean Bartnik <sbart7kb@www.mwc.edu>
Subject:      sad event/check your fuel lines (fwd)

Stefan and others,
This is a really awful story.  It's a shame to hear about a nice bus
burning to nothing, but even worse when you just bought it :( .

I wonder what it would take to rig up an engine compartment extinguisher
system, like race cars use for their interiors.  You smell or see smoke,
pop the red button on the dash and FOOM the whole engine compartment is
instantly smothered in fire extinguisher foam/powder/whatever.  Probably
expensive as hell, but definitely more handy than a dinky hand-held
extinguisher.

Sorry about your bus, Stefan.

Sean



> 
> 
> 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
> 
>