Talk:Vehicle fire

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Move to more general title[edit]

What do you think about moving this to "Motor vehicle fire" or "Vehicle fire", as it is general to all such gasoline-powered vehicles? —Centrx→talk • 23:12, 6 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is there really enough of this subject to require a dedicated Wikipedia entry? The general description is useful, but could live as part of a larger article. The recommended action is not relavent to Wikipedia so that doesn't leave much of a article left. Slink pink (talk) 10:01, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The myth of the exploding car[edit]

On an unrelated site we were discussing the danger of going near a burning car, so I came over here to do a bit of research. I learned in drivers training, that cars do not explode Hollywood like, that one has about 5-10 minutes, before the fire reaches the passenger compartment. We were encouraged to carry an extinguisher and to first get the passengers out and then fight the fire by putting short bursts under the bonnet. The whole section on recommended action seems to have been taken from the US-American National Safety Council. This is not what experts in for example Germany will tell people. So this should be marked as recommendations for the USA and maybe expanded with recommendations from other countries (here is a site on car fires by the Municipal Fire Brigade of Graz, Austria, that encourages people to fight the fire after evacuating: http://www.bf-graz.at/autobrand.htm ). 89.49.19.26 19:37, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The heat of the fire eventually makes the front tires explode. (You don't want to be close to that.) The heat can trigger airbags. (Airbags can kill you if you are in the wrong place when they blow.) The heat has been said to launch piston-backed bumpers with great force.

Cars ignite easily and often in crashes; cars even ignite spontaneously all the time. (Does anyone keep statistics, fire-test automobiles, or regulate flammability?) Unless extinguished by a large supply of water, a small fire under the hood will not go out; it will grow until the car burns to completion – and the manufacturers love it that way (no salvageable cars or parts; every victim buys another car).

If a driver or passenger is trapped in a burning car, the situation is not as amusing. They are basically waiting to be burned alive, unless a fire truck arrives in the next three minutes. Get the ignition key turned off; electricity might feed or re-ignite the fire. Try to get the hood popped before using any fire extinguisher; the extinguisher does almost nothing without the hood popped (and probably has very limited effectiveness even with the hood popped). In urbanized areas, get a garden hose if possible and hold back the fire; otherwise buy the trapped person another minute or so by wrapping coats around them; soak them with water if possible; smash out the windshield if possible (to slow the spread of fire inside the cabin). In rural areas, consider kicking the person very hard to rip them out of the car; failing that, saw their leg(s) off (this requires serious determination), or else just lend them your pistol, rifle, or dagger. Consider asking them what happened (for example, bumped out of control, distracted, blackout or seizure, weird mechanical failure), otherwise no one will ever know their version of the event; autopsy can only measure drug and alcohol levels. Fully opening the hood might help, if you have a shovel to bury the fire. Desperate options include turning the car upside down (changes the direction of the fire and provides more access for shoveled dirt), and towing or pushing the car into a body of water. The most controversial option would be suffocating the victim with duct tape over mouth and nose – they would have the terrifying experience of suffocating, but it could save their life by preventing them from inhaling flames before rescue; if not rescued, at least they were unconscious before burning alive. -A876 (talk) 20:27, 13 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Temperature?[edit]

How hot are car fires? Hundreds of degrees? Thousands of degrees? —Lowellian (reply) 03:07, 29 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Car engines melt[edit]

A news photo from the Oct 2007 California fires showed a burnt car with streams of molten metal flowing from the front. Presumably from the car engine. How common is this? What is the molten metal? What conditions lead to car engines melting? Magnesium melts at 1202 deg F. Aluminum melts at 1221 deg F. Steel melts at 2500-2800 deg F. -69.87.200.207 20:22, 26 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Car fire process details[edit]

So, You Wanna Torch a Peugeot? How French hooligans set cars on fire. By Daniel Engber Nov. 7, 2005

"Rioters in France burned more than 1,400 vehicles on Sunday night, as the civil unrest that began almost two weeks ago continued to spread. So far, at least 4,000 cars and buses have been torched by angry protesters. How do you set fire to a car?" [1] -69.87.200.207 20:22, 26 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]