Working with fuel enclosed area fire !

[Keyo 47]

Waking my Airedale this evening and literally two minutes down the road stumbled across this devastation. The homeowner was outside and cheekly asked him what happened - he said he son was working on a cobra kit car on the fuel system - did not go into much detail but said it burnt down in 10 minutes his son did suffer some burns from plastic guttering melting on him- can still see the frame of the car in the garage- thank god  nearly took the neighbours house as the flames have burnt the barge boards on the roofline- imagine if that had got through to the loft-  I imagine the son left the cap off the fuel bottle and the car ignited the fumes. 

[fendervg 32]

Ouch - nice neighbourhood. Looks like they'll be ok though - another convertible sitting on the drive 😉

If it has been a Fiat/Renault/Alfa it would have jsut gone on fire by itself without any help.

Seriously though, always double check everything is tightened and prime and do a leak test with the starter motor only and leads disconnected before starting an engine after working on the fuel system - have nearly been caught out a few times myself.

[Keyo 47]

Yeah it so easy to do if you just make a pattern of mistakes - horrific really so close to burning down the neighbours house .  

[Dox 23]

I have a couple of extinguishers in the garage, I always drain fuel outside.

A work colleague of my oldest brother was changing his fuel tank using the pit in his friends garage, the pit was full of heavier than air fuel vapours, the 240v hand lamp smashed on the side of the pit and whoosh! 12+ months in the Birmingham burns units and countless operations after being given only a very slight chance of surviving.

 

Lost his career, wife divorced him and his young kids couldn't cope with it all.

Its a jungle out there.

[Keyo 47]

8 hours ago, Dox said:

I have a couple of extinguishers in the garage, I always drain fuel outside.

A work colleague of my oldest brother was changing his fuel tank using the pit in his friends garage, the pit was full of heavier than air fuel vapours, the 240v hand lamp smashed on the side of the pit and whoosh! 12+ months in the Birmingham burns units and countless operations after being given only a very slight chance of surviving.

 

Lost his career, wife divorced him and his young kids couldn't cope with it all.

Its a jungle out there.

Very sad story-Those fumes off a fuel tank could wreck anyone's life - so easy to get distracted when working on a car I can see how it could easily happen - another sucker are large lithium batteries when been charged for radio control planes etc- have heard of these sparking up as well. If you have never changed your halogen spot bulbs for led I would do this as well- I had one explode and it burnt my carpet - changed them all out now.