Hearse Fire

[Steve Lichtman]

Looks like they had a little trouble with one of the hearses during the Pro-Car Graveyard Meet in NC yesterday. Not sure who's it is.

Ouch!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWDV1eAvhBU[/ame]

 

[Paul Yates]

Man, sorry for the owner of this coach. That's a real bummer man. Was this one of the PCS members who attended car?

 

[Bill Carlin]

Very sad to see this.

 

[Keith Snyder]

Fire trucks and funeral cars. Walt should have been there! I really feel sorry for the owner of that good looking Superior Sovereign Landaulet. What a shame.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

been to to many after incident meetings I guess.

man walking around with fire extinguisher approached burning car from down wind. fire to hot to approach from that direction so he walks away. could have moved around the car squirted it threw the radiator to help knock now the fire for crew to arrive.

fire department arrives they park by the pumps and run a line around the car on the down wind side. nozzle man positions him self safe distance away. then puts on his mask for the air pack. hose tender arrives the line is charged and the fire is put out. car is a loss.

if your going to be down wind put the mask on first. don't park the truck were if things go wrong it's trapped. and use the rubber line. it's enough easer to handle and you don't have to dry it out after ward and guys be safe out there.

 

[Peter Grave - Deceased - 1938 - 2022]

Deal with fire

Tragic I hate to see this happen! Just shows how important it is to have a LARGE EXTINGUISHER In all older vehicles and we have the room in our pro cars. When you see smoke you have a VERY SMALL window to deal with the situation before it gets out of hand and only the Fire Co. can. MOST important pull the hood release get the hood open shut the key off (STOPS ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP from feeding fire in newer coaches) .Also hood release cable is plastic sheathed and will melt thus preventing hood opening. Fire burns up first, spreads out second, with the hood open fire will burn up not out and you have a clear shot out put the fire out with extinguisher. Don't worry it ain't going to blowup unless fire gets to rear where gas tank is. It won't happen then unless conditions are right I have had vehicles burn where hoses melted off right to tank with no boom.. If fire is electrical (in dash or underhood get battery cable off any way you can again this stops spread of fire) see you should have installed the quick disconnect on the positive battery cable. Then if inside spray extinguisher from floor upward under dash there is lots to burn there. You can see from video there is only a very short time to act before the fire takes hold and the coach is gone took the tire about a minute to get going once tire is burning heat and smoke are tremendous and not easy to put out again I point out fire burns up first out and down second as can be seen in video. Very sad to see! Pete

 

[Bill Marcy]

Tragic I hate to see this happen! Just shows how important it is to have a LARGE EXTINGUISHER In all older vehicles and we have the room in our pro cars. When you see smoke you have a VERY SMALL window to deal with the situation before it gets out of hand and only the Fire Co. can. MOST important pull the hood release get the hood open shut the key off (STOPS ELECTRIC FUEL PUMP from feeding fire in newer coaches) .Also hood release cable is plastic sheathed and will melt thus preventing hood opening. Fire burns up first, spreads out second, with the hood open fire will burn up not out and you have a clear shot out put the fire out with extinguisher. Don't worry it ain't going to blowup unless fire gets to rear where gas tank is. It won't happen then unless conditions are right I have had vehicles burn where hoses melted off right to tank with no boom.. If fire is electrical (in dash or underhood get battery cable off any way you can again this stops spread of fire) see you should have installed the quick disconnect on the positive battery cable. Then if inside spray extinguisher from floor upward under dash there is lots to burn there. You can see from video there is only a very short time to act before the fire takes hold and the coach is gone took the tire about a minute to get going once tire is burning heat and smoke are tremendous and not easy to put out again I point out fire burns up first out and down second as can be seen in video. Very sad to see! Pete

Thanks for the good advice Peter. I have also seen at least a handful of cars catch fire over the years and the only cars that didn't get destroyed, were two cars where someone had a fire extinguisher and knew how to use it. That might sound silly, but I am willing to bet that many of us have never used a fire extinguisher. And it is very difficult to learn as something burns, you just don't know what to do. I have never used one.

 

[Cary Livingston]

While the post fire banter is educating.....we focused on the more important aspects of the fire incident after it was removed on Scotty's rollback.....selling parts off the car as it was cooling!

 

[Jay Maynard]

That'll make you think twice about painting flames down the side of your hearse.

At least it did it there instead of during a funeral procession.

 

[Rocky Fluegge]

a sad site to see!!

 

[Josh Horton]

I heard the hearse was used in a service that morning. I don't know who was driving or exact details. Heard it was an electrical fire. Jeremy Ledford might know more details.
I had a friend that said you carry a fire extinguisher for other people, because you don't usually have time to get to it if you need it.

 

[Attila Bethlenfalvy]

Darryl, Craig, and myself hightailed back to scene soon as we heard what was happening near end of our ridiculously long caravan between properties. '91 belonged to a local FD whose mother was driving this coach. When an issue was detected, she pulled clear of gas pumps and stepped out, remaining unharmed. It's his video in fact. Their mortuary service had 4 cars in our procession alone.

Record breaker: Completed its last service, burned down, taken to scrap yard, and started being parted out/dismantled/recycled in under 4 hours.

Pics tomorrow. Just finally walked in door. Spend most of day putting coaches back in their respective holes first.

 

[John Royark JR]

been to to many after incident meetings I guess.

man walking around with fire extinguisher approached burning car from down wind. fire to hot to approach from that direction so he walks away. could have moved around the car squirted it threw the radiator to help knock now the fire for crew to arrive.

fire department arrives they park by the pumps and run a line around the car on the down wind side. nozzle man positions him self safe distance away. then puts on his mask for the air pack. hose tender arrives the line is charged and the fire is put out. car is a loss.

if your going to be down wind put the mask on first. don't park the truck were if things go wrong it's trapped. and use the rubber line. it's enough easer to handle and you don't have to dry it out after ward and guys be safe out there.

ED if you look close, the ground has a lot of powder from the fire extinguisher, so one was used, and the guy walking around with the extinguisher was probably empty. I thought the fire Dept moved at a leisurely pace, like it was not really important. Ive never seen firemen move so slow.
It sure was a sad sight to see the loss of this coach, I wonder what the cause was.

 

[Jeremy D. Ledford]

Here are some photos I shot of this car just after arrival at the junk yard.

Jeremy D. Ledford photos.

 

[James Fischer]

ED if you look close, the ground has a lot of powder from the fire extinguisher, so one was used, and the guy walking around with the extinguisher was probably empty. I thought the fire Dept moved at a leisurely pace, like it was not really important. Ive never seen firemen move so slow.
It sure was a sad sight to see the loss of this coach, I wonder what the cause was.

John,
I have to agree,
my son and I watched this video, and then several more times after that and we both could not believe how S L O W this fire crew reacted !! My son is Bat chief with 14 years of fire service and he commented that if this was his crew,there would be some serious discussion/disipline for their obvious nonchalant attitude in controlling this fire....I am sure they thought this was not a priority.....

 

[Darryl Thompson]

ED if you look close, the ground has a lot of powder from the fire extinguisher, so one was used, and the guy walking around with the extinguisher was probably empty. I thought the fire Dept moved at a leisurely pace, like it was not really important. Ive never seen firemen move so slow.
It sure was a sad sight to see the loss of this coach, I wonder what the cause was.

Starter solenoid locked after fueling up at the pictured gas station. Driver then moved the car to not be blocking the gas pumps as a courtesy then the fun began of starter wires beginning to fry.

As for the nonchalant behavior of the fire department:

It was already confirmed there were no occupants living \ dead in the coach. 90% of professional firefighters don't foam at the chance of spraying water. They are extremely reserved and tactful when it comes to fires that will end the same no matter the speed of attack. We we roll on scene and know there is no life danger, body to salvage or property that can be saved / protected, we conserve energy on hot days. This especially with car fires. Any car that catches fire is ALWAYS a loss, insurance will total it NO MATTER how large or small the fire was.

This coach was well away from anything that its fire could hurt, from seeing the windows blacked out it is a loss before getting out of the truck. ie: drivers compartment NFG. They did a good job. IMO

Now, for ALL the fire guys. Whats our #1 rule on a fire scene when moving to different points of work?

NO RUNNING!!!

 

[Josh Rutter]

Is this type of fault specific to this generation Caddy? What can be done to prevent that with my coach, just replace starter with new one?

 

[Darryl Thompson]

Is this type of fault specific to this generation Caddy? What can be done to prevent that with my coach, just replace starter with new one?

This something that can happen to any older car at any time. The key to this not happening to anyones car is to know how to get the battery unhooked as quickly as it happens. Installing a battery switch / cut off is a good investment for many reasons.

Most of us ambulance owners already have them.

 

[Danny Ryder - Deceased - 1962 - 2021]

Regardless of the outcome I too feel they moved alittle slow.

 

[Attila Bethlenfalvy]

Here's '91 on site. Hose on passenger side was pumping behind dash. What fire didn't finish, water did.