Hot Rods Beware!! Propane shop heaters are devastating! Pics of the carnage.

A fire broke out with a leaking propane garage heater at the home shop of Bud Burke in Bakersfield, Calif. recently. Just a warning to all you guys using these things in your shops. Make sure the fittings don't leak. You don't want to be the guy having to deal with this tragedy. My bud Squeak Bell is good friends with him and is going to help him get some things straightened out after the insurance adjuster gets through. It was a glass car. It was in the process of being built. Fresh Buick motor should be able to be saved. Fire dept. got there pretty quick from what I was told. Winters upon some of you and be careful please. Always good to have a reminder once in awhile.

 

Heart-wrenching

 

no open flames on heating devices - too many errant fumes in a garage.

 

man that*****s . hope no-one was hurt ..

 

Only his pride I'm sure. I know I would be sick to my stomach with that to look at.

 

X2 - only time & $$ will heal this mess

 

Propane is heavier than air. Imagine filling a vessel up with the propane gas and when it reaches the level of a flame, KA_POW! This is why boats blow up constantly. I hope it was insured.

 

Oh my God ! The worst fear anyone of us can have. I hope no one was hurt. Also beware of old drop lights. I had a good friend that just about lost all his cars and almost his life when he was checking under his car and the light dropped and started a fire. GET RID OF THOSE TOO.

 

Ouch...

Damn I'm even paranoid with my electric heater.

 

Damn, there have been too many fires lately. Scary stuff.

 

I couldnt have said it better

I lost my Garage and projects and almost my life due to a broken bulb and fumes being ignited by one of those incandecent light bulb "trouble" lights back in 1989..took me a long time to get back to where I am today, and I never completely recovered from it

theres a reason they are called "trouble lights" they are nothing but trouble

use florecent, and flashlights..I will never allow another incandecent light bulb fixure in my shop after what I witnessed..caged or otherwise..its the type of bulb that is the problem, it acts like a fuse, and if the glas globe around the filiment is broken and you have any source of fuel look out!..also if fuel ever spills on the hot incandecent bulb ..Boom!

So sorry to hear of Bud Burke's misfortune, sounds like at least he has insurance, and he didnt get hurt..thats a plus

 

I dunno how he's filing this, but I hope he had the car tagged/reg'd. My insurance agent told me that there's no way to cover car "parts", not even collectible ones like vintage speed stuff and not even whole cars that I take apart for restoration work. He advised me that even if I'm working on something that can't be driven for months/years that if I want it insured against fire/flood/whatever I oughta tag for limited mileage it and get comprehensive insurance. The car insurance will pay out for the fire damage, but he said my home policy won't and there are no riders available for that sort of thing.

Glad he didn't get hurt, and it looks like it didn't burn too hot. Hopefully he gets paid and can salvage a lot of the good stuff.

 

Wow sorry to hear this news with winter coming it's something we all have to be aware of. We want to keep working on our projects so you have to have some heat in the joint for the late night wrenching. I dont know what insurance company he has but I do know Hagerty will cover projects in process for an agreed value. I just sent them pics to up date progress on major steps and they up the amount. I bought it hoping I never have to use it I have 2 running cars with them they are really nice to deal with....

 

I'm about ready to finish the interior of my garage and have been thinking about installing a simple sprinkler system for just this reason. If you don't have to worry about pipes freezing a wet system is easy to install. If freezing is a problem a dry system is still fairly easy and cheap.

 

What kind of heater is best for the garage?

 

The bulb in an old drop light didn't need to be broken. Just a spark from the switch on it could spell disaster. Trust me on this subject.
Yeah, I survived, but barely.

 

Yowser - sorry to hear of such a tragic event.
I just hope no one got hurt (other than someone's pocket - obviously).
Cheers.

 

Damn Sunfighter, how long ago was that?
Hope you are back to normal now.

 

That's good question . The absolute best would seem to be one where the firebox itself were in a fireproof room separate from the garage with only the heated media ( water or air ) entering the garage. Probably not practical for most of us , but safe.

 

I have one of those parabolic electric heaters from Cosctco. IMO they're safer than gas heaters, since you don't also have the carbon monoxide hazard and open flame to contend with.

If you're really paranoid, layer up on clothing.

 

bout 40 years now. Normal???? that would depend on who you ask.
To this day, skin still sheds off my arms at the elbows and cold weather really drives up the pain, but, still better than a dirt nap, right?

 

Glad no one was hurt.

Guys are asking about heater types? I went electric in floor heat. I didn't want any open flames to possibly catch fumes on fire. A secondary for the in floor heat is it doesn't create air movement and stir up dust for when a person is painting.

 

Haha, I do wear a pair of winter bid overalls.

Thanks for the warning on incandescent bulbs. Scary stuff.

 

I have what is called a direct vent propane furnace...

Propane tank is outside...
firebox in the furnace (in the garage) direct vents to the outside...
it has a fan and heats the air in the garage, controlled by a thermostat on the wall, that's all.

 

That*****s bro....

 

Makes ya sick to see these photos,,hope he had builders insurance. HRP

 

Sunfighter and Von Rigg Fink,
Thanks for your posts. As of this evening I am putting my super old Appleton metal trouble-light into retirement. This thing is older than me and has been in several of my garages over the years. It is one of those things that when you put it up, it kind of says "Now, this is my garage." It has always been very faithful but I always felt she had an evil side.

Stan

 

That is really terrible to see. I'm glad he wasn't in the shop at the time to get hurt in the fire though.
The cold weather coming on serves notice that we should check any and all heating sources we have for the garage/shop and make sure that they don't have fuel leaks or other things that need attended to such as having a chimney cleaned or replaced.

I've had one of those 32 led rechargeable lights with a magnet base for years and it's great. No cord, and no burned neck when it lays against the side of my face when I'm under a car working. We have one by the back door that gets used in the house and outside and one in the garage that I use outside. I'm lucky in that I've never had a big fire caused by one of the old style drop lights but I have broken bulbs in every way you can figure out how to break one and have been burned and shocked by them more than once.

One more thing, Carbon Monoxide: It's that season for many of us when we work in a closed up garage for a few months and sometimes even have something laying across the bottoms of the big doors to keep the drafts out. The temptation to bust off the new engine and run it for a few minutes without opening the garage door or without piping the exhaust outside so it doesn't accumulate in the garage. We don't need a thread saying "Hamber's wife finds him in garage dead with his new engine still idling away beside him".