ALMOST BURNED DOWN MY GARAGE!!!!!!

Good to hear everyone's ok. THe last time I did that I was getting the motor in the Coronet drag bag fired up, and I made sure I was outside, and there was another person with me... It backfired once out the carb, but I kept on the starter like was mentioned before... No fire, thank god. And my buddy kept his hair and eyebrows.
Now I pour, put the gas faaar away, and then git in the car and fire it. And the fuel is in one of those DOT plastic 1 gal cans with a small spout, like for snowblowers. More cheap insurance.

Digger

 

Two years ago when I first signed on to the HAMB I posted almost the exact same story.My engine caught fire from a glass fuel filter that broke and sprayed gas into the back of my alternator. Luckily I had a halon extingusher(I don't think they make them anymore )No one was hurt but I shook for an hour afterwards.My garage was only 3 months old at the time and I had the car on blocks so I couldn't have rolled it out even if I wanted to.
A friend had his car catch fire at York last year and if he didn't have an extinguisher with him,he'd have lost the whole car.Fortunately it only singed the cowl and burned up his ignition switch.

 

For priming, forget the dump-gas-down-the-carb routine entirely--just keep a small, cheap pump type oil can clean and handy for this use only. You need only to figure out where your carb bowl is vented and squirt the gas in there--not only is this safer, your engine will be getting some kind of controlled mixture rather than raw gas all over the place. A single squirt or so down the throat is ok in conjunction with filling the bowl, especially if you have no working choke, but no more than that!

 

A couple of years ago, I went by a local chassis dyno shop to watch a friend tune a '55 chevy custom with a BBC engine and EFI. My friend had me track the ignition timing with a timing light while he made a full pull so we could be assured he had the programming correct. About the time I leaned over into the engine bay (no hood on the car)with the engine at full sing, the oil pressure gage hose ruptured and sprayed pressurized engine oil right onto the red hot engine header on the drivers side. I was able to duck when the initial volume of oil made a cloud of smoke, but seconds later the whole engine bay and floor under the car was engulfed in flames. All the people in the room started to scramble for fire extinguishers. The only two in the room turned out to be empty. I grabbed a mop bucket full of nasty mop water and gave it a good bath. I know that water is not the right thing to use to put out an oil fire, but when the alternatives are zero, you use what you have. The fire died, but the flames and the oily mop water really made a hell of a mess on the car.

Lesson here is always make sure your dyno facility has the appropriate safety gear before stapping your ride down. You might regret it later.

 

Sounds like a THEM club meeting!

 

I have had my share of fire accidents and boiling liquids sprayed on me. Glad to hear that both of you are ok. I would gladly pay for a new Dickies Jacket, than a hospital bill.

Jonney

 

Glad you fellas are okay, coulda been a lot worse.

 

well, the damage report.

fryed the wiring harness, burned inner fender well, and just a lot of cleaning to do.

wiring harness no big deal cause i had a brand new Painless wiring waiting to be installed. just glad it wasn't to the new wiring. inner fender spray it with black paint and just clean everything up.

not to bad

 

very accurate recount of what happened.. and thanks for all the comments.

i cannot believe this happened in the first place, very embarassing. iam going to say that in our rush to get it to fire, a lapse in better judgement occured which resulted in a very preventable incident, perhaps if you find yourselves in similar situations, slow down and take a break. low springs just got done talking about his nephew burning his arm while doing the exact same thing... man, iam a maroon. but minus some hair on my arm, iam fine

dante posted this as a reminder to keep an extinguisher that is capable of putting out electrical and chemical fires. have at least a couple on hand, and keep up with their maintenance, very cheap insurance.

blownolds - it happened right after we got off the phone, i was pretty tired, wet and my feet were cold

bruce - advice taken, will be doing that from now on. thanks

 

Thanks for sharing, at risk of looking dumb. It's good to hear others mistakes so you don't have to learn from your own.

 

There are so many ways to kill yourself while working on cars it's amazing any rodders survive long enough to learn any better...
I must have had an army of angels watching over my work when I was younger, cleaning parts in gasoline and working under tottering cars on dirt hills.

 

SCARY!!! I had a friend when I was in high school who burned down his house thanks to hot rods. He was changing out a gas tank and it leaked on the floor as he was under the car. The trail of gas made it to the hot water heater and started a big fire that ate his whole house before they put it out.

BE CAREFUL PEOPLE!

 

you idiots! and I mean that in a nice way . Glad everything is ok though.

 

Glad to hear everyone is o.k.. . . the thrill of firing a motor turns most of us into idiots and makes us take chances.

Here are halon extinguishers

halon extinguishers

 

[ QUOTE ]
you idiots!

[/ QUOTE ]
your right. we where idiots.

thanks everybody for the good words and stories.

 

hey guys ,
glad you are o.k. .....man that is some SCARY SHIT!........

 

Nothing like a fire to get the old heart pumping. I can say that since everyone is OK.

Since it is the time of the year we are working on our hot rods, might be a good time to remind everyong about fire safety when welding on our cars too.

Watching some guys weld in floor pans makes me nerviuos. Most do not even attempt to remove undercoating from under the floor pan before attempting to cut out the old and weld in a new one. Once that rubberized undercoating that was so popluar to cover up the rust catches on fire it is self feeding, as it burns it loosenes the rubber from surounding areas that runs into the fire. Once the thick stuff is burning the fire can follow the trail up to burn a new supply of undercoating. It will continue to burn until it runs out of the rubber or until you stop the flames. The rubber burns hot enough it will ignite anything burable within 2" of the flame. It is really a problem in hidden areas like between two connecting panels or in corners where it was heavily sprayed. Seam sealer will do the same thing. Make sure that rubber undercoating and seam sealer is scrapped off all the old pans in the area you are working in.

Another thing to watch for when welding in floor pans is where your sparks are going. Carpet, old door panels, seam sealer, and old wiring are not good places for hot sparks to stop against.

I was working on a floor pan on a 64 Chevy. All the interior pieces were removed, seats, door panels, carpet, the undercoating was removed, all the factory seam sealer was dug out, the wiring was out of the car, I'm telling you it was empty. I had already replaced three of the four floor pans and was welding in the fourth. I always have a spray water bottle with me when I weld floor pans, saves a lot on the nerves. Anyway, I see a spark roll off the weld area and go up behind the dash, all of a sudden I smell something different. Pop off the helmit and there is an orange glow coming from under the dash! Grab the H2O bottle and really spray the area under the dash maybe 10 seconds. Still glowing! I grab the big fire extingusher (40 lbs dry chem) and fill everything under the dash and inside the car and shop for that matter, with the dry chem. Soon as I know the fire was out I opened the garage door and walked outside for a few minutes for the shit to clear.

Inspection of the aftermath revieled that one spark rolled up the firewall and fell back down into the cardboard glove box. In the glove box was a book of matches that the spark landed on! When the matches lit, it burned part of the glove box and cought the under dash insolstion on fire and that was spreading to the heater duct work (the heater box was out of the car). I ended up pulling the windshield, repainting the entire dash, replace the heater duct work and replacing the glove box and replacing that fire extingusher. All that from one spark in no more then 15 seconds! I don't even want to think about what it would have looked like in another 15 seconds. There are so many guys that simply do not pay attension to where those hot sparks are going, and those sparks from the grinders and cutoff wheels are just as hot as the ones from your welder. Be safe. Gene

 

I got freaked out a few years ago, and found this out:

Most HW stores offer 2 packs of "ABC" type "hosehold size" fire extinguishers for around 30 bucks. I have bought a few...one for the kitchen, a couple for the cars...and I have 3 right now in my 32X32 garage...one is on the welding cart, one is by the door...the other just hangs out when I feel like I should have it close by. $60 bucks might seem steep for 4 fire extinguishers, but it's a small price to pay for all the potential damage that exists in an unexpected fireball.

Why in the cars?

I saw two helpless people over the years standing watching (not too good a move either) as their car went from small flames under the hood to being a total flaming loss. A quick shot at the moment of outbreak would have saved both cars...it simply was taking the FD too long to reach them, and they stood there helpless watching the car burn. I don't like feeling helpless. Both were newer cars by the way, not 40 year old tin with crusty fuel lines...

Another note:

They don't last forever. Check the gauges at least once a year.
Make sure you mentally know EXACTLY WHERE the extinguisher is in the case of panic. Since I placed them in purposeful places, I hope I never have to look to find one...

Glad you are both OK and the damage was minimal.

 

one of the dumb things i survied in a garage was cleaning parts with gasoline (a no no that we all have done) in my garage in the winter with the door closed. the gas hot water heater cycled on and lit the pan of gas on fire. i didn,t panic though i open the door and picked up the burning pan and through it in the snow.

 

Thankfully you survived and learned a good lesson.

Now, lets learn one more....KNOW WHERE your fire extinguisher is and make sure it is by the exit door. Don't ask me why but often they find their way into a back corner of the garage....right where you can't get to them safely and quickly. The exit door is the best bet. I liked the idea of one on the welding cart also.

I saw a 4 car garage go up due to a draft under an exit door that caught alcohol fumes (race car) and led to the woodburner. Not pretty, fire extinguishers were in the corner behind the fire, guys were under the car but survived. Fuel cell was next to the exit door-real bad plan. The fire department came in 12 minutes, everything was junk. There is no price to high for a fire extinguisher.

Thanks

kermit

 

Glad everyone is okay! A guy in my area learned a hard lesson when he had gas spray onto a trouble light,which then shattered,lighting his hot rod on fire,then the shop(containing 4 collector cars),then the house!Add these old style lights to the DANGER list in the shop

 

wow! such an old post. almost down to the date from 2 yrs ago.

well i'm happy to report that everything worked out and i'm still driving the truck everyday. Mike (plan9) is still in good health as well. we still laugh about that day.

 

Yes, an OLD post. But still valid. You can't have too many fire extinguishers. You might think one's enough. And it may be. But what if the fire keeps you from gettin to it? Buy a few, and spread em around. Keep them in plain site in case it's a visitor that spots the fire FIRST while you're on a test drive, or in the shitter, or whatever. He won't know where you keep them

 

I've thought several times about Fire Ext in the garage and car but never seem to spend the dough to get them But i think i just might tomorrow before heading out there. I have done just that thing in the past couple of months and would of hated myself if it would have burned any of my buds that were there. Glad to hear all is OK, cars can be replaced as can a Dickies coat But true friends are far and few between.

 

Co-inky dink, my buddies '96 Siverad blew a tranny coolant line (somebody had cut the line before he bought it and repaired it with a piece of fuel line), Yesterday afternoon. He just happened to be on the cell with me when the white smoke started. He pulled off the side of the road and the trany flued sprayed on the tall dry grass, the cat conv. lit the grass on fire and we spent the day today replacing every wire on the bottom passenger side of the engine... The wires to and a 6 month old oxygen sensor, the wires to the anti-lock brake sensor, the wires to and the anti-knock sensor, and two wires that just got roasted and we didn't even what they went to, and had to bend up all new trans cooler lines. 12 hours later, it lives again.

The only reason the whole truck didn't go up was because he had a 5 gallon bucket in the back and there was a creek next to the road. replacing parts is no fun, replacing a whole car and a garage would really suck.

 

Yes, close call, glad you guys are OK..a few years back at the salvage yard I was cuttin something out of the back of a car, after I was done, I dumped a five-gallon bucket of water on the area, watched it for a couple of minutes and split for lunch.. when I came back everybody was all Dude! you missed all the excitement, damn thing still caught on fire..took out two cars and a few trees....rixrex

 

Me too. Once is all it takes, and sometimes one more than you get.
Remember-gas burns.

 

Here's another tip - NEVER clean the floor of your garage with gas or lacquer thinner if you have a gas water heater in the same garage. The pilot light WILL set it off, and if the heater lights, IT will dang sure light the fumes. If you do this anyway and hear a big WHOOOOSH sound, run fast. I'm just glad the door was up and my kids wern't out there. Fire ain't fun.

 

Have a friend that years ago decided to do some welding right above a 5 gallon can of laquer thinner. Boy that fucked him up and his dads garage. On top of it he was a jehovas witness so he wouldnt take any pain killer or anything. Damn near killed him but he survived. I see him about once a year at the nats north in kzoo and this year he even stopped over on saturday after the show. He looks good. the only way you can tell he was burnt is looking at his hands. Stay safe kids...
Dave

 

My friend Jeff and I have 4 in our shop. Ya never know.........