Fire Safety and your Truck

[Cummins Thunder]

Here is a little reminder to be Extremely careful when altering your vehicle.

Always carry more fire extinguisher than you think you will need. I also carry side cutters and a 1/2" wrench in my truck at all times. Never know when that electrical gremlin is gonna show its face.

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I recently had something similar happen in my dually. But I never let it get that far. Some insulation fell onto the twins hot pipe and started smoldering. Scared the hell outa me!!! I was able to punch a hole in my water bottle and cool it down.



And before yall start at me... I am aware that this looks like insurance fraud. But it drives the point home (for me anyway) to be careful. Makes me sick seeing a decent vehicle go up in smoke.



Be safe yall!

 

[JacobsD]

I keep an extinguisher behind my seat incase of something serious. Never had to use it yet, knock on wood, but its there and ready in case of something.

 

[DBentley]

I have a pair of thick leather work gloves in the door pocket just in case. I figure they may come in handy in a fire.

 

[PSU-CE]

Earlier in the month I was at a truck pull where my brother was pulling in the street class. We were in the pits, which were located around the outside of the hore track. A beautiful '79 Ford modified gas truck came off the track after full pulling and was proceeding back around to get in the pull-off. When he got in front of us he had to pull over to let a truck and trailer get out the gate. When he pulled over I noticed some smoke coming off the truck. At first I didn't think too much since he had just pulled, but when he stopped the smoke got more intense. I've known the guy and pulled against him for the past few years so I went over to see if he needed any help. He popped the hood and noticed that his battery cable had gotten pinched in the hood latch. When it pinched the cable, it grounded through his braided stainless brake cable and caught fire. He pulled out his fire extinguisher but it wasn't enough to put it out. I ran over to the truck that was leaving and asked if he had one. He grabbed the one out of the truck on his trailer and I ran back over to the truck and began to hit the flames on the brake line. Every time I hit them, they would go out and then relight (from the heat I assume). Eventually the extinguisher ran out and it kept flaming. I ran over to my brother's truck, grabbed a sweatshirt, ran back and crawled under the truck and wrapped it around the brake line putting out the fire. My brother at this point also grabbed a sweatshirt and joined me under the truck. Afterwards I realized I was covered in the melting undercoating, but not burned. My girlfriend said she couldn't believe what I had just done and said I was crazy. I told her I've been pulling for 8 years and I know what it's like when something goes wrong. I could only hope that if something would happen to me, that somebody would be there to get my back.



If you're wondering, yes I knew where his fuel tank was (wasn't sure on fuel lines though) and he was able to disconnect his batteries. After I got cleaned up I walked over and gave him the shirt as a momento. After he got calmed down he was very appreciative for my help. I told him no problem and this sweatshirt was on the house, but he has to replace the next one!