Ralph Hayes Toyota comes through again

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Southeast Overland

Southeast Overland

Get lost! Go explore!
Joined
Dec 1, 2006
Threads
262
Messages
8,571
Location
SC
Website
www.southeastoverland.com
Stopped into RHT this morning to meet with Greg Freeman - the service mgr. I have a very, VERY minor fender bulge on my FJC driver's side and my radio has been on the fritz. He took a quick look at each and documented everything. A new radio is on the way and I have a note in my service history about the fender bulges so hopefully if they get worse I can get it covered under warranty later.

And on the way home I found out I need a bigger fire extinguisher. A lady had an electircal fire in her minivan. A volunteer fireman who just happened to be driving by drug her out of the van (she was paralyzed from the waist down) and I exhausted both of my extinguishers on the fire in her engine compartment. A few others came by with their extinuishers and I think we went through about 5 total but they weren't enough. Unfortunately it took the volunteer fire dept about two minutes extra to respond after our extinguishers ran out. Her van is totaled b/c the fire burnt the entire engine compartment and got up into the A-pillar and roof a bit but her wheelchair ramp hardware should be OK except some of the wiring.

I have some pics on my phone but need to figure out how to post them.

It also amazes me how people can fly by a vehicle fire so fast and close in their cars that I literally have to get out of the way and stop using my extinguisher so I don't get hit...but I digress.

:cheers:
 
Good to hear about RHT. Can't complain about that at all...

As for the fire, glad to hear that you were able to help out. I need to work on getting extinguishers in all my rigs. Glad to hear that no one was hurt. You might try sending your pics to your email address. That should put them on your computer and that'll allow you to post up.
 
My cell phone is old school - I think I can only send to other cell phones and not an email address. I'm behind the times...

I'm looking at new fire extinguishers now. Looks like I can get a metal 5lb extinguisher for about $60. Hopefully it will be rechargable. I'm going to run by a commercial fire supply business and see what they have.
 
I posted this in the blue room a while ago:

I pumped a 2.5 pounder at a car fire and was equally disenchanted with the results. It lasted about 5-6 seconds. I spoke with our safety director here at work and he said that when you have a hot engine and a fuel leak or oil leak, just to leave it alone. Not unless you have a constant stream of foam(to smother) or water(to cool engine), your just pissing in a hurricane.

Even if it goes out for a few seconds it will likely restart from all the ingredients being 190 degrees.

Use the handheld extinguishers to enable passengers/drivers to get out safely and wait for the FD to show up to put the engine out.

But I did upgrade to a 5 pounder and mounted it just inside the rear gate on the d-pillar using quick-fist extremes.
 
BMThiker said:
I posted this in the blue room a while ago:

I pumped a 2.5 pounder at a car fire and was equally disenchanted with the results. It lasted about 5-6 seconds. I spoke with our safety director here at work and he said that when you have a hot engine and a fuel leak or oil leak, just to leave it alone. Not unless you have a constant stream of foam(to smother) or water(to cool engine), your just pissing in a hurricane.

Even if it goes out for a few seconds it will likely restart from all the ingredients being 190 degrees.

Use the handheld extinguishers to enable passengers/drivers to get out safely and wait for the FD to show up to put the engine out.

But I did upgrade to a 5 pounder and mounted it just inside the rear gate on the d-pillar using quick-fist extremes.
Click to expand...

I saw how you had yours mounted and I think that is how I am going to go.

My hope in this situation was to keep the fire at bay until the FD arrived...which was working until everyone ran out of juice. Yup, Juice ran out of juice.

The fire did keep reigniting. I was happy that we were able to keep the fire down enough to save the woman's wheelchair ramp. Some wiring might have been damaged but the fire did not get into the rear of the van.

I did probably get about a minute or more out of a very small extinguisher but I was shooting in spurts and had another guy shooting also... Now the little, itty bitty white extinguisher that I kept in the suicide door only lasted about 15 seconds shooting spurts. I'll get another one of those though just b/c it fits nicely in the suicide door cup holder.
 
Sounds like it's time to upgrade my extinguisher also based on what you guys said.
Good job Steve, you did your good turn for the day:clap:
 
X2. Thanks for exercising your good guy muscles.
b
 
Steve
If you want you can send the pics to my cell and i can email them back to you from there.

Dave
 
Here are two pics of the vehicle fire thanks to some help from Dave aka: 90FJ62.

This is after a couple of us had worked for several minutes to keep the fire down. You can see the chemical from the fire extinguishers on the ground. The fire was probably left alone for a minute or so to get to this point and a few seconds later the fire came out of the A-pillar and roof line above the driver's door. It was amazing how fast the fire spread when we were not trying to put it out. You can also clearly see the wheelchair ramp on the side of the van.
fire2.jpg


This is after the firemen had been putting water on the fire for awhile. They had a time getting the hood open since it was crumpled in the wreck. B/c of that they couldn't get much water to the fire at the beginning. You can also see a couple of our empty fire extinguishers on the ground by the edge of the road.
fire1.jpg


The first picture was a little ironic - a Ford van burning in front of a Ford dealership. At least I think that is a Ford...
 
Nice pics! Car fires are scary. BTW, that's a Dodge Caravan, likely 1996-2000 model... Yep, I'm a car nerd.
 
Carp said:
Yep, I'm a car nerd.
Click to expand...

Seriously, dude...

So considering all this "be prepared" stuff (and I am, admittedly, the least prepared Boy Scout ever), would someone help me find all the "stuff you should have in your truck" threads? I know I've seen them all over MUD, but I can't seem to find them now.

Thanks!
 
I assume you will be at the Annual Mtg - we can hash it out there over a couple of beers!

boombapslappy said:
Seriously, dude...

So considering all this "be prepared" stuff (and I am, admittedly, the least prepared Boy Scout ever), would someone help me find all the "stuff you should have in your truck" threads? I know I've seen them all over MUD, but I can't seem to find them now.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
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