Thread: Death of a P38

G'day Steve,

Sorry to read of the loss of your vehicle. There was some luck involved within the misfortune in that you could find a spot on a busy road where you could get safely out of the way from traffic.

Kind Regards
Lionel

Steve, I'm glad to hear that you weren't hurt being heroic, because that quite often happens. I hope your search for a replacement is fruitful.


Cheers


Pete

When I was in Dept Civil aviation a looong time ago, I was taught that foam was the only way to put out fires like that by smothering and cutting off oxygen. All airport fire trucks have lots of foam available.

They had no chance with water.

One would think that the powers that be would issue some foam to the CFAs that are near expressways , or can't the pumps mix it in?

Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

When I was in Dept Civil aviation a looong time ago, I was taught that foam was the only way to put out fires like that by smothering and cutting off oxygen. All airport fire trucks have lots of foam available.

They had no chance with water.

One would think that the powers that be would issue some foam to the CFAs that are near expressways , or can't the pumps mix it in?

Regards Philip A

Philip

They used foam as well as a 9KG powder extinguisher and an entire truck full of water which they had to refill to keep going. So they emptied a lot of water on it.

Maybe they ran out of foam, but they are well equipped and experienced, they say they deal with about one fire a week on that stretch of the M1 alone.

They also said this was by far the hardest fire to put out they had ever attended

Steve

Steve, sorry to read about your loss. My guess is that your fuel pump relief valve was sticking and so when operating on LPG it overpressured the fuel rail. Because you can't see the horrible little plastic fuel line and connector behind the manifold you'd never spot a slight leak in advance. It would them spray fuel all over the coil packs leading to a fairly rapid demise. On petrol you likely wouldn't have much chance to build up enough pressure to leak that bad.

Buy a GEMS one next time, engine access is loads better for servicing and inspection...

The ferocity of the fire and the fact that there were no blue flames from the LPG lead me to think it was a fuel fire, so this may well be what happened.

I am certainly looking at GEMS, especially now that we seem to have busted the myth that they are less reliable

Steve

Sorry to hear about your RR mate. Bloody scary seeing vehicles go up.

LPG tanks are safer than petrol. I dont have an issue with them in both my Disco's - the D2 inside and the D1 outside.

Cheers