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  • My Work Truck Caught On Fire

    I'm home now. Outside the house is an old beater Explorer with all my gear from my usual truck thrown inside. Everything I have that I can reasonably run through the washing machine is either in it or staged to go in order to rid myself of the smoke smell. It was a hell of a night.

    I'm a tv news photog in DC. I often get assigned to use our 'live' microwave trucks or satellite trucks, and the oldest of these, Unit 5 is my take home truck.

    Around 7:15pm I was driving my venerable old friend Unit 5, a 1999 GMC Suburban live truck on Rock Creek Parkway past the Kennedy Center in DC when I began to smell smoke. I turned on the cabin lights to see an alarming amount of smoke filling the cabin. I slammed on the brakes, threw it into park, hit the strobes and bailed out.

    As I exited I saw flames behind the driver's seat. I ran around back, pulled a little gear out then went up to the driver's rear door (which accesses the live unit's rack rear) and opened it. Apparently an electrical short had caught my winter parka and raincoat on fire. I pulled them out and with that most of the fuel of the fire was removed. I swatted the burning wires a few times with my left fist and the burning wires went out.

    The DCFD arrived and put out my pile of flaming coats fusing themselves to the asphalt. US Park Police did a report then I drove the truck back to the shop. It will be fine, just needs the racks rewired, which will probably take about a week.

    After that I was sent out in another truck to go finish the story I had originally been sent on. It occurred to me later that we had narrowly avoided disaster, as there had been talk of shifting me over to another more capable vehicle earlier in the evening. If so the truck would have shorted out in the garage, and may very well have seriously damaged other vehicles or even the station. After all the Suburban sports a 44 gallon perpetually filled fuel tank, and a lot of gear, and it would have become quite involved before anyone noticed or the sprinklers kicked in.

    So now I'm home, coughing a bit from the smoke and generally feeling crappy. Probably shut down soon and try to get some rest. I hope tomorrow is a quieter day.
    "Announcing your intentions is a good way to hear God laugh." Al Swearingen (Deadwood)

  • #2
    Glad you're safe and (relatively) unharmed. Good job reacting to the situation when you saw the fire and limiting the damage so well. The only thing I'd advise though is...

    don't try to put out electrical fires with your bare hands. The flames are bad enough, touching anything that might carry an electrical charge is even worse, with bonus points when its surrounded by fire.

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    • #3
      Holy crap!!! That had to be terrifying. The last time I inhaled a car fire smoke, my lungs kinda aches for a few days - make sure you take care of yourself.

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      • #4
        holy crud! Glad you're okay!! D:
        By popular request....I am now officially the Enemy of Normalcy.

        "What is unobtainium? To Seraph, it's a normal client. :P" -- Observant Friend

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        • #5
          Wow, instead of filming the news you almost became the news!
          This was one of those times where my mouth says "have a nice day" but my brain says "go step on a Lego". - RegisterAce
          I can't make something magically appear to fulfill all your hopes and dreams. Believe me, if I could I'd be the first person I'd help. - Trixie

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          • #6
            Quoth RealUnimportant View Post
            Wow, instead of filming the news you almost became the news!
            You did get some footage, didn't you ?
            Good thing you were fast.

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            • #7
              Glad to hear you are OK.

              Just one question:
              Where was the Class C fire extinguisher that a vehicle like that should carry?
              Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
              Save the Ales!
              Toys for Tots at Rooster's Cafe

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              • #8
                Yikes!!! So glad you're OK!

                Once I thought my car was on fire. I had about a 45 minute commute to work from home at the time and I took the interstate. About 10 mins or so into the trip I noticed thick white smoke coming from the back of the car. I totally freaked...fortunately there was a rest stop (no facilities and closed for a long time now) close by so I pulled in there, got the hell out of the car and frantically tried to find someone who was awake (truckers sleeping, etc). to ask for help. Turns out my car wasn't on fire, but there was a large plug on the side of the engine block that had just come right off (I think it was still tethered??) and oil was pouring out and burning off. This was before most people had "car phones" *snicker*, and I finally got a passing cop to pull over and call the tow truck for me.

                IIRC the same thing happened again a while later...still don't know WTF happened. No wonder that engine ended up blowing the head gasket...I loved that car
                "I was only LOOKING, I didn't mean to enter my card's CVV and actually ORDER! REFUND ME RIGHT NOW!!"

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                • #9
                  Glad to hear you werent the nightly news.

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                  • #10
                    Updates to the situation, good and bad:

                    Most of the damage was relegated to audio and video cables with just a few electrical wires and 2 power strips. Though they could probably rewire it in 2 days they are going to overhaul the truck right, fix a lot of defects that have plagued the truck for years and upgrade it to a better truck. Estimated downtime 3 weeks. I'm cool with that.

                    It's worth noting the circuit that was on was protected by both a circuit breaker and a ground fault breaker, making the fire even more questionable. Have no idea why it started.

                    There is a big fire extinguisher under the driver's seat, however had I used it the ammonium phosphate would have destroyed $50k worth of live gear: transmitter, inverter, switcher, etc. Extinguisher would have been last resort.

                    On the downside I have the director of engineering making noises as if to assign me blame. Normally I wouldn't sweat such a thing, but he laid off a good friend of mine in the maintenance department two months ago for purely vindictive reasons, so I question his integrity. Chances are real good she will get her job back, and I have my union reps alerted to my situation, but it's all just a problem that I don't want to deal with.

                    Oh and yes, once it was apparent the truck was safe and there was a pile of flaming jackets in the street I did videotape it. How could I not? The part where Engine 23 comes rolling up lights & sirens, blocking the road and hosing down my bonfire was funny as hell.
                    "Announcing your intentions is a good way to hear God laugh." Al Swearingen (Deadwood)

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                    • #11
                      So glad to hear that you're okay.

                      Keep us updated, please.
                      Labor boards have info on local laws for free
                      HR believes the first person in the door
                      Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
                      Document everything
                      CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

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                      • #12
                        Update: 8 weeks later truck still not repaired. Parts have been ordered but I am not holding my breath.

                        The cough turned out to be a cold not smoke inhalation.

                        Oh, and here's the video I shot.
                        "Announcing your intentions is a good way to hear God laugh." Al Swearingen (Deadwood)

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                        • #13
                          You are a Pro Paid Voyeur! It shows in the video.

                          That was fun to watch, the big truck blocking the road and then the huge hose hosing down the little bonfire. But firefighters tend to be rather safe than sorry.

                          Oh my, you have been lucky, that could have ended worse.
                          No trees were killed in the posting of this message.

                          However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth Hanzoku View Post
                            Glad you're safe and (relatively) unharmed. Good job reacting to the situation when you saw the fire and limiting the damage so well. The only thing I'd advise though is...

                            don't try to put out electrical fires with your bare hands. The flames are bad enough, touching anything that might carry an electrical charge is even worse, with bonus points when its surrounded by fire.
                            Equipment in the back of a truck that's turned off is unlikely to have a dangerous level of AC running through it.

                            Electrical equipment wired up to mains - that's a whole different kettle of fish.

                            2gigch1, I'm glad the only thing wrong is the unwholesome fragrance and mood.

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                            • #15
                              Not to mention the nasty chemicals an electrical fire puts into the air - you are very lucky you didn't get some nasty exposure that stuck!

                              [cute geese]
                              EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

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