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Anyome a suggestion how go quickly open the bonnet when there is a fire caused by E5 or do?

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Oh no that’s awful. 

Bonnet Louvres 

race style bonnet pins

plumbed in fire extinguishers 

tom P did all of this after his fire when a race approved hand held fire extinguisher wasn’t enough on the road trip. 

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If you ever have an underbonnet fire, the Fire Brigade and Rescue Crew advice is DO NOT OPEN THE BONNET!!

The Fire Triangle is of Fuel, Ignition and Oxygen.   Open the bonnet, and oxygen is made more available.     Fire an extinguisher through the radiator grille, and if you must, open the bonnet a crack, and fire it through that.

Otherwise, make sure everybody is out, AND MOVE WELL CLEAR OF THE VEHICLE.     Keep clear!    Not only fuel.tanks but tyres can explode.  

Cars can be replaced, people cannot!

 

Carry a fire extinguisher, or at least 2kgs size.    The FireStick device seems impressive and is lighter and smaller, but I've no exoerience!

John

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That is truly sad to see a TR go this way, not least for the anguish to the owner.

I would second John on not opening the bonnet. I had such an experience on the way back from Bath. On the A27 near Fishbourne I was driving a V6 Renault Espace back from holiday with all my family on board when all the dash lights went out, the engine cut and there was a strong smell of burning wiring and plastic inside the vehicle. I pulled up on the grass on a roundabout and the vehicle was soon in flames. People were very helpful, but I lost count of the number offering to open the bonnet and put the fire out, all of which I declined. 

Then another car pulled up after all 6 of us had been standing on the roundabout for about 30 minutes, and the female passenger said ‘ would you like us to get you all a Macdonalds’? I said yes to that one! It’s nice to know there are still some good kind people around.

Kevin

Edited by boxofbits
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I would think Gert could retain the car from the insurers (assuming you can in the Netherlands) and use the insurance money to rebuild it. Problem with fire is distortion of panels which is often worse than accident damage, but being a convertible there is no roof and pillars to distort, though I should think the bonnet and front panel are gone.

Great pity Gert and hope you’re okay.

Kevin

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That picture has done the rounds for a while, its from the US a few years ago. Apparently due to old rubber hoses.

Stuart.

Edited by stuart
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Horrible, another one. I debated about including the TR3 (US) fire in my article about Ethanol in TRA earlier this year as I did not want to set a rabbit running without statistics.

We were behind a TR2 that caught fire in Belgium in 2019. All very scary and it took two fire extinguishers to kill the fire, squirted in through the rad duct before opening the bonnet. A double edged sword, as John said above, need to starve the fire of oxygen but need to get in there with an extinguisher. However, there is not so much fuel under the bonnet unless you have a complete hose disconnect (and an electric hi performance pump), but once the wiring catches it's impossible to extinguish without a fire engine or opening the bonnet. Run away is the right thing to do but if it were my car....

I'd really like to know what this root cause was, how did fuel escape - which joint failed? (It was a fibre washer on the TR2 in our convoy) Really appreciate any details that we could use to reinforce the need to change hoses/seals and fit decent pipe clips. Of course escaping fuel is only a third of a cause, something ignited it and understanding what may also help in building advice. We think the TR2 ignition was the alternator - they are not sealed and sparking inside is possible from the slip rings. 

Do hope every one was safe and that the TR is repairable.  

MJ

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