A/Fuel - Fire in the pits

Discussion in 'Pit Buzz' started by Dan Lynch, Nov 2, 2010.

  1. Dan Lynch

    Dan Lynch Member

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  2. Pat McGill

    Pat McGill Member

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    Good question about a scary situation. Didn't another AFD have an issue with fuel leaking into the engine when stored on an angle in the trailer?
     
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  3. Alkydrag

    Alkydrag Sr. Dragster

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    Years back, Darrien had a similar problem at Sonoma. It blew up in the staging lanes when they went to start the car and I think the Toppings had their car blow up in the pits at Pomona.
    At Sonoma, they used to park us on a hill on the road coarse. Everybody was parked uphill or downhill. If I remember right, Meirsch's trailer started to roll. Luckily it was chained to the truck.
     
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    Last edited: Nov 7, 2010
  4. larrymiersch

    larrymiersch Member

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    Thanks!

    I just wanted to get on here and say thanks to everyone who helped out in an unfortunate situation. Special thanks to those who were on the spot such as the teams of Don St. Arnaud, Parkertech, Dejoria/Bastio, Rizzoli, Bart, and the others that were there and offered support. You know who you are..........Thank you!

    I also wanted to thank my team for tremendous clean up. Thanks go to John and Sarah, Jim and the Rizzoli team, my dad, Donnie, Jimmy, both of the Matts, Lefty, Cameron and the girls. Thanks everyone!

    Finally, to the above posts.............If you don't know what you are talking about its best not to comment at all. Time and time again a few certain individuals try to make it into something that it is not..........regardless of the topic. The bottom line is that the same individuals usually have no connection to the event and love to comment on things they have no knowledge of.

    For those who are interested..........we serviced the car, drained the fuel out of the tank and removed the fuel pump off the car. We had plugs in the main lines and started to push the car in the trailer when a little of whatever fuel left in the line pushed out a plug and leaked onto the back door starting a small fire. The fire authorities said that it was probable that static started the issue.

    Other than replacing a couple of cables, a few wires, and having a HUGE mess, everything was ok.
    Thanks again to everyone who helped out!
     
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    Last edited: Nov 9, 2010
  5. Pat McGill

    Pat McGill Member

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    Glad to hear everything and everyone was okay.
     
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  6. ITS IN MY BLOOD

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    First off, Larry I am glad no one was hurt, and sorry for your mishap.....and

    Im not trying to start shit, and this easily could be interpreted that way,...

    BUT,....What really happend ???? Static..??? From what, and how..???

    I have been around 3 different a/fuelers over the years, from leaking fuel, broken parts, filling or pumping nitro, dropping items into nitro, and electricity around the nitro, loading and unloading, I am just asking BECAUSE,..If you did something wrong or an accident occured PLEASE PLEASE share it with the rest of us so we can prevent it from happening to us or anybody else, and that no one ever gets hurt.

    Vic Miller
     
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  7. Darren Smith

    Darren Smith New Member

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    I hope nobody takes this the wrong way, but can you see a Nitro Fire? I heard Nitro like Alcohol in daylight burns practically invisible! And Larry...Did you have to replaced those Mags? looked Torched to me.
     
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  8. NITRO

    NITRO ??

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    One does not really see a nitro fire just
    the air boiling and a large amount of orange air.
    The fire one sees from a T/F or F/C car is burning hydrogen.
    ask Twigg Zeigler (SP) about his incident at Portland
    many years back in the pits..
    Nitro.
     
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  9. matt bynum

    matt bynum New Member

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    Larry really doesnt know what started the fire...thats the truth. I had the pleasure of helping him last weekend at the points race and no the mags were fine, just cables and some air lines were all that got burned up
     
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  10. Darren Smith

    Darren Smith New Member

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    He's lucky!
     
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  11. Dan Lynch

    Dan Lynch Member

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    Thank you for the info Larry. I was curious to know if the apparent cause was known so that it could be shared with other teams so none of them would have to experience this unfortunate accident.
     
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  12. ITS IN MY BLOOD

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    I wonder if ,..with items that were removed,..was anything electronic related removed ??
    Maybe a lead or something might have been hanging down and touching the fuel line or near by, or a fuel line moved to the frame rail and the power switch to the ign/boxes/ecm/coil packs, were on, and got warm/shorting out ???? was a wire lead dragging on the ground as you went up onto the metal tail gate of the trailer..???

    Again,..I am glad no one was hurt.


    Vic
     
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