Anyone have or seen a tractor and or car burn up???

JOCCO

Well-known Member
Tractor, car, truck, logging machinery you get the idea. Lets leave out the stored in barn and barn burnt. Yes I have seen it and had some equip catch but got it out with no major damage. Most times it seems electrical or fuel. Years back saw a car at a gas station pump go up that got "harry" pretty quick!!!
 
While on the fire dept saw a quite a few vehicles and a few combines burn. Back in the late 80s if we were called to a vehicle fire, most of the time it was a Ford. Heard they had some sort of a wiring problem. Just so you know, I drive Ford. If it was a combine fire it was a John Deere. Either dust built up on the manifold or a engine rear main seal leaking that cause the fire.
 
I saw a few cars go up in smoke. All had carburetors. The oem metal air filter holders removed and replaced with a chrome ones that exposed the paper filter to the air. Car backfires, sprayed gas on the paper filter and the car went up in smoke real fast.

I saw a car stopped, smoke coming from under the hood. Paint turning black in center of hood. Then the fire kicked in high gear when the hood was opened. Saw that a few times. Never happened to me.

BYW I carry fire extinguisher in car, truck and tractors. Never had to use them. Keep them in the kitchen and garages.
 
I had a New Idea Uni System catch fire in the field one time.
A neighbor lost two combines a year apart. The second time,he was cutting wheat,I was baling straw. I saw smoke over the tree line and thought,"Naw,it couldn't happen again". I got done,went around to bale where he was cutting and there it sat,burned to a crisp,a big burned spot around it. He and another neighbor were standing there still shaking their heads.
 
Not mine, but it did burn a hole in our parking lot at work.
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5 or 6 years ago we were rock climbing near a steep road with a hairpin turn. We were about halfway up the cliff when a car caught fire below. Fumes were bad! We finished quickly and moved back from the top of the cliff to get fresh air. In highschool shop class some guys tuned up the teachers car and the fuel filter was faulty spewing gas on the engine which caught fire just outside the door. Someone grabbed the fire extinguisher in the shop, I went next door to wood shop for another but the one was enough to put it out with no damage. I was told I should not have disrupted the other class and figured heck next time let it burn. Ha ha
 
When on Fire Dept. saw a few cars, tractors and even a dozer. My best was driving down the road 50 mph and the truck I was driving was struck by lightning there were three of us in the truck by the way so it did happen. Blew holes in both front tires blew out both tail light sockets and wiped the computer and I will tell you if I live to over one hunderd I hope to never get that close to lightning ever again.
John
 
Saw a couple on fire when I was a police-beat reporter, and a couple of race cars when I used to photograph the drag races. Lots of smoke.
 
Yikes Sam, what caused that!? :(

I saw the aftermath of a small John Deere mowing the interstate being on fire about 5 years ago. Melted the fuel tank and burnt down to blackened, twisted metal. Left a scorch mark on the side of the road for a long, long time.
 
Somewhere in the seventies I went to a Chevrolet dealership. There was a camaro in the used car lot. Went in asked the salesman about it. He gave me the keys and said go out and start it, I'll be out in a minute. So I went out tried to start it, then I tried again. It started just for a second then back fired. I cranked it one more time. It didn't start. I'm sitting in the car thinking some backyard mechanic has been tweaking on this thing. Then I see the paint on the hood bubbling. I pop the hood, get out, open the hood. The carburetor is on fire, flames. I take my shirt off and smother the fire out. The salesman is walking across the parking lot and says, you didn't have to do that (meaning put the fire out). My shirt was polyester, it melted lol.
 
My Grandpa's (now my) Ford 7000 burned about 30 years ago. Ruled electrical. Battery blew up, melted the drain plug on the fuel filter, and was burning the fuel as it drained. Insurance paid to fix it, and I still have it. My MacDon s/p mower burned last summer. Also electrical. Insurance paid for about 2/3 of repair cost. They just finished it a couple weeks ago, and I need to pay the balance and pick it up.
 
As a long time volunteer fire fighter I have just about seen it all. Off road truck with those huge tires are a challenge.

We once buried a car in sand once. The car on fire had a magnesium engine and when one of the guys stuck a high pressure fog nozzle in the engine compartment there was all kind of fire. At that time our dept. did not have a purple K extinguisher so a truck load of sand was dumped in the road and the car was buried.
 
I had a 1976 Granada (Ford) that had sat for a few months for other issues. One day, I started it to let it run a little, then went in for lunch. Neighbor stopped and pounded on the door. The car was really burning! Checking it out later, the starter drive had stuck meshed with the flywheel and starter was acting like a generator or alternator and back feeding to the battery. The battery cables caught fire, spread to other areas and insurance bought the car.

I have seen several in parking lot or on the road that burned similar. Once a car starts burning, step back and let it burn. If insurance decides to rebuild it, it will never be the same.
 
(quoted from post at 17:35:45 05/22/16) Tractor, car, truck, logging machinery you get the idea. Lets leave out the stored in barn and barn burnt. Yes I have seen it and had some equip catch but got it out with no major damage. Most times it seems electrical or fuel. Years back saw a car at a gas station pump go up that got "harry" pretty quick!!!
emember long ago & far away in America, the days of "Plumes of progress" and before EPA, political correctness and all that? My dad had a huge junk yard & we burned many, intentionally, just to have clean scrap metal & to get rid of tires.
Today is a different time. Maybe a better time, but the totals are not in yet.
 
Saw the results of a round baler fire. 605 Vermeer baler and an 8770 New Holland tractor both destroyed. Not a tire left on either one. The whole outfit looked like the pic. of the 7810 Ray posted. A hot bearing started it. We had a near miss ourselves, SIL spotted a smoking bearing, dumped the bale - fortunately the bale hadn't caught fire, there was some hay dust on the outside, below the hot bearing that did catch. By pure luck, I was close by and had the sprayer tank on the 4 wheeler full (Roundup), cooled it down with that ! Might add that a water fire ext. has been on the tractor since then.
 
Went to several car fires while on VFD. They were always fully involved by the time we got there so containment was the policy.

One time we DID save an 18 wheeler. Somehow the brakes on one of the two drive axles caught fire and/or set the tires on fire. Our guys got it put out. Oh, and it was pulling a fully loaded gasoline tank! The tank had heated enough that it was starting to vent fuel overboard. Fortunately the vent emptied toward the rear of the trailer.

In the 60's the my Grandmother's station wagon caught fire while she was driving. It was a '59 Plymouth. She stopped it and got all the kids out. The car continued to burn then started back up (wires shorting?). Leaving in a hurry, my Grandmother had left it in drive and the car idled across the street and stalled under some pecan trees and burned the trees pretty good before the FD showed up. The tree owner wanted to sue but my Grandparents didn't have any money!
 
I saw two tractors burn in last 3 years. First a big John Deere with about 100 hrs on it. I think it caught from a fuel system problem. About a month ago a neighbor had a big Case articulated 4 wheel drive burn. I don't know what caused this one. I could see the black smoke from 8 miles away. By the time I found where it was the FD had it out. Both were high dollar losses. Tommy
 


Been to several car, truck, tractor and a coupe of combine and baler fires over the years with my fire dept. Seen a lot of car and truck fires as an over the road driver. Brand doesn't matter, they all will burn, most have been from electrical or oil-fuel on exhaust components, some balers and combines from bearing failures.
My 4000SU was burnt when I got it, starter had shorted catching the wiring on fire burning the fuel tank, dash, battery, inj pump, radiator and right front tire. Replaced burnt parts, blasted, prepped and painted the sheet metal, hood has a little bow in it but overall it looks pretty good.
 
Ford in the 70's and early 80's used an alternator that had a harness attached to the alternator that plugged into the car's wiring harness. Those tended to burn, we had two of them in about 15 years, in both cases we got it put out before it became fully involved. My brother was driving a VW bug that I rebuilt when I was about 19, first time I ever did anything like that by myself, let's say there may of been some things done or not done that I wouldn't do anymore. Maybe one of the things I didn't do was lock washers on the carburetor. He complained it was running poorly (I can't use the EXACT words he used as that language isn't allowed in this forum) and wouldn't idle, I looked at it and the carburetor was loose and wobbling around on the manifold. Of course I tightened it up, heck I may of even got some lock washers out of the box of spare parts to put on it. About a week later it caught fire. In a moment of panic he grabbed his new AM/FM/Cassette deck right out of the dashboard and scooped his candy bars out of the glove box and was standing there in the middle of the road holding his radio and his candy bars watching his car burn up. Before to long a few guys come up on him, his radio and his candy bars and his burning car and ask "What's Up?" MY brother explains his car is on fire would they have a fire extinguisher? Their reply nope- but we got BEER! they shook up cans of beer and sprayed them on the engine. Three cans of beer put out the fire (mostly) leaving exactly three cans of beer for three people, hmm wonder where this is going? Well they were about 1/2 done with their beer when someone with a real fire extinguisher shows up and doused it for good measure. Wish they had't used the fire extinguisher as that dry chemical stuff was a pain to clean up. The cause of the fire, the fuel inlet pulled out of the carburetor, maybe from flopping around loose on the manifold for a week or so and of course it kept pumping gas on the engine until it stopped running.
 
sister and nephew where in a 2001 marquis when it got struk by litning running 60mph on 1-65,, the car went dead , struck the battery or rite on the hood above it ? blowed up the battery ,blinded my nephew momentarily but he got on the shoulder safely.. my sister got a strong jolt in her seat,. she refused going to hospital ,, but she mite have been in shock ,. the car was never able to be a dependable car , after numerous repairs that failed the insurance arbitrated a settlement ,.//I HATE FIRES / was baling corn stalks with my n Holland 850 roundbaler when it caught fire , ,the bale was one half when I noticed I was trailing fire,.i kept baling even though one side of bale was clearly on fire , as long as I kept smothering the flame with new stalks I could contain the fire ,when bale was big enuf to safely dump ,I ejected the bale and safely pulled away , as the bale went up like it was made of gasoline , saved my baler and tractor , on a very dry day , .my neighbor lost his 6600 deere to fire , my brother lost his 510 massey combine about a week apart as I recall... when a combine goes, and the hydraulic oil catches fire " that's all she wrote .". very dry fall caused a lot of problems here .. when I was in 3rd grade coming home on school bus,,the fire truck overtook us ,, I remember some bigger kids talking how exciting it was ,, my oldest sister was on the opposite side of bus and said it looked like smoke coming from our farm , or just down from it ,,. and I started praying the prayers I had learned in school.. the bus driver wasted no time making stops, the hi school age Garvey boys and Langs told the driver , " go past our house and get to the fire, we mite be able to help" ,the GARVEYS hollered fire to their grandpa as we went by ,. we got the re to see My Dad , directing the fire dept , to try to keep the tractor tires from burning on his 35 Ferguson,. a spark arced under the gas tank as dad was mowing hay ,.dad tried to stop the fire but the gas tank fumes took off. he said the cap was on but flames were a foot high and he was trying to stop the fire with green hay,before it blew up ,.he burned his hands with some ugly blisters,..
 
This was a Jeep Wrangler passing us on I80 between Lincoln and Omaha Nebraska. I could see a flame under it as they were passing us. I slowed down to speed up that process and opened my window. Yelled at them that they NEEDED to pull over. They barely got out before it became engulfed! Said they had been on a jamboree on a river. Sand must have punctured the tank directly above the exhaust. They were shook up beyond shook up! Each large tire exploded separately. The spare fuel tank went airborne, it seemed to take forever to land on the interstate!

 
I watched a Case 2388 combine burn up some years ago. The intensity of the fire was amazing even on areas with no fuel, oil or rubber, the tires would go off with a bang and sparks would go skyward. The owner said he had a dream the night before of such an event. he also said it was worn out anyway. Knowing him it probably was set. Jewish Lightening strikes again!
 
When I was driving school bus I had a bus fire, although small. It was middle of winter and I had taken a trip to downtown Kansas City. I was driving my favorite bus - an '86 Ford with the 370 and a Blue Bird body. I knew I was about 20 minutes from my pickup so I walked to the back of the bus and checked behind it. When I got to the front I reached down and hit the starter while pumping the pedal with my left foot. It didn't catch so I tried again. It would start and idle but not rev. About that time I smelled something. I knew right away a backfire had caught the air filter. I popped the hood and got the wing nut off the cleaner (with several burns) and got ready. I knew I would have just a second when I lifted the cover off. In one motion I lifted the top cover off and grabbed the filter and threw it over my shoulder. It landed about 10 feet in front of the bus. I grabbed the extinguisher and put it out before anyone could see and call the FD. I finished my route with no air filter and a slightly singed smell in the bus. It might have been the skin on my hands.

I loved that bus, but she sure was cold blooded.
 
When I was quite small I saw a Farmall M burn.

The owner was share cropping corn on our place and had parked it overnight in the covered drive through between the divided corn crib. The sediment bulb was leaking a bit and had dripped gasoline onto the starter and it caught fire when he attempted to start it the next morning.

The owner and my father rolled it outside by pushing on the tire cleats thereby saving the corncrib. It burnt until the gasoline in the tank and the tires were consumed.

The volunteer fire department arrived after the fire was mostly out and sprayed some water on the still smoldering remnants of the tires.

The wood inside the corn crib drive through is charred black to this day.

Dean
 
Seen/heard of several.Uncle lost a 2 year old Gleaner,Electrical short. Another Uncle lost a JD windrower. Oil soaked chaff around the motor caught.When my brother hauled feed,he said a lot of dairys and feedlots had a burned loader/tractor out back.
 
Long years ago I saw a jobber bobtail go up in smoke. He was making a drop at a service station when something ignited his truck. He had the (presence of mind, guts, stupidity--choose one or all) to jump in the bobtail and drive it out from under the canopy of the station, out in the middle of the highway. He left his hose and nozzle in the underground tank.

It made a merry flame. Though everyone was expecting the truck to go up in a huge explosion, it never did, the way they do in the movies. Flames were shooting out of the ports, but it never blew. The local volunteer firefighters ran their hose and a couple of times were working their way to the truck (a pointless exercise) but seems that each time they did, a tire would blow and the volunteers would knock each down running away. In the end they figured out that they had no choice but to let the thing burn out on its own.
 

I've put out several car/truck fires while working as a Trooper. Put out a few of my own too. Haven't lost one yet!
 
A bit off the topic of this thread, but I stopped a near catastrophe some time ago.
A car was stalled under a train trestle about a mile or so from my house. As I was about to pass by, a couple of guys were trying to push the car out of the road. So, I stopped to help. I thought I smelled gasoline. So, when one of them opened the hood to get it running, I saw that the problem was that the fuel line had come off. It was missing a clip. Guy was going to stick the line back on and send the driver (a young girl) on her way. I stepped in, disabled the car (took a wire off) and told her to wait for me. I would be back in a few minutes. I got a replacement for the missing clip and repaired it SAFELY. Had she not been lucky that day, the fuel line would have sprayed gas all over the hot engine and started a good fire going.
 
Usually just see the aftermath, but had a 212 John Deere burn from a backfire and a split fuel line, once had a gas pump catch fire from improper grounding and static. Took two days to turn the seat cushion loose. One I never understood. My wife was driving my 67 Mustang home from work one night and called to tell me it was running terrible. I told her to nurse it home, and call me if it quit. She got home, and the next morning i checked it over. The carb had been unbolted from the intake, the fuel line was undone, and only the tension of the steel line was holding it in the carb. Apparently, someone had tried to steal the carb, but must have been interrupted. It was a 200 six and there was gas everywhere. It had to have been running all over the exhaust manifold when she was driving. Coincidentally, one of her co-workers had an identical Mustang and had ben bugging me because his carb was bad, and he needed one.....
 
I have no luck putting links up, but do a search for "fire fighters in drag put out fire". In 2012 the boys of Sedan made a lot of news clips. Sedan is on #55 near Glenwood MN
 
I hadn't either but when you think about how foamy a shook up beer gets it seems like it would work better than water.....
 
Saw a motor home and several cars. The one that sticks in my mind the most was a mid 60's pick up truck got hit at an intersection and caught fire. This was when the fuel tank was behind the seat inside the cab. The guy driving never made it out. I can still see the guy sitting there burnt up. So sad. The motor home was nothing but a frame left by the time the fire dept got there.
 
These pictures make me think I got by pretty lucky when battery shorted out and blew up on MH44 EFI last weekend.
 
I bought a mini excavator that burned from an electric fire in the fancy electronic instrument panel, once it got going and burned off the fuel line the hoses all had to be replaced etc. It now has real gauges and a master switch I turn off after each use
 
I've seen a few burning along I-70 mostly on the way home from work. They go up pretty fast.
 

Back in the 90's, when we were kids, a friend of mine was chisel plowing with his dad's 1105 Massey. It started on fire and he got out quick. Some quick work with a fire extinguisher saved the tractor. Insurance company said they could fix it or total it. His dad chose to fix. He said for years afterward that he couldn't figure out why he did. I never drove one, but he said they were miserable old dogs to drive.
 
This happened to a buddy about 25-30 years ago. He was hauling a load of beer in a semi. He was just south of the OR-Calif border on hwy 97 when a kid came at him head on in an old ford. The kid had been playing chicken with the previous cars, but didn't pull back for my buddies COE semi. The car went under the cab and stuck. My buddy was stuck in the cab, but managed to get out as the fire started. Nothing he could do for the kid, just heard him scream. They were far enough away from anything that the fire burned all the light metal on the tractor, and burned into the trailer load of beer till the over heated cans of beer burst and finally put out the fire. It took my buddy a long time to be able to drive a truck at night, especially on a 2 lane road.
Tim in OR
 

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