Tractor fire maybe avoidable

3:19 this AM a fellow fireman decided to push snow with his IH 460 gas. It was being stored in local gas station in the car wash bay overnight where it is warm.

It never leaks gas so there was no reason to shut the fuel off as I always preach. It had leaked gas and as he tried to start it.. ended up he burned the car wash down. Lucky there was a firewall going to the main repair shop / gas station.

Also lucky he never got burned at all.

So everyone who never needs to shut the gas off everytime you let your tractor sit may be best consider taking the time to shut it off anyway.

On a related note when building your sheds remember to use a fire wall in the attic. And unless you have nothing but skinny men on your fire department, perhaps a acess hole bigger than 2 ft x 2 ft.

I always shut the gas off on our tractors that have the tank higher than the carburetor. Them ole IH 6 cylinders are known for spittin and sputteren when they first start up.

How many millions of tractor have been built and used in the last 80 or so yrs without shutting off gas and starting a fire. You mean that the operator didnt see or smell gas before he started the tractor its sure not the tractors fault bad operator.

I always shut the fuel off on my tractors. Also I never park them in gear on a hill.

I believe that this sort of caution applies to many things in life. It's really the same as why wear seat belts? I drive safely. Or why wear a life preserver? I'm going for only a short boat ride. But don't worry about a 2'x2' attic access. that's why us firefighters practice taking off our airpacks and pushing them ahead through tight places.

a family friend of ours was out bushhoging and a hydraulic line busted sprayed the fluid on the hot exhuast manifold and sent him to the burn unit in critcal condition for several months.its just a reminder that they are flamable fluids other than gas .

gene: Couldn't agree more, wonder how many smokes he had during start up.

It depends, I know tractors that won't leak a drop until you shut the fuel off. I reckon nothing beats a good pre-operational check whether you shut the gas off or not. Sam

not just gas a few yrs. back i had my 504 farmall diesel start by itself in gear it was one of those really damp misty laste fall days my old buddy looked up saw it going across the pasture him and one of the hands chased it down the only thing we came up with that the dampness caused a short on the solenoid needless to say i never leave one in gear and leave the fuel in the off position

Fire is my worst nightmare. I have lost way too much from it. Lost a barn and my better than new 66 Chevy pickup in 1995. Was of unknown origin, but arson suspected. After that, my mom's 861 Ford Powermaster "burped" while shredding sunflowers and other way too tall weeds down by the farm pond. It was running WAY hot but thought I could finish the last round and hurry back to the house to cool it off. WRONG, it backfired and was in flames. Had enough sense to open the hood, so only suffered sheet metal and wiring damage. A trusted neighbor stores and uses that tractor for his needs, and did fix the fire damage except sheet metal. Couple years later was back at my mom's up in yard mowing steep grader ditch, not working it hard at all, and it lit up again. Was only about 150 yards from the frost free hydrant, popped the hood again and BACKED it up to the water.Fire blows right in your face going forward. We figured out that the BOTTOM of the gas tank had a pinhole in it dripping gas on the manifold. FAST FORWARD to Valentines day 2008. Mom is dead, farmhouse is vacant but not empty. LOTS of antiques left, took a 24 ft livestock trailer load of "junk" out of it and rest was stacked ceiling high in the back three rooms, nothing newer than 1930 or so as one of my cousins who is also a fireman was able to get close enough in to see a little of what was burning in the back rooms. He could not save any, but says he did see the tin type photos burn, along with my mom's report cards and maybe some of mine. Real hard to see what is turning to ashes while you are waiting for more water from town. METH heads suspected by local fire department first on scene as kitchen wall was blown out and high flames from cook stove. LPG was shut off since mom died. LPG was on full when FD arrived, lock was gone. County Sheriff is buddy with the drug dealers, won't give any answers as to even who called it in. DOUG

Yea, check out these folks. Parked a new tractor on a hill, no brake on, loader lifted. Are they for real?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3hQ2bZ4dFk&NR=1

Wayne
Untitled URL Link

We were the fortunate ones brought a K gas gleaner in one winter night for some upgrade work in the repair shop came in the next morning the smell of gasoline would knock you down walked in to the shop area and the whole floor was covered in gas with a torpedo heater set on thermostat setting right in the middle of it running full bore you talk about peeing your pants I gingerly walked over to the breaker and turned off the heater and went outside and puked. Someone was looking out for us that day.

I've always been a big guy, but many years ago and many sizes smaller we had an attic fire one night (lightning strike IIRC).

It would've been my first fire with me on the nozzle in the lead.

Went in the house, instantly sized up where the attic access would be, opened the closet door, climbed up on the washer and dryer, popped open the scuttle...

And my heart dropped.

Couldn't have been more the 15 inches wide, and myself and my old Scott IIA airpack had no shot in heck of getting up in there.

We eventually had someone who could poke their head and shoulders through handle the nozzle.

What sparked the blaze. Too high of a concentration of fumes in the building, or gas dripping on the distributor or what? To get enough fumes to blow I would think there would have to be a sizable leak, though a small car wash could be tight enough to hold fumes in I suppose.

Personally, I almost never turn off the gas because I'm in too big of a hurry to take A few seconds to give the shutoff a twist.
The tractors are stored in drafty sheds with dirt floors so I would think there would have to be quite a sizable leak to get a high enough concentration of fumes to be real dangerous. Jim

I remember clearly, back in '76 when I was doing just over 100 down a short length of new motorway. Suddenly a strong smell of petrol fumes. Switched off ignition and bailed out as soon as car stopped. There were fumes rising from the engine bay and I peaked under the bonnet. Still petrol sizzling on the manifolding and head. We were lucky, very lucky. The metal pipe fixed into the carburettor had come away. it demonstrated the need for a spark to set petrol ablaze, the way it was boiling under the bonnet. Brake fluid would have burst into flames in that situation, by the way. Modern day unleaded will probably ignite in those conditions as well.

Regards, RAB

The thought of losing 15 bucks worth of new oil I just put in makes me shut the gas off every time.

more money than brains

NE IA, If you still have that front blade for a Ford tractor, email me. Thank you

We had a 560 diesel, you could walk past it with an ice cream cone on the 4th of July and it wouldn't start, but one morning went out to do chores and the darn thing had started itself and was running in the shed. Fortunately it was in neutral when parked. Solenoid shorted out.

Boy I don't know why I never thought to post a message that my computer burst and I lost all record of promises I have made. I will certianly contact you, but I havent done the E-mail thing in five to six years. My phone number is 563-964-2670 (also fax) and cell is 563-880-4018 do not leave a message on cell, I will return your call as soon as I dig it out from under a dozen layers of clothing.

He told me it backfired through the carb. However he has very limited mechanical abilities, so the carb could be a battery would be my guess, or even a fender.

I rebuild carbs, and have mentioned to him more than once to be sure to shut off the gas because of rust and the new type of gas we get. His coments were just like some of those that were replied to on this post. All I could respond back was WHAT EVER... I never would have mentioned it to him, but last night he reminded me how often I had warned him....I never rubbed it in, just reasured him that all would be ok.

In say your case, how far are you from a fire department? Do you have a full time staff in your department? If it is a volenteer department what would be the responce time on a good day? What else could you loose once the tires catch fire? Do you have good fire coverage...or do you THINK maybe you do? How much deductable is on your insurance. Add all those factors up, then go shut the gas off.

And for those who play the game, and brag of it, well then they could probably assume that in Russian Roulete, that there is only one out of six chances also.

By the way, this guy only has home owners insurance with $100,000.00 coverage. He will probably be ok as his and the gas station have the same company. That being said I wonder what could have been the outcome if the whole station was to have burned? It was reported that we had zero water 15 hrs prior to the fire due to a freeze up of a valve. My water spit the evening before, but I had no idea why. Talk about Law suites??? As some may not know that Iowa has a cold season, and Sat morning is one of those mornings that a brass monkey should stay in where it is warm.

My post was not intended to inform the ones who already have the answers, or disagree, but there are some younger ones that could become avoidable victums. Alot of the older croud has had more oil in the motor, and it's real thin. Or a clunking motor noise in a tractor because of a avoidable problem. More is at stake than the paint coming off the carb of a new paint job.

My friend and I had identical 1956 Ford sedans. The carburetor sat up on top of the engine and had what seemed like a good idea, at least from a troubleshooting standpoint. Half of the carb float chamber was transparent. Some sort of plastic. One day my friend was driving merrily along and noticed a small black spot about the size of a dime on the hood. He thought nothing about it and noticed a little while later that the black spot was about the size of a quarter. He cotinued on until seeing the black spot growing at an alarming rate and billows of smoke coming out from under and behind his car. Luckily, he was able to stop and get out of it before the engine compartment erupted in flames. I thought about that for many years and routinely checked my carb for leaks but it never happened to me.

Good One. I thought I did stupid things. Now I don't feel bad at all!

Good One. I thought I did stupid things. Now I don't feel bad at all!

(quoted from post at 16:54:45 12/06/08)

On a related note when building your sheds remember to use a fire wall in the attic. And unless you have nothing but skinny men on your fire department, perhaps a acess hole bigger than 2 ft x 2 ft.

Click to expand...

No kidding! Nothing like an attic access you can't get through. And I really HATE pulling ceilings! Sometimes there's just no other choice.

We've been having a bad string of vehicle fires inside shops / garages lately. The strangest was a couple years ago when they had a car up on a lift that started on fire, then couldn't get the lift down!

I went past there yesterday and wondered the story. Now I know. Thanks for the post.