The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop FIRE IN THE TRUCK

Was welding My Radio face plate Saturday.You should see how fast my old Inner Fire wall cover burnt.I was grabbing it with my welding gloves and throwing it everywere..Scared the s... out of me.Guess I should have bought that Welding Blanket at H.F. My firewall cover was pretty brittle to start with,It is the origanal 55 that was put in,and needed a new one, ..Thats no excuse though,a Fire would have ruined all my NEW wiring..Inexperiance was my problem here..and stupidity...

Same thing happened when I was welding closed the "extra holes" in the firewall of the firetruck. Next thing I know, I smell smoke and need an extinguisher... Lucky for me, the cab had been stripped of everything except the inner floor/firewall material. It burn and smelled so bad, I took it all off after the fire. I'll never forget that experiance.

A little trick i use.... keep an air hose with a airgun close at hand, it will blow a fire out faster then you started it and won't make a mess!

Also for those areas you know you'll have problems, a squirt bottle with water in it,just spray the area down first a little water works wonders!

mark

Now you tell me...

I thought of the squirt bottle Mark..really I did..but I was in such a rush. Every thing was going good, my cuts were good,had the welder fired up,got comfortable in the cab..THEN I CAUGHT ON FIRE//ha ha ha ha ..

come on there has to be some good fire stories out there...

Lately, my job has been to slice and dice some large booms and truck bodies. ( Don't worry, nothin' anybody would want to save.) I do a few things to keep the torch fire to a minimum. One is to assume everything is flammable and WILL catch on fire. Another is to keep a small squirt bottle of water next to me. I also keep aware of all my surroundings / exits and I know where all the fire extinguishers are hanging. Plus, I make sure my mechanic is keeping fire watch while I concentrate on the work. Makes it fun to cook a bunch of old steel!!

Seeing the suggestion on having the air hose handy I say NO WAY. Unrelated but I was welding new quarter panels on an old mustang, had the glass out and headliner rolled up in the back window. We were just about ready to vacate the shop for lunch when noticed a little smoke from inside car. Then a little flame. I got fire exstinguisher off the wall when other guy said no no! just a second! he grabbed the air hose and gave it a quick blast. Yeah baby! Blast of air and we rewally had a fire on our hands. Solved with exstinguisher. Only second time I have had a call for shop fire exstiguisher but sure glad they are there!

keep a fire exstinguisher on the welding cart. they sell welding blankets at harbor freight and they are cheap. here is another way to get a cheap welding blanket,get on craigslist and find someone getting rid of a old worn LEATHER COUCH and cut the covering off and use that same as a welding blanket and usually free! you can also use them to make a panel beaters bag by having 2 pieces sewn together by the local shoe repair guy. just thing you might be the only guy with a blue welding blanket!

Always be sure to disconnect the battery when welding too. Sounds obvious, but can easily be overlooked.