Fords, Flesh and Fire don't mix

I got this email from a friend of mine today. I wanted to pass it on to you guys in hopes of possibly saving a life one day. Please read:

We had a little disaster today.

Around 3PM I went over to return some tools I had borrowed from a friend. He was standing in the doorway to his garage. He shouted down to me at the street, "your about ten-minutes to late, I just about burned the garage to the ground." About then I noticed the smell all the way out at the street. It was not the pleasant smell you get from a fire place but that really bad smell of a charred automobile.

His super nice original '40 Ford convertible has an auxiliary electric fuel pump mounted back by the tank. About a month ago my buddy took it for a ride up the street and it quit running. He coasted back down the street and the car started after sitting for a long time, it barely made it back into the garage under it's own power.

I guess he decided that the electric fuel pump was not working. He disconnected the battery before starting to work on it. Then he slid under the car on a creeper with one of those trouble lights with the incandescent million degree 60W bulbs. When he pulled the fuel line it either dripped onto the bulb or he dropped the bulb and broke it and it went up in flames. I'm guessing that the fuel line continued siphoning fuel out of the tank. He grabbed a garden hose which just pushed the fire around instead of putting it out. Eventually he did get the fire out with the hose. There were three full fire extinguishers sitting twenty-feet away that would have done a better job.

He was just starting to clean up when I got there. The garage had about a 1/2 inch of water standing on the floor, it's a big garage, 2500 sf down stairs and another 2500 sf upstairs for parts storage.) There were boxes of new parts for the other '40 convertible that were getting soaked. I started moving parts and sweeping water out. Then Harber showed me his hands. One hand had several blisters the size of half dollars and the other had a loose chunk of skin a couple of inches long that was just falling off. I told him you need to get to urgent care before it gets infected. He said, "do you really think it's that bad," I said, I'll drive you there lets go. He refused, then his wife came home and he refused to let her drive him. I told him I'll clean up this mess and lock the shop up. The '40 is not hurt to bad don't worry about it will be fine, get your ass down to urgent care. I finally got him to go.

I spent three-hours cleaning the shop out, sweeping all the water out, except for under the '32 3-window because it's so low a push broom would not go under it. I kind a chuckled when the broom wound not clear the running board. The ceiling has a lot of soot on it. I'm not sure if it will come off, it's a mess.

Harber's wife just called. Brian, his son went down to urgent care in Highland to check on him. His truck was there but Brian could not find him. He finally found out that Harber was transferred to Arrowhead Regional Hospital's burn unit, I imagine by ambulance. I wasn't sure how bad he was but I had a hunch it wasn't good. I should have taken him! I just looked at those big blisters sticking up a 1/2 inch and thought to myself god is that going to hurt when those suckers pop open! Harber is either 77 or 78, he's a tuff old dude. He was almost in tears over the '40. I felt so bad for him.

We had several of those old trouble lights at work and I begged for them to get rid of those lights and get the new sealed florescent ones. I kept being told they were Osha approved and besides they were cheaper than the fluorescents. I finally just ordered them without approval and tossed the other ones out. We work around so much fuel that those lights scare the hell out of me. Thursday night I took a full gas tank out of a Dodge van with a forklift ( the third tank in three days I've had to remove) so I could fix it. It failed the evap test when I did the smog test. The rubber grommets for the fuel pumps crack and the tanks won't hold pressure. There is no way to drain them, there is a check ball in the filler neck and it mount into the side of the tank so there is no way to siphon them About all you can do is pull the filler neck out of the rubber grommet part way and catch the gas in barrels as it pours out. Thursday night I was standing in a lake of fuel thinking this is not a good idea, one spark and I'm toast. The first thing I did was move the droplight far away.

There was a shop here in town that burned to the ground a couple of years ago. About ten customers cars burned with it. I don't think the guy had any insurance. Guess what the cause was? You got it, a gas spill and a droplight. IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THE OLD STLYLE DROPLIGHTS WITH THE INCANDESENT BULBS THROW THAT PIECE OF SHIT AWAY! IT IS THE NOST DANGEROUS TOOL IN YOUR GARAGE.

The '40 convertible is not to bad. It started to melt some lead out of the top of the quarter panel. Inside of the trunk looks untouched. I don't think the heat warped the panels. It such a nice car. It did not hurt the leather interior. It's a bummer but it could have been a lot worse.

 

damn..

fire scares the crap outta me..

hope your pal Harber comes home a-ok

 

Free for the taking, 2 drop lights, or they will go to the trash. HellRaiser

Thanks, that is so true of a story, I like a dumb shit, have done things like that with those I have. I prefer to use a flashlight with 2 or 3 D cell batteries, they do just as good. I'll confess, one I ascounded with from the Gov, so it is OSHA approved.

HellRaiser

 

Hope his buddy’s ok
Thanks for heads up

 

that story hits close to home
my father was badly burnt on April 28 while working on my truck
couldnt get it started and was pouruing gas down the carb
carb backfire catching my dad on fire
he has third degree burns from the top of his head to his navel I was able to put the fire out with the garden hose with me getting burns to my hands
has been a KU med burn center since the accident on life suport
but is improving everyday

ill say a pray for your freind to Saint John the parton saint of burn victums

 

A similar incident happened here in Fresno to a shop owner with gas and a bulb drop light and he almost burned to death...Mr. Green thank you for this thread and I hope your friend is OK. That 40 can be repaired, a human life is more important.

 

I have a LED droplight from Sears. Cost 15 bucks, is bright as hell and CORDLESS and no fire risk.

And 15 bucks! Why would you fuck with anything else?

 

Sorry to hear that,Bobby! Those old "lightbulb" drop lights cause many fires. The new ones with the flouresnet bulbs covered with plastic are much better AND safer....Hope your friend is okay...

 

Wow. I'm the only one I know who still uses one....just did yesterday. Im going over to Sears' website and check out what they have. Thanx a million for this post man. My garage is attatched to my house!

 

One Car And One Dude That Having Flame Job On....
Is No Longer A Option ..
Best Of Luck With The Whole Mess!

 

I am a fireman. I went to a house fire one day that turned out to be a car fire in a garage which happened to be attached to a house. the guy was working on his 911 using a incandescant light like this. He too was removing the fuel pump. He claimed the light just blew up (didn't tell us he was taking the fuel pump off). He lost his Porsche his wifes new Commodore (GMH), his whole garage and part of his house. He only had flash burns.

I think you are onto something with this Bobby. Maybe repost it as a safety alert. There must be thousands of those light in sheds around the HAMB world.

Pete

 

OOH, OOH! ME, ME!! PM SENT!!!

 

Damn. Thanks for the heads up - sends shivers down my spine.

tinyt869 - Sorry about your dad, bro, I hope he heals up soon.

 

a bunch of years back we had a muffler shop owner killed in just this manner!What we know for fact is he was getting ready to remove a gas tank the drop light with broken bulb was still hanging under the car on the lift .It appeared that he pulled a connection apart and gas splashed on the bulb.With the filler still capped one of the fire investigators told me that the burning fuel allowed the fire to run up the severed connection into the fuel tank and the pressure from the fire in the tank pushed the burning fuel out the line like a flame thrower he said an open tank wont always explode as you see in the movies but will push burning fuel out of any opening the smaller the opening the farther/harder it will spray.I was a brand New EMT 1 day after passing my exam I wasn't allowed into the garage by the on scene the older veteran EMTs were visibly shaken and a couple puked !the man was burned so bad that his tongue was breaking into ash as they tried to get an airway into him!That afternoon when the Snap On truck came to my shop I bought a Flouresent drop light that they were just starting to carry it was 79 or 89 dollars can't remember exactly.One other VERY VERY important thing to do is make it clear that there is an open gas container where you are ! the small garage I started out at would put up a traffic barrier at the front entrance with a yellow blinking light that they repainted to say "EXPLOSIVES no open flames /no smoking".It seems when the owners were young mechanics in this garage a customer walked in with a cigarette going when he saw the gas tank sitting on the shop floor he tossed the butt on the ground outside the door and ignited the fuel vapors on the ground which ran right to the tank !the tank was almost completely empty and just burned they carried it outside and let it burn out ,but after that they closed the bay doors and put up the barrier near the office/bay entrance outside the door

 

Thanks for passing this. When I redid my truck, I installed an On/Off switch between the tank and electric fuel pump. For this reason.

Ken

 

Holy Shit that sucks... Scary stuff...

 

First, I hope everyone recently burned heals up well.

I almost died in a starting the vehicle with starting fluid while cranking the engine over, with a gas tank cap open incident. What I mean by almost died is I had burns over a lot of my body and went into shock in the ambulance etc..onto the floor. I had puddles of water under me in the emergency room gurney because when you have not much skin, the water just pours out of you . They IV the heck out of you to try to keep you from dying from dehydration. Fun stuff. Spent some time in the burn unit. The burn unit is the knarlyist place I have every been. At the time I was supposed to be losing my left ear and have major scarring and I felt lucky compared to everyone else in there ... but I am very very luck and I heal up miracle well according to the burn unit doctors, which explains some other things..

Do not crank and engine while spraying or putting anything in the carb. Spray it in, step away, and then crank.

I had my shop in an old Pep Boys once that had been gutted by fire. The shop that was there previous had spilt gas out of a gas tank they were taking out. It spilt on the drop light and the whole 10,000 sq feet burnt up. The big old thick plaster walls saved the building, but everything was torched.

Keep anything electrical including cords clear and out of gas spilling range.

Be careful out there. Just because you have gotten away with it 1,000 times doesn't mean you will the 1,001st time.
Wil

 

I have one similar to the one your talking about.
After an hour you can put your hand on it and it's barely warm due to the thick plastic covering the bulb.
Try that with an old lightbulb type droplight.
Bought mine at the local Lowes for about $20.

 

Man that sux, glad you friend is ok .

 

The little hairs on the top of my head are standing up.
I have got to get fire extinguishers in my garage. Two, one by each entryway. Glad it wasn't worse

 

Can anyone tell me why the buick engines are called nailheads?
Thanks
Wayne

 

Sorry I didn't mean to post the last message here.
Wayne

 

that could have been really ugly.

 

Scary, I hope he comes out okay, Keep us posted

Rusty

 

I'm buying a fire extinguisher tonight! I've got one in the kitchen, but not in the garage.

The reason most guys still run the bulb type drop lights is the fact they are brighter. I have a fluorescent one as well, but I find it's not bright enough at times. I use it when working with fuel or when I'm going to be working close to it. I've burned myself enough with the bulb ones.

I find the halogen ones are the worst. Mine got so hot it melted the rubber seal on the light itself. The glass gets so hot you could fry eggs on it. That thing scares me.

 

...got any pics of this light?

 

Thanks for the head up. I have both kinds of lights and never would have thought about the hazard of the old style drop lights.

 

I yanked the old incandescent bulb out of my drop cord and replaced it with a modern screw-in flourescent bulb. It's cool to the touch, and they don't "pop" when you drop the cord. They're very, very durable.

-Brad

 

Thanks for sharing, Hope the hads heal well. I read one of these posts involving a welder. I bought a fire extinguisher and pulled the saftey pin. I made a spot for it on the welding cart. I hope I never need it.

 

Never gave it a thought before - thanks! Mine are out of the shop as of today. I'll save them for non-hazardous uses.