Accidents : Vehicles catching Fire in India

[n.devdath]

Today's TOI carries an article of one more Nano catching fire in delhi but the occupants luckily managed to come out of the car.Nano catches fire - The Times of India

What is surprising is the speed with which the entire car is engulfed in flames in most cases of this nature.

[rameshnanda]

Car goes up in flames at Koyambedu market

CHENNAI: A couple shopping at the flower market inside the Koyambedu market complex was lucky enough to escape with their lives, after their car went up in flames on Thursday .

Parthasarathy (55), a resident of Mylapore, had come to the market early on the morning of Vijayadasami for bulk purchase of flowers for the festival. After completing their purchases, they returned to their Hyundai i10 (TN 22 BZ 7094) and he attempted to start it. “It did not start despite my trying repeatedly,” recalls the senior employee of Ashok Leyland. “Then we noticed that thick black fumes were coming from the engine,” he added.

Instantly, the elderly couple got out of the car and within minutes, flames began to engulf the engine. The Koyambedu police said that the fire started at 7.20 am. “When we first saw it, we thought that it was just a radiator without water and laughed about it,” said Rajalingam, whose shop was directly opposite where the car burned. Only after the flames started to consume the vehicle did the vendors crowd around and attempt to help put it out, he said.

“There was a slight explosion when the fuel tank caught fire but otherwise, all the other people around were moved away quickly so there was no harm done,” recounted Parthasarathy. The firemen from the M26 station arrived shortly after and managed to contain the flames, but not before the hatchback was a blackened mess. Kandavelu, a truck driver who was also there, said that despite the ground being wet, the fire spread across the car very quickly.

The car was purchased in 2008 and after an initial probe, the cops attributed the fire to an electrical fault. The owner himself though relieved at having escaped an accident, was confused about the cause of the fire.

Source - Car goes up in flames at Koyambedu market | Koyambedu | | The New Indian Express

[gsbhatia]

Saw this Mahindra Logan catching fire right in front of my eyes (in bylanes of South Delhi), few minutes ago. Never imagined I would witness one. It started with a small fire but became a big inferno in just no time. Seems like Municipal cleaners had lumped the street trash into a small heap over which the owner had parked the car (how many times do people even think about it?) Due to reasons unknown, trash caught fire, which ate the car in just few minutes. Car was all juiced up with tank full of fuel, which stoked it even further.






Delhi Fire Service came after about 15 minutes (not bad time for DFS on Diwali festival day, when they are on maximum alert), but by then, Logan had said goodbye and escaped the subtle bonds of earth.

[shineshine]

In the first picture, the inner door beeding is still there without being burned out. Is it made of fire retardant material?
Any how, feeling sad for the owner.

[fx45]

Saw an silver accent viva getting charred in flames last sunday afternoon on Eastern Exp highway in Mumbai just after Sion. Owner luckily managed to escape on time. A water tanker was passing from the opposite side and the driver helped by pouring water to control the fire but it was too late as the car was all in flames.

[rkg]

Brand new BMW catches fire in Bangalore Nov 14th, 2011. The car is yet to be registered

The Hindu : NATIONAL / KARNATAKA : Brand new car, BMTC bus gutted

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by rkg

Brand new BMW catches fire in Bangalore Nov 14th, 2011. The car is yet to be registered

The Hindu : NATIONAL / KARNATAKA : Brand new car, BMTC bus gutted

Short circuit on a brand new car and that too a BMW?! I bet there's going to be a good amount of investigation there.

Btw, if the car is yet to be registered, there's no Insurance as such, right?

[SushilBajpai]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Short circuit on a brand new car and that too a BMW?! I bet there's going to be a good amount of investigation there.

Btw, if the car is yet to be registered, there's no Insurance as such, right?

If a brand new car (that too a BMW) catches fire, would one really need an insurance. The warranty should cover the issue. BMW IMHO should refund the entire amount they may have taken and replace the car with a brand new one (any model that the owner chooses) free of cost.

Mercifully for BMW the TV channels did not make this into a big tamasha. BMW should count its blessings.

[Merce320]

A Mercedes-Benz W210 E220 cdi catches fire near Ludhiana Punjab.

BURNING MERCEDES BENZ W(210) E220 CDI - YouTube

[arun_josie]

Bangalore-Chennai AC bus catches fire

Source: http://expressbuzz.com/states/tamiln...us/358858.html

VELLORE: Panic ensued after a private A/C Volvo bus from Chennai to Bangalore caught fire near Ambur on Tuesday. No injuries were reported.A motorcyclist riding behind the bus noticed thick smoke billowing out of the rear of the vehicle at around 3:00 p.m. when it was nearing Vengili village. The motorcyclist overtook the bus and signalled the driver to stop the vehicle.While the fire quickly engulfed the bus, all thirty persons on board including the driver, conductor and helper escaped unhurt. Though fire tenders from Ambur quickly rushed to the spot to douse the flames, the vehicle was badly burned and several passengers lost their belongings in the blaze. Investigation revealed that the fire started in the air-conditioning machine in the bus.The incident affected the flow of traffic on the national highway for more than an hour and a half. Ambur taluk police have registered a case.

[normally_crazy]

Saw a burnt up Maruti Esteem taxi (the blue air conditioned one) on the MIDC flyover on JVLR today morning. The fire had been controlled by the time I passed the car. The front part till the A pillar was a bad scene - rest of the car was looking fine.

There were no casualties IMO. Looks like the fire was spotted and doused on time.

[coolboy007]

My sister and brother in law were mute spectators to a burning car today night. We 3 went for a party in hauz khas village and as i had a few drinks i left my car there only and sister and her husband dropped me off to Dwarka. As the scene is in our country these days, i kept awake and thought i will sleep only after getting a call that they too reached their home safely.

Called my sister and she was crying, my BIL told that on the way back near airport road a Wagon R caught fire, he immediately parked his car and stepped down to help while my sister called the PCR, he told me that the guy was frantically wavin at him to help him so he took his gear lock rod and went near the car but the moment he went near the car got engulfed in flames and fearing the cng cylinder may blast he had to back off, when he turned around the guy inside the burning car honked for him to help but my BIL was helpless, there was nothing he could do than wait for police and fire brigade.

The PCR arrived within 3 mins but the car was almost burnt by now, my sister almost fainted seeing all this and the police noted their mobile nos, asked them to leave and promised some update.A ghastly incident.

Guys please ask your near ones not to save a couple of thousand on cheap cng kits, i dont know the root cause of this incident but fake cng kits are the biggest culprits, may the man rest in peace.

I dont think he has survived, all i can do now is visit his home with my bil, offer prayers and say sorry that we couldnt help.

[mannubhai]

Originally Posted by coolboy007

My sister and brother in law were mute spectators to a burning car today night. We 3 went for a party in hauz khas village and as i had a few drinks i left my car there only and sister and her husband dropped me off to Dwarka. As the scene is in our country these days, i kept awake and thought i will sleep only after getting a call that they too reached their home safely.

Called my sister and she was crying, my BIL told that on the way back near airport road a Wagon R caught fire, he immediately parked his car and stepped down to help while my sister called the PCR, he told me that the guy was frantically wavin at him to help him so he took his gear lock rod and went near the car but the moment he went near the car got engulfed in flames and fearing the cng cylinder may blast he had to back off, when he turned around the guy inside the burning car honked for him to help but my BIL was helpless, there was nothing he could do than wait for police and fire brigade.

The PCR arrived within 3 mins but the car was almost burnt by now, my sister almost fainted seeing all this and the police noted their mobile nos, asked them to leave and promised some update.A ghastly incident.

Guys please ask your near ones not to save a couple of thousand on cheap cng kits, i dont know the root cause of this incident but fake cng kits are the biggest culprits, may the man rest in peace.

I dont think he has survived, all i can do now is visit his home with my bil, offer prayers and say sorry that we couldnt help.

Horrific. I can imagine what your sis and BIL went through . Really sad

[abikr]

A related incident comes to my mind....

5 months back, i had borrowed my neighbour's old santro for 2 days. I was shocked to see that the stick near the windows (that we use to unlock the door's lock before opening) was very very slippery. It was so slippery that when i tried to pull it up with my finger so that the driver's door will unlock,i just wasn't able to successfully pull it up. The stick was not even too thin, so its thickess was not a problem, mind you.

In the end i had to grab the stick with my teeth to pull it up ! At that time I was wondering what my fate would be if i was stuck in a car that had similar pull-up-to-unlock-door sticks and the car was in flames.

This thread reminded me of that day...not sure if the santros today come with this obvious design flaw.

I am at my work desk and so can't post pictures of that stick :(

[aniketi]

Just one question here, are such incidents happen abroad? I mean to say in US, Europe, Japan etc. Cars catching fire is very risky. It can happen to any car i guess. What precautions you need to take so that such things don't happen? Are these incidents happen only in India? Why people keep mum about the same? Companies will have to give millions of dollars if this happen in US, Europe. Then why not in India? Is Indian law has flaws?