Fire - what we all fear the most

[ERC]

Just been sent these very distressing pictures from one of our members, who lost not only the car(s) but also the cottage.

Before:


During:


After:

Makes you cry doesn't it. I have no idea about the insurance implications but the car is destroyed and judging the pic, the engine was probably alongside the car and has also been destroyed. I'm not sure about his other race car and whether or not that was also involved, but I'm guessing it might have been elsewhere at the time as there are no pics of that one.

No cause of the blaze has yet been found.

[Steve Holmes]

Oh no! Thats terrible. I really feel for the owner, I can't even imagine how distressing this must be. What a very sad sight to see. My condolences to the owner.

[touringcarfan]

The other car was down at the panelbeaters. Knowing where this was it is also no surprise that the shed was burned to the ground. Rural areas rely very much on their local volunteer Fire Brigades which unfortunately take a little while longer to arrive than their paid counterparts in the cities.

Anthony Sampson

[Ray Bell]

It certainly doesn't take long for everything to change...

I often think as I go away working each weekend how much I'd lose if there was a house fire.

Magazine collections, photographs, books, things that are either impossible or very hard to replace. Insurance means nothing to these things.

[Grant Sprague]

REGARDS TO FEAR OF FIRE CAR RACING..... Two memories spring to mind when Kerry [Grant] had bad burns to his arm & was lucky that was all due to a bad crash ..... the other When Leo [Leonard] racing his beg f5000 car at Puke , an internal radiator hose let go , Leo pulled the begg up hoped out & rolled around the grass thinking he was on fire , but was steam......Now things are a lot safer as we know ... I would not want to imagine being trapped in any race car when one of the elements unleashes its force.....

[ERC]

It certainly doesn't take long for everything to change...

I often think as I go away working each weekend how much I'd lose if there was a house fire.

Magazine collections, photographs, books, things that are either impossible or very hard to replace. Insurance means nothing to these things.

My thoughts too, especially when we are away for a fair part of winter. I have started listing and even photographing the spines of books of greatest value and had a quite a shock when a 2m long bookshelf alone had a conservative value of several thousand dollars.

Memorabilia back to pre-war race programmes, many autographed items, limited edition Michael Turner prints, models, cuttings etc., not to mention non motoring stuff or the stuff in the garage, the very thought of a house fire is scary.

A car fire at the track is thankfully quite rare but who can forget that Aussie (?) V8 that went up in flames just past the pit entry at Pukekohe and the fire truck took forever to get there?

Decades ago, wasn't it Stirling Moss who escaped his crashed car with a broken leg, as he dreaded the thought of being trapped in a burning car?

I also believe that our marshal posts are ill equipped as I seem to remember the British system was two extinguishers to knock down the fire and two to blanket it to stop it re-igniting. Happy to be proved wrong, but as a former partner in Chicane Racewear, I am also well aware that even the best race suit covered in burning fuel is not going to be much use if the fire isn't out within 30 seconds. Race suits are fire resistant, not fire proof...

[John McKechnie]

Fire at home- I work from home and continually have a variety of Vintage, Classic cars downstairs.
Rule number 1- ALWAYS disconnect the car battery.
I know the guy, and really feel for him.

[touringcarfan]

For anyone building new houses or other structures out in rural areas, it is strongly recommended that a sprinkler system is installed as part of the build. When I was in the Blenheim VFB we did a display one year at the A&P show where 2 identical plywood rooms were built with a sprinkler system built into one of them. Both rooms were set alight and the results spoke for themselves.

Anthony

[Bailey]

For anyone building new houses or other structures out in rural areas, it is strongly recommended that a sprinkler system is installed as part of the build. When I was in the Blenheim VFB we did a display one year at the A&P show where 2 identical plywood rooms were built with a sprinkler system built into one of them. Both rooms were set alight and the results spoke for themselves.

Anthony

Not just in rural areas are you exposed We know a bloke who has a flat he rents out in Devonport The tenant
managed to set the joint alight one evening You can see the Devonport fire station from the address, but the
firetruck and gloryboys that attended came from Birkenhead ! One can imagine the extra damage incurred
in the time it took for that to happen

[touringcarfan]

Not just in rural areas are you exposed We know a bloke who has a flat he rents out in Devonport The tenant
managed to set the joint alight one evening You can see the Devonport fire station from the address, but the
firetruck and gloryboys that attended came from Birkenhead ! One can imagine the extra damage incurred
in the time it took for that to happen

It is true that most fires do take hold very quickly and on occasion the `local` fire appliance might be out of area. This scenario you mention would suggest that both of the Devonport appliances and the Takapuna appliance were unavailable. It would be unlikely that the Birkenhead appliance would have responded from their own station but more likely have been on a cover move to Takapuna. That is still a fair travel down to Devonport and would certainly have allowed ANY fire to increase in size.

Anthony

[ERC]

It would be unlikely that the Birkenhead appliance would have responded from their own station but more likely have been on a cover move to Takapuna. That is still a fair travel down to Devonport and would certainly have allowed ANY fire to increase in size.

Donkeys years ago when I took my Fireman's badge in senior scouts at a fire station (a great course by the way; I learned and remembered a lot) as I understood it then, there was a system by which the nearest station would indeed cover the next along the system, by sending an appliance over as soon as an appliance was despatched. Obviously, somewhere along the chain, they might be a bit light, but they were very well organised.

Fortunately, we are just around the corner from the Birkenhead station, but I still dread to think what could happen in a timber framed house.

[touringcarfan]

Donkeys years ago when I took my Fireman's badge in senior scouts at a fire station (a great course by the way; I learned and remembered a lot) as I understood it then, there was a system by which the nearest station would indeed cover the next along the system, by sending an appliance over as soon as an appliance was despatched. Obviously, somewhere along the chain, they might be a bit light, but they were very well organised.

Fortunately, we are just around the corner from the Birkenhead station, but I still dread to think what could happen in a timber framed house.

At the end of the day any structure is at risk and if you are building a new house in the city and have the means, then install a sprinkler system. PROTECT WHAT YOU VALUE. Unfortunately structural collapse is not UNEXPECTED in rural areas. This in not to say it can`t happen in the city however it would be considered a rarity.
Fire is a beast which creates nothing but misery and suffering and I feel for the people concerned in the incident above.

Anthony Sampson