A small fire, but very sobering,
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A small fire, but very sobering,
The project was to cut a rectangular hole and fab up a well for the spare tire on my W250 flatbed. Part of the cut goes right over the fuel tank. I had a square of drywall that I placed over the fuel tank to prevent any fires. It was pushed into the frame up against the cab. Sounds good, so I was cutting a few inches, getting down and looking for any signs of fire. Cut, get down look, climb back up, repeat. Cutting was going good I had about half of it cut when I got down and saw the one foot flames. Ran for the CO2 fire extinguisher thats behind the drivers seat in the truck. Couldn't find the level to move the seat forward, oh I remember, I switched seats so the lever is now on the inside. Got the extinguisher out and stated spraying the flames. It wasn't going out as I expected! More CO2. Ouch, felt a tingle when the CO2 tank touched the frame, what the.... I had placed the plasma cutter on the truck bed, (it was still on) and I had it plugged into a GFCI outlet! Shut the power off in the barn, no more tingle. Back to the fire, pulled the drywall off the tank and emptied the extinguisher on the fire, looks out. Dragged the garden hose over to the truck and doused the area for 5 minutes.
Looks like what caught fire was only some wire sleaveing.
Finished the cut with the sawzall.
Looks like what caught fire was only some wire sleaveing.
Finished the cut with the sawzall.
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The sobering part
The truck has a full tank and was parked about 2 feet from the barn/workshop door. Got a look up inside the frame, next to the fuel tank, at the front of the fuel tank looking to the rear. This is where the main part of the fire was, It melted the two fuel lines, supply and return among other wires.
I feel lucky.
I feel lucky.
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Joined: Jun 2010
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From: Charles Town, WV
lucky indeed. Guess now is as good a time as any for 1/2" fuel lines 
Back when I was a dumb kid, I had some amps in the trunk of my car with the power feeding a distro block and a bunch of slack in the wires because I wasn't sure I liked how it was all mounted. Well the tabs broke off holding the power block together, and it fell to the bare metal floor and shorted out. This wouldn't have been such an issue except I blew the fuse a week earlier and couldn't find one in town, so I had just taken out the fuse holder.
So now this 4 gauge wire is shorted out directly to the floor of the car. The cabin started filling with smoke and I had to make a panic stop in the middle of the road. I popped the trunk and my **** is all on fire. I had a gallon of water with me fortunately enough and after getting the power wire off the floor, put out the fire that used to be my back pack. It left a baseball sized hole in the floor right above the gas tank also
Back when I was a dumb kid, I had some amps in the trunk of my car with the power feeding a distro block and a bunch of slack in the wires because I wasn't sure I liked how it was all mounted. Well the tabs broke off holding the power block together, and it fell to the bare metal floor and shorted out. This wouldn't have been such an issue except I blew the fuse a week earlier and couldn't find one in town, so I had just taken out the fuse holder.
So now this 4 gauge wire is shorted out directly to the floor of the car. The cabin started filling with smoke and I had to make a panic stop in the middle of the road. I popped the trunk and my **** is all on fire. I had a gallon of water with me fortunately enough and after getting the power wire off the floor, put out the fire that used to be my back pack. It left a baseball sized hole in the floor right above the gas tank also
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Joined: Jul 2009
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From: Phoenix AZ
Glad that you didn't toast the whole thing 
This is what I try to tell folks, An ABC fire extinguisher will put out electrical and flammable liquid fires and MIGHT put out ordinary fires. That is why a garden hose when welding near ordinary combustibles or sweating pipes, is the ONLY way to be safe. The problem is that the BEST way to put out an ordinary fire is to LOWER the temperature. Water does this very well, CO2 and dry chem, not so much. Sorry, but once a Fireman, always a fireman...
Mark
This is what I try to tell folks, An ABC fire extinguisher will put out electrical and flammable liquid fires and MIGHT put out ordinary fires. That is why a garden hose when welding near ordinary combustibles or sweating pipes, is the ONLY way to be safe. The problem is that the BEST way to put out an ordinary fire is to LOWER the temperature. Water does this very well, CO2 and dry chem, not so much. Sorry, but once a Fireman, always a fireman...Mark
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Joined: Oct 2009
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From: Claymont, Del and Horsham, PA
Wow, glad you got it under control in time. One thing that bothers me is your gfci outlet... it should not be wired so that the power to the barn lights go out when it trips... Move the wires to the "line" side of the outlet, the "load" side is for other outlets you want to protect(not an extra set of screws). Lighting doesn't always let the gfci trip correctly when put on the monitored circuit(causes prolonged shocks).
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There were no lights involved in this. The Dodge was parked outside in the sun, backed up to the open barn doors so I could place the plasma cutter on the flatbed.
The GFCI in question is a dedicated 20 amp duplex outlet, not attached to any thing else.
The GFCI in question is a dedicated 20 amp duplex outlet, not attached to any thing else.
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 1,830
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From: Claymont, Del and Horsham, PA
Oh i'm sorry, i misread that, you said shut power off to the barn... i assumed the plazma cutter tripped the power to the barn through the GFCI(you physically shut it off)... I added the light thing because i had something similar happen to me where the barn power went out(tripped gfci, lights out).
As to why it didn't trip, the gfci is probably bad. A GFCI won't protect you from getting a deadly shock and usually trip right out when generating an arc. Welders/cutters and motors are never ground fault protected(because of how they operate).
As to why it didn't trip, the gfci is probably bad. A GFCI won't protect you from getting a deadly shock and usually trip right out when generating an arc. Welders/cutters and motors are never ground fault protected(because of how they operate).
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Joined: Nov 2005
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From: Birmingham, Alabama
I may have missed it but since you melted a few wires I'm assuming you've disconnected the battery(s) in your truck. Wouldn't want it to go for a second round while you were away.