This is a true story. I had this happen to me this past February and its an odd story but might amuse you on this Sunday evening...

I had been restoring this old 1983 Mercedes 300D Turbo Diesel since last year. I was about complete except for a some refurbishing of the drivers seat when I lost the whole thing in an interior car fire. A short back from the Auxiliary water pump to the climate control system overheated the circuit board and then caught some wiring insulation running just overhead of it on fire and it spread to all the plastics and such and, within 15 minutes was fully engulfed. I was not aware this area was not fused or it could have been prevented. I had no fire extinguisher and I was out in a rural area.

The whole thing went this way....

I am driving along from work to home and about half way I smell smoke. I am looking around outside thinking they are possibly doing a burn (experimental forest I am passing through) but eventually I see a little black smoke coming from the dash. I am about to a Church so I pull off into the church away from anything and shut it down quickly. I look up in there and I just then see a flicker of light. So I know now its just caught on fire. I jump out and start trying to think of what to do and I remember a jug of DD water I had in the back. I rush back and get it and find its really almost empty. I take my multi tool out and pop that portion of the dash cover off and splash whats in there in but it fails to do much. Grab a rag and try and snuff it out but can't get to it as its spreading left and right along those wires. So I get back out and dial 911.... no answer!

This passerby stops and asks if I have called. I say I just tried to call but no luck (rural area with poor reception too). He offers to get his fire extinguisher from his truck. I say yea and he goes back to his truck and comes back. And it fizzles out as it was long dead. So then we both discuss calling again but this time calling direct. I take the University Dept because I know that direct number and he says he will call the local rural. So we do. By now the whole dash was ablaze and windows start cracking.. I then recalled I had left my Glock G27 in the glove box so I told him that we better get away while it cooks off. Since I work at a University I am forced to disarm and put it in the glove box instead of on my belt where it belongs but thats another story.

So we walk back away to wait on the fire departments to come in just a minute or two and the rounds start to cook off. Then a minute later a louder one goes and thats the one in the chamber that I would most be worried about so we watch. Then another minute or two goes by and the tires start to explode.

Now the weird and scary part...

A minute or so later the car starts up on its own. The key is in my pocket. It sits there and idles nicely. The entire interior is ablaze and black smoke is pouring into the sky. The windows are breaking... and so it sits there and runs for a few minutes and then suddenly all the lights come on. headlamps ,Fogs, Parking all of them... and I snap this picture of it on fire with my Cell Phone camera. Shortly after I snap this picture the engine starts to rev up very very high and run at an RPM I did not know it was capable of. At some point it opened its own hood and eventually closed it too. Then it started to have this horrible loud griding noise which would last a few seconds and then stop and then start again. I assume this was the starter engaging while the engine was running at well over 8000 rpm (just a guess) and after doing this a few times all of the sudden one set of lights went out on passengers side while the drivers side still were all lit. As if it was winking at me. Then there was this huge gush of fluids and steam came rushing out from under the car and the motor just simply died and all went quite.

All this with the grave yard in the background and me and this passerby the only witness. It was truly horrible to watch since I had poured so much time and money into that car and it was truly a special example of that car that cannot probably be replaced. Not only that but all the period correct accessories I had tracked down for it.


But here is some of the photo's of the whole thing.

Car (one picture of many taken during my restoration and yes thats the original Laquer paint)




Then the fire (note the headlights are on and the engine is running but the key is in my pocket and the ignition is turned off)





Then here is what was left of it...



Here is the G27 remnants.

 

Moral of story....

Keep a fire extinguisher in every car. Not just any old one either. An electronics safe one like Halotron because dry fire extinguishers will cause more harm by corrosivity later on than the fire. Get a good one. A Halon or Halotron.

Take a lot of pictures of your vehicle to prove value and all the items in it. They will pay off in the long run. Best to get it appraised too while your at it.

If you have a lot of time and money into something keep it fully insured.

 

That is wild! Maybe one of the ghosts from the cemetery thought it was his or her car and revved it up while it was on fire.

A co-worker has a '67 Mustang that he would drive to work about once a month. 4 of us went to grab some subs at a local place. On the way back the car stalled. He has some carb starter fluid in teh trunk so he sprayed a bunch on there and then "fired" it up. Flames started shooting up so he ran to the trunk and grabbed a piece of cardboard to cover it up and put it out. He forgot that the cardboard has some gas on it so that created an even bigger fire. Luckily, the store owner by where we stopped came out with an extinguisher and put it out. He totally restored it soon after.

 

Sorry for your loss. That had to hurt.