CARS AND FIRES

[Budman]

In the Metro Section of today's Austin Paper, Page 1 is a picture of a 19 year old standing behind his burned out camaro on I-35. I've seen many other cars burned up on the roadside in recent years. Reason? When the auto manufacturers went to all fuel injection years ago, they also went to in-tank electric fuel pumps. These pumps always "prime" the fuel system to it's prescribed pressure as soon as the ignition is turned to the "ON" position. If you listen closely on most vehicles you can hear the pump do this. Then, when the ignition is rotated to the "Start" position the fuel system is pressurized, allowing the vehicle to start easily.

 

Here's the problem this causes, however. If the engine develops a fuel leak, the pressure drops. The fuel pump senses this and continues to try and maintain its "Prime" and prescribed pressure, as long as it has electric power to do so. A fuel leak will cause the engine to die, but the fuel pump doesn't know to stop pumping. The fuel leak often causes an under hood fire. When the engine dies, the driver will pull to the side of the road and stop. Their first reaction is to try to restart the vehicle, and continue to do so until suddenly the see smoke and possibly flames coming from under the hood. Their reaction quite naturally, is to get themselves and anyone else in the car out as quickly as possible. They often fail to remove the ignition key, or at least turn it to the "OFF" position. This causes the fuel pump to continue feeding the fire until it's power source is interrupted. Usually, in the case of an under hood fire, this doesn't occur until the battery explodes in the fire. In the mean time, the car has totally burned up. So, remind your friends and loved ones, if they should ever encounter such a situation to be sure to turn off the key, or remove it completely from the ignition switch.