Jason Foster
Well, the other day I go storm chasing locally (E.MD/DE) on some weak storms. The whole point was really to try out some new video streaming via the www.ipr365.com website. That was a success. However, to do so there was a need to provide power to my friends laptop. My small inverter couldn't handle it, so I connected the larger inverter directly to the battery. I had been planning to do this, but that day I did so without fuses, connectors etc. BIG MISTAKE.
A couple days later when leaving work and heading home, it ends up that at some point the positive and negative wires at the inverter worked loose and then connected together. This caused extreme heat in the wires toward the rear of the vehicle. At some point the wire likely caught the carpet on fire, or a nearby Gel Cell battery (that was not connected at the time). Either way, the result is the following picture:
This happened on I-270 in Rockville, Maryland. Luckily I was not hurt at all. Vehicle fires tend to start slowly, and I had plenty of time to exit, even walk around the car looking for the source of the problem. I lifted the tailgate and saw only smoke, so figured I might be able to resolve the issue. But once I saw flames, I was out of there (realizing there wasn't anything I could do).
Also, luckily none of the laptops, cameras, etc. were in the van. I did however loose lots of tools, weather station, ham radio equipment, roof rack and the hours and hours of work that went into building the vehicle. The van itself wasn't worth much, and I'll likely replace it with something very similar (another Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth MiniVan).
So the lesson here:
1. Always fuse your wires.
2. Always use the proper connectors and terminals
3. Keep a fire extinguisher in the car (or my case...don't remove it when cleaning out the van).
To see what the van looked like prior to the fire, go here.
A couple days later when leaving work and heading home, it ends up that at some point the positive and negative wires at the inverter worked loose and then connected together. This caused extreme heat in the wires toward the rear of the vehicle. At some point the wire likely caught the carpet on fire, or a nearby Gel Cell battery (that was not connected at the time). Either way, the result is the following picture:
This happened on I-270 in Rockville, Maryland. Luckily I was not hurt at all. Vehicle fires tend to start slowly, and I had plenty of time to exit, even walk around the car looking for the source of the problem. I lifted the tailgate and saw only smoke, so figured I might be able to resolve the issue. But once I saw flames, I was out of there (realizing there wasn't anything I could do).
Also, luckily none of the laptops, cameras, etc. were in the van. I did however loose lots of tools, weather station, ham radio equipment, roof rack and the hours and hours of work that went into building the vehicle. The van itself wasn't worth much, and I'll likely replace it with something very similar (another Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth MiniVan).
So the lesson here:
1. Always fuse your wires.
2. Always use the proper connectors and terminals
3. Keep a fire extinguisher in the car (or my case...don't remove it when cleaning out the van).
To see what the van looked like prior to the fire, go here.
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