<VV> Why you should carry a fire extinguisher...

[Bill Elliott]

Yesterday I took my recently restored 1967 Mercedes 250SE  
http://fnader.com/Mercedes  out for a drive in the countryside (and to 
run some errands). The car ran flawlessly.

On the way back, I stopped at Lowes hardware to pick up some paint... 
when I got back to the car, I turned the key to start and nothing 
happened. I released the key... and heard the starter motor turning over 
very slowly. About that time I started smelling smoke. I turned the key 
off and nothing changed... now I'm seeing smoke coming up through the 
defroster vents.

I quickly raised the hood and saw a wire running from the firewall to 
the injection pump melting down. Thinking (incorrectly it seemed) that 
the pump was shorting out, I pulled the wire. That only served to make 
whatever was shorting under the dash short worse. So I started 
disconnecting the battery (which in retrospect is what I should have 
done to start with).

By this time thick black smoke is rolling out from the dash. I asked a 
bystander to call 911 at this point.

I finally got the battery disconnected, but by this time flames were 
evident inside the car. I grabbed my fire extinguisher (I carry one in 
each car) and unloaded it up under the dash. Even after emptying it, 
smoke was still rolling. I quickly pulled the speedo (easy to pull out 
on these cars as it's just a pressure fit with a rubber gasket) and 
flames were still visible. A good portion of the wiring and the firewall 
insulation was still on fire.

By this time a Lowes employee had run out with a large extinguisher. We 
were able to shoot it in through the speedo opening and get the flames 
out just as the Fire Department arrived.

The fire burnt hot enough to crack the windshield and melt the sunvisor. 
Everything behind the dash is melted plastic (which actually ran down 
onto the mats).

I had the car towed home and spent the afternoon cleaning 6 or 7 lbs of 
corrosive dry chemical out of everywhere... had to strip out the 
interior, etc.

In the end, I was VERY lucky. No paint damage and no leather damage 
(even on the dash!). Looks like the headliner is likely a loss (smoke 
damage) as well as some of the dash wood, but overall very minimal 
damage considering the intensity of the fire.

My Mercedes expert buddy seems to think the ignition switch shorted 
out... and being unfused it started the meltdown.

Lessons learned:
1. Carry a fire extinguisher. The bigger the better. (Had I not carried 
mine or had this happened out where a larger extinguisher was 
unavailable, I'm certain the car would have been a complete loss)

2. Add a quick disconnect to the battery. (This alone might have saved 
me from the damage I had).

3. That dry powder gets EVERYWHERE and burns skin....

Bill Elliott
Urbana, MD