Spinning tires responsible for house fire?
The details aren't clear yet, but a fire at a Flint, Michigan home is being preliminarily attributed to spinning tires. When Samantha Hendricks returned home Tuesday evening, she had a hard time getting up her icy driveway. Giving the car a healthy bit of gas to get up the slick pavement, as most of us do, she created a fair bit of wheelspin. Some time after parking the car in the garage, the people inside began to smell smoke and discovered it was coming from the car. Unable to extinguish the source of the smoke, the car caught on fire and took the entire house -- and all of the gifts and possessions inside -- with it. Investigators haven't yet determined if it was the spinning tires that caused the fire, but the burn pattern indicates that it had something to do with the car. The question is, what could it be?[Source: ABC12/WJRT]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
thebobman 12:29PM (12/28/2008)
Possible culprits (in order of likelyhood):
1. The parking break was left on or left partially on to prevent the rear of the FWD car from slipping back down the driveway, driver spun the wheels for an excessively long time building up heat in the rear brakes until a fire started and quickly moved to the rear wheels.
2. The drive spun the wheels for an excessively long time to get the car into the garage rather than leave it in the driveway, heat would build up in in the transmission or elsewhere along the drivetrain where the fire would start and then may have spread to the wheels.
3. RWD car and an unplowed driveway might make the car push snow ahead of itself making the car's rear tire spin not due to icy conditions but more akin to a brake stand with the accumulating snow providing the braking action.
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KareemIsGod23 9:35AM (12/28/2008)
Gives a whole new meaning to "Burn-Out" lol
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dwightB 12:29PM (12/28/2008)
I'm so going to hell for laughing out loud when I read this, lol
dukeisduke 9:50AM (12/28/2008)
Maybe the car caused the fire, but I'll wait to hear what the fire marshal comes back with.
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turbo-quattro 9:56AM (12/28/2008)
thats what I was thinking. might have overheated the engine or something.
Mulad 9:58AM (12/28/2008)
Did the car have traction control? If the driver was heavily gunning it despite the flashing yellow light on the dashboard, the brakes may have overheated. Maybe.
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Chris 10:03AM (12/28/2008)
They never mention what kind of car it is.
I think it's def engine related (GrandPrix with a leaky valve cover gasket or ...)
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Brian 6:50AM (12/29/2008)
I would say it's related to an oil leak in a Honda Element again :)
stk718 10:09AM (12/28/2008)
This is unfortunate.
But could have been prevented.
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Mulad 10:29AM (12/28/2008)
It's also sad to read in the story that the nearest (working?) fire hydrant was 2000 feet away.
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Sean Morris 10:38AM (12/28/2008)
It would be near impossible to heat the tires to the point where they catch on fire. Especially in temperatures like that.
It is possible that the engine overheated and caught fire.
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Gary 11:17AM (12/28/2008)
I was helping push a brainless driver out of a snowy driveway yesterday, and was surprised to smell burning rubber.
Palm Springs 06 10:47AM (12/28/2008)
Yet another one that 'shoulda-boughta-Honda'.
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John Graham 12:20PM (12/28/2008)
A Honda for better winter driving? Um, a Subaru would be the best option!
Mobius_1 11:04AM (12/28/2008)
Ironic that a fire should happen in a town called Flint.
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ale 3:10PM (12/28/2008)
maybe the fire marshall should investigate that as well...
Great Mazinga 11:05AM (12/28/2008)
Maybe she hit 88 MPH...
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Tyme 3:10PM (12/28/2008)
hahaha, ok that made me laugh
Gary 11:25AM (12/28/2008)
I'm amazed at how many people think that the best way to drive in the snow is to have their foot firmly planted on the accelerator. That doesn't really look like a steep driveway to me. Even if you just have all-season tires with decent tread, this climb shouldn't have been a problem.
Recently, the two drivers I've helped push through snow just spin the tires at high speed, causing the ice and snow under the tires to melt. Wasn't it either in the Duralube or Slick 50 commercials that mentioned that their product is the only product more slippery than wet ice?
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Robert 11:45AM (12/28/2008)
It could have been a plugged catalytic converter... I have had a few red hot ones in my time..