Fire extinguisher in my garage saved the day!

Goose17

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Had some excitement this morning! A couple days ago, I fired-up the old '89 to see if it would run. I haven't run it in a long time. It ran, but barely. I moved some cars and took it down the street, but barely made it back to the garage with it. Flash forward to this morning, I go down to the garage armed with a can of Seafoam and some fresh gas (tank was empty or near empty). I wanted to keep the car in the garage in case it conked out. I didn't want to have it stranded down the road. I get it fired-up again, but need to keep revving it to keep it alive. I had all of the doors open for ventilation and I was trying to work the Seafoam through the motor. After revving it for awhile and it still running like crap, I gave up and shut it off. I walk over to my work bench and for some reason I turned and looked back at the car. I am thankful for a shiny floor, because I saw an orange glow reflecting from under the car... FIRE!

I grabbed my fire extinguisher that was only 10' away and got low to have a look. Apparently hot exhaust and decades old oil/grease leaks are a bad combo. I had a full blown fire near the cats! I pulled the pin and gave it a couple good sprays. Fortunately the freak'n fire went out.

After I had a moment to access the situation, I realized this could have been a REALLY bad day! The car was buried behind others in the garage and all of the other keys were back at the house. If I didn't have that BEAUTIFUL fire extinguisher readily available, it could have been catastrophic! If I had more time and more wits about me, I would have sprayed from the other side (away from the 00R). The R got a dusting and the floor was a mess. This gave me a reason to pull the cars out for a trip around the block to blow the dust off and to give the floor a good cleaning. I finished with a California duster for the cars and put them back for some more slumber. The 89 will not be run again until it's time to restore it!

If you don't have a fire extinguisher in your garage, go get one! (I need a new one!)

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flattrack53

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Yikes! I'm glad you were able to save the car and not have it damage the other cars, garage along with you being safe... I fought a carburetor fuel fire on a 65 Shelby with my dad years ago. We saved the car but I still have burn marks on my chest from that day.
 

M91196

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Wow, glad it all worked out.
Had a cast flywheel explode thru stock bell housing on a 1-2 shift and send pieces everyplace including cutting the steering shaft , destroying the master cylinder and breaking the back of the small block 350 apart. The oil spray on the headers caught fire so after the tree stoppped the car it was burning like crazy.
Luckily a low bed operator(heavy equipment hauler) was passing thru and put out the mess.
I have an extinguisher in every car and 3 in my oversized 2 car.
 

biminiLX

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Nice save Goose! Man I'd cry for you if you lost that collection. Good reason not to run cats :)
Where's the Teal?
I have my engine/trans out for either a Coyote or Terminator swap.
Hope everyone takes this to heart and has an extinguisher in the shop/garage.
-J
 

Goose17

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Nice save Goose! Man I'd cry for you if you lost that collection. Good reason not to run cats :)
Where's the Teal?
I have my engine/trans out for either a Coyote or Terminator swap.
Hope everyone takes this to heart and has an extinguisher in the shop/garage.
-J

It was out of frame of the picture:

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CobraBob

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Thank God you hadn't walked into the house and closed the door. Everything worked out well for you. I can't even imagine dealing with the loss of those awesome cars. Do you have smoke detectors in your garage? If not, you should consider it. Just added insurance going forward.
 

flattrack53

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Nice save Goose! Man I'd cry for you if you lost that collection. Good reason not to run cats :)
Where's the Teal?
I have my engine/trans out for either a Coyote or Terminator swap.
Hope everyone takes this to heart and has an extinguisher in the shop/garage.
-J


You want to do a coyote swap. I love mine!
 

Jason95R

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Wow- Could have ended very differently. Nice catch and a perfect example of why everyone should keep a fire extinguisher in the garage.
 

Mojo88

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Nice save! I have a bunch of extinguishers in my garage, and one in my kitchen too!!
 

biminiLX

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You want to do a coyote swap. I love mine!
Problem is my brother is letting his Terminator combo go and I'm also doing IRS and the '93/03 SVT theme may be too strong to pass.
On the Coyote, those '15 long blocks are strong with street boost combos.
Can't go wrong either way except pushrod sound.
Pics?
-J
 

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