My 71 Lincoln Coupe caught fire!!!
The car was not destroyed, but I will have to check out the damage in the daylight tomorrow. I had been having an issue with a leaking valve cover and took it into the local shop to get it fixed. We got the car back this morning, and drove it to an appointment up in Portland.
No oil-smoke for almost the whole trip up, but as we were parking in the underground parking structure there was just a bit of oil-smoke venting from under the hood. Thinking that is was just a bit of left-over oil sludge burning off from the area of the exhaust manifold, I STUPIDLY didn't bother to check.
We went into our appointment. A few minutes later an assistant manager came into the room and asked who owned the big black car. Hmmmm, I wonder who that might be ? He said that he thought that the car was on fire. I followed the guy out of the room, but told him that it was probably just a little oil smoke. He grabbed my arm and said that he was sure this wasn't that.
I can't run anymore, but I certainly attempted to as we headed to the garage. I came out the emergency exit and saw that there was quite a bit more smoke coming out now then when we parked. I ran up and saw bubbling paint in a round spot on the hood. I knew that this was bad. I got the hood up, and whoosh!, there is a nice bonfire going next to the distributor cap.
The spark plug wires were all on fire on the drivers side, all the way down to the plugs. I yelled at the manager to get the fire department here right away! He flew back up the stairs. I tried to remember where in the damn trunk my fire extinguisher was, and realized that I had pulled it out to be recharged and recertified. That meant it was at home, in the garage.
I am getting a wee bit frantic now, because the fire is a little bigger and there is more smoke. I'm thinking that when the fire hits the fuel line coming into the carb, that will be all she wrote for the car. I just stood there for a second, and then saw the fluffy white pillow that my wife uses for her back laying on the rear seat. I almost tore the drivers door of the hinges trying to grab that pillow.
I stepped back in front of the car and started trying to beat the fire out. My wife was on the scene by then and I yelled at her to call 911, in case the manager didn't, or couldn't. The fire was smaller, but wasn't out. I rapidly unscrewed the battery isolator to cut electrical power to thruout the vehicle. Then I started pressing the pillow directly onto the burning plug wires, and trying to blow the other little flames out. And then, finally, it was over. Still smoking, but the fire was out.
I was now holding a filthy hot pillow and looking at a couple of small burns on my fingers when the manager reappeared. I let him know that the fire was now out, and asked him to call the Fire department and cancel. Just as I said that, I heard a siren as the fire department arrived. Just great. They checked the car to make sure that the fire was out and took my information down.
(the fire saga continues...)
