Truck blows tire, bursts into flames in dallas

That is pretty ironic, sucky though.

 

THE DRIVER DID'NT BLOW A TIRE

Sounds like a wheel bearing went out.... It happens! And the wheel starts to come off. Also, the bearing will be running metal on metal creating heat, friction, & sparks. Which in turn creates a issue with grease & oil associated with the wheel bearing & king pins.... I'm guessing that is where the fire & black smoke came from.

Now if he would have ran to get his fire extiquisher (that's why we carry them) and used it, he most likely would of put the fire out & saved everything else...

 

I don't have any first hand fire experience here but, wouldn't a fire due to a blown bearing be almost impossible to extinguish with a chemical extinguisher? I would think that there would be more than enough latent heat in that hub/axle to reignite the grease once you exhaust your small extinguisher.

I've watched a few different vehicle fires on the road, two were axle/hub fires on big trucks, and each time it took large amounts of water too cool the axles in order to completely put out the fire. The first one I witnessed the driver was fighting the fire with his extinguisher when the tire exploded, sending him running for his life. He couldn't hear when the EMS folks got there but he's lucky the outside of the tire wasn't on fire when it ruptured. That could have plastered him with molten rubber. One of the police officers told me the guy should not have been trying to put it out for that reason. He said once there's enough heat in the axle or brakes to ignite grease/oil there's no hope unless you can cool it down.

Any firefighters here have experience and care to weigh in?

 

i had a trailer wheel barning go out like that. i was in fog in WY and couldn't see the smoke but a driver called me on the CB. when i stopped and checked the trailer i saw the fire, ran back to the cab and ran back with the fire extiquisher and PUT IT OUT.... only fire damage was two tires and one air bag......

86file it only takes a 1sec blast to put out the fire. if it re-lights then again a 1sec blast. each time you put it out it cools some it took 6 shots to put out my trailer wheel bearing fire and still had 4 or 5 more shots left. the key is to NOT TO WASTE it all at one time you don't need to shoot the hole extiquisher at once, it realy doesn't take much to put out a small grease/ brake fire and the cop you talked to is full of it...! the reason you have seen them use LOTS OF WATER is because that is what the fire dept does. i have seen lots of drivers put out grease/brake fires with one extiquisher but YOU need to remember that the extiquisher we keep in a truck is bigger than what you keep in your car and it's B(gas, oil, grease) C (electrical) rated. and i have put out car engine fires with it also and just to be safe i have 2 on the truck but i have never had to use both to put out a fire.

 

one of the dm's that i work beside got a call from one of his drivers recently and the driver said my rear truck tire is on fire my rear truck tire is on fire, thats all he could say. the dm said call 911 after the driver stop yelling about his tire being on fire, he actually heard the dm say call 911. luckily enough it wasnt anything major and the driver only lost the whole tire and i would imagine the rim

 

From first hand experience.... I will tell you that a truck extinquisher will put a wheel bearing fire out.

The only difference between my fire & this joker's fire is that I had enough sense to know to grap the extinquisher... This joker saw smoke & ran like a little girl.

 

That's what I was thinking. Bad bearing.

I saw this on a Goodyear TV show. Once a tire get to a certain temperature a chemical reaction occurs in the rubber and the heat is self generating. Once it gets to that point, there is no stopping it. That's why they are great for starting bon fires! Pulling over is the worst thing you can do. But with a mechanical failure, you have no choice. Your only hope is to cool the wheel and hub down with a fire extinuisher to keep the tire from getting too hot.

I watched a few newbies overheat their brakes coming down a mountain. The first thing they do is pull over. Wrong!!! In that instance, keep driving and stay off the brakes. The wind will help cool everything down. It's not like a wood fire where wind feeds it. It's metal and brake shoes you are dealing with. If you stop, the heat starts radiating towards the wheel and out the tire. That guy had no choice but to stop before the wheels fell off. Lose, lose situation.

It's a good idea when you stop and do a tire check to put your hand on each wheel. If there's a problem, the hotter wheel will let you know and raise flags.

 

The cause of the fire the majority of the time is a bearing burning up due to a lack of lubrication so there should be no residual grease/hub oil remaining to keep the fire flaring up.

 

Its easy to say what you would do, but when it happens, its not always going to go as you planned. I always figured if I ever had a trailer fire I knew I could not stop id dc the truck from the trailer asap, but probably would forget it while freaking out about it being on fire.