IndyExterior
New member
Sounds like he did a good job. A lot of people would have just watched it burn. Could have made a bad situation worse.
Rig Blew UP!!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter Ron Musgraves
- Start date
Sounds like he did a good job. A lot of people would have just watched it burn. Could have made a bad situation worse.
Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
We were that close to going up like that today. In town we only carry a partial gallon of spare gas on the coil cleaning truck. Our tanks usually hold plenty for most of the day between the two units.
But somehow that plastic can with a half gallon or so got pushed or vibrated down the flatbed and rested against the exhaust pipe and caught fire while the unit was shut off and we were just up on the roof closing units up.
A good Samaritan started blowing their horn and tried to put it out with a water bottle not realizing it was the gas jug under the PW engine that was on fire. Chris went down quick on the lift, started up the other pressure washer and had a heck of a time trying to put it out. The fire extinguisher that was supposed to be behind the truck seat somehow found it's way into the office and wasn't there when we needed it.
An employee of the store we were servicing came running with an extinguisher and put out the last of it. The fire department showed up a few minutes later and put down a lot of absorbents that we cleaned up ourselves.
It didn't do more than about $150 in damage to the pressure washer though. Chris was on the ball and probably saved the whole truck. He was the first one to the lift so all we could do was watch from the roof.
This is us cleaning up the last of the absorbent after the fire truck left.
The gas jug had slid right under the exhaust and the extent of the damage was just a lot of melted plastic.
BTW, the fire extinguisher is in the truck now..... :yikes:
But somehow that plastic can with a half gallon or so got pushed or vibrated down the flatbed and rested against the exhaust pipe and caught fire while the unit was shut off and we were just up on the roof closing units up.
A good Samaritan started blowing their horn and tried to put it out with a water bottle not realizing it was the gas jug under the PW engine that was on fire. Chris went down quick on the lift, started up the other pressure washer and had a heck of a time trying to put it out. The fire extinguisher that was supposed to be behind the truck seat somehow found it's way into the office and wasn't there when we needed it.
An employee of the store we were servicing came running with an extinguisher and put out the last of it. The fire department showed up a few minutes later and put down a lot of absorbents that we cleaned up ourselves.
It didn't do more than about $150 in damage to the pressure washer though. Chris was on the ball and probably saved the whole truck. He was the first one to the lift so all we could do was watch from the roof.
This is us cleaning up the last of the absorbent after the fire truck left.
The gas jug had slid right under the exhaust and the extent of the damage was just a lot of melted plastic.
BTW, the fire extinguisher is in the truck now..... :yikes:
Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
Me too!
innovativewash
New member
Tony,
You are very lucky my friend!
This brings back painful memories of last summer. I am still getting over our biggest rig going up (in the picture).
You are very lucky my friend!
This brings back painful memories of last summer. I am still getting over our biggest rig going up (in the picture).
Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
All I could think about last night was if we were working where there was no one driving by the truck would have been gone before we even noticed the fire.
A lot of guys say they can tell how their PW is performing from the sound of it running. We can't even hear it most of the time and we certainly can't see it.
I wonder if there would be some kind of way to install a fire suppression system on a truck like that?
A lot of guys say they can tell how their PW is performing from the sound of it running. We can't even hear it most of the time and we certainly can't see it.
I wonder if there would be some kind of way to install a fire suppression system on a truck like that?
Matthew Norman
Moderator
Wow Tony i'm glad everything is okay. I don't think I am going to haul my plastic gas tanks around anymore until I can get some metal ones.
Vince Wood
Active member
Maybe invest in a bigger fuel tank for the unit so you don't have to carry fuel cans around? When I had my van I carried 2 of the 5 gallon jugs in it. After I got my truck I went and mounted a 18 gallon fuel tank to the trailer. Never have to worry about stopping and re-fueling anything while on the job either. I can go about 12 hours straight on 18 gallons of gas and then over 20 hours on 50 gallons of propane.
Guy Blackmon
Roundtable Host 2009
Nick, that's why reading through all of the older posts are Super informative. Good Job Buddy! Knowledge Is Power.
TheCleaningDoc
New member
One thing to be aware of is that chlorine gas will deteriorate the insulation on wiring. When I was working in Alaska we had a phone line that ran through the shed with chlorine bottles and no matter what we used, even direct burial cable, we had to replace that section of line at least once a year because the phone would stop working.