My burnt up 71 GSX and her 72 GS clone

Terrible. All we can do is cross our fingers it was insured properly and they live up to their end.

 

Okay, after unloading one huge fire extinguisher & smaller one on an elderly woman’s car I was given some critical information on dealing with electrical fires.
Not really relevant here with carb fire & then the water just causes it to spread (don’t ask me how I learned that at 8 years old & my GI Joe’s “secret map” that needed to be destroyed with gas!)
On the carb fire just throw a towel(preferably not soaked with grease or other accelerants!) or anything else (including the Led Zeppelin short off your back) you’d rather lose than your car to cut off its oxygen supply.
For an electrical fire in progress on a car the process is NUMBER ONE: DO NOT be standing over the hood & ready to yank open the hood & dive into what is going on because when you whip that hood open and immediately introduce more oxygen you will get singed at the very least, or blow torched, so stay real low and open it slooooow (low & slow).
NUMBER 2 : obviously there will still be already active fires to deal with but you have to cut the battery cable to kill the power source that otherwise still connected will burn your car to the ground.
I know that’s a No duh Sherlock that’s why dragcars have cut offs but for folks that haven’t run cut off switches & your baby is burning down the knee jerk move is fire extinguishers or whatever else is handy.

So low & slow open the hood, it will initially flare up from extra oxygen but then go down some, once that has happened do what you have to in order to kill that battery power. I leave my battery terminals very snug but with a shot of fear adrenaline I would have it off in seconds, the fire fighters carry bolt cutters so they can just quickly snip them to kill the power source & then address the active fire.

I can feel the eye rolls of those who already know this but I wanted to plant the seed of what to do for those of us that have never encountered this & that is not the time to rip open a hood & figure it out.

So sorry about your car brother, what a heart breaker
: (

 

any plans with the burnt car ? sell? part out ?

 

Wow! That fire sure sucks John. I hope no one was hurt and that you can salvage something for that rare 71 GSX. Your wife's 72 GS clone is nice. I had a similar issue like Darren (docgsx) with my cig lighter causing smoke/fire in my convert. Luckily I was in the garage when I saw smoke coming out of the car after a cruise. I keep a fire extinguisher near now.

 

That’s just too bad, fires suck.

 

Been there lost two in a fire, so sorry

 

How did the carb backfiring burn the car down?
the backfire would have been contained inside the air cleaner housing.
Did you have a major fuel leak?

 

Anybody know?

 

Been wondering this as well...
set an engine bay on fire as well but the air cleaner was not on the carb...nearby power washer helped put it out fast...

My biggest fear as well...it spreads so very fast...

 

Seems the interior is completely engulfed in flames, not much coming from under the hood

 

Sorry for the loss. Nice ride, hope it's going to get rebuilt.

@john, i for one thank you for the run down of how to handle car fires. You think you'll do the right thing until your faced with FIRE. Can't help but panic some. Maybe your words will hit some one faced with this reality. I always unhook my battery as well but have been thinking about a simply cutoff. I think it's time.