Jeep Mysteriously Catches Fire…Freak Accident or Something Freakier?
As one Wrangler owner found out the hard way, you never know what might happen on an off-roading adventure.
If you’re reading this, chances are you spend more than your fair share of time out on the trails. After all, owning a Jeep and not taking it off-road is kind of like buying a Les Paul when you can’t hit a riff. It just doesn’t make sense. Thus, most of us go out and buy all kinds of cool kit that enables us to take our Jeep just about anywhere. And even though we like to think we’re prepared for the worst, it’s fair to wonder if we truly are.
Thus, this video from Coyote Works is an excellent wake-up call. Casey Kaiser is much like most of us, just a guy who routinely takes his Jeep Wrangler on camping/overlanding trips. His recent journey to the most remote deserts in Oregon started out perfectly normal. Roughly 30 miles out, Kaiser hopped out to open a gate blocking his path. And that’s when he noticed smoke coming out of his hood. This seemingly came out of nowhere, as everything was running fine up until this point.
Of course, Kaiser’s first instinct was to put out the fire. He emptied his fire extinguisher and a couple of gallons of water, which seemed to somewhat get the flames under control. Unfortunately, the fire had already spread to the interior and things were escalating quickly.
At this point, most people would simply freak out. But Kaiser kept a cool head and quickly realized he couldn’t save his Jeep. “I immediately started directing my efforts toward pulling some basic survival supplies out of the vehicle in case I was stuck out there for a few days,” he says. “Around this time I also decided I needed to grab the full fuel can off the back of my Jeep to keep it from adding fuel to the fire.”
Kaiser also had the foresight to build a fireline or firebreak around the burning Jeep to prevent it from spreading to the surrounding forest. “I spent almost two hours intermittently fighting range fires and trying to cut fireline in around the Jeep. The whole time I just kept thinking that no matter what happens, I cannot let this start a range fire. If a range fire gets started out here, it’ll burn for 16,000 acres before it stops.”
Kaiser made this his top priority, in fact, over his own comfort, which is an impressive and selfless act. But he also brought along plenty of survival goodies, including a full week’s worth of food and more than enough stuff to sustain him for a while.
He made it out, thanks to his buddies, of course. And five days later, a recovery crew was able to snag the crispy Jeep from the desert. Sadly, the Jeep is obviously a goner. But at least its death won’t be in vain, because this video teaches us several excellent lessons.
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