I stopped for lunch today, in a sand quarry, in the Humboldt county, NV desert, took about half an hour, then started up.. Immediately we got moving, i smelled chemical smoke, and stopped - smoke came out of the hood, by the hinges, then at the front, but i was not in a safe place, so we let it run down the hill to a wide bit, rescued the computers, most of the food stuff, the spare water, and then ran to the back, got out the firefighting kit, and tools, then got out of the way, as by now the front end was fully involved. Within 9 minutes, the tank had exploded and set the desert alight, so we rushed back and got that dowsed with sand. But the Jeep is history.






I am a retired #2 engineer on a Wild Land fire crew, so I know how to both put out a fire, and not start one. I did not park on vegetation, there was no scrub nearby, so I did not contribute to the conflagration - It started high on the firewall, with flames at that height, and no ground fire, but very rapidly spread through the firewall, and then the ground fire started with melted plastics. Within 9 minutes everything was about over, the wheels melted, glass rivers on the hood, and every hinge gone.

This is a warning to anyone who has a 2010 Rubicon - something went wrong, and it burned rapidly - I am glad I was not moving fast, and could stop safely - had this have happened on the highway, it would have been different. The fire broached the firewall, before any ground fire happened.





notice the door fell off, and the rear hatch was also hanging down. The body twisted some, and the wheels melted into rivers of burning metal - kind of cool to see, if it hadn't have been my Rubi burning.

This was Rubi, brand new, before I put the bumper and winch on him, with a lot of other goodies - none of which contributed to the blaze.


Six months, 15500 and some miles. Something went wrong, check your JKs guys.

All of these photographs taken by cell phone, I lost my cameras in the blaze. The weirdest thing was I stopped the engine, took out the keys - I still have them, and as we moved away, I looked back at the burning jeep, and the windshield wipers were operating. How did it do that???

 

Wow! I am sorry to hear about your loss, but at least your ok.

 

I'm sorry to hear about that so you have no clue how it started? Did you have the fire department investigate it or is that only with houses?

 

glad your ok, sorry about the jeep. sucks

 

sorry that happened. At least everyone is ok

 

oh man, that is just crazy!! i'm glad to hear you're okay and i'm really sorry to hear about your loss. if you had an auto, i would have said that the fire might have been started by an over heated tranny but, i see that you have a 6-speed so that can't be it. if the fire started up by the firewall, all i can think of is that it probably started at the battery. did you recently wire anything up to it - new lights maybe?

 

very glad you're okay, what a crazy thing to happen. good thing you were able to get you and your stuff out in time. Jeeps can be replaced. not so much people

wonder what happened?

 

Nothing electrical added since I fitted him out, in April. I am anal about checking things, and this morning oil was fine, nothing looked wrong, no odd noises driving, did about 26 miles before lunch, stopped for half an hour, on sand, so no grass catching. It burned so fast - I reckon something was accelerating it, maybe fuel or brake fluid. Not what I would expect from a trail rated vehicle. Luckily I still have a TJ, stored in Indiana, just have to rent something to go get it.

I researched fires in JKs and there seem to have been a lot of them. Ain't hindsight wonderful.

We couldn't get out the cameras, or the 4gb cards, and a load of other stuff you forget you are carrying, like my First Responder first aid kit - those things are expensive. The fire extinguisher did nothing.. worked ok, just did no good.

 

sorry for your loss man i feel your pain :/

 

Thats horrible. Sorry bout your jeep man. glad you and your passengers made It out safely