New Dodge Durango catches fire during DC parade

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From Autoblog. http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/11/v...y-blossom-par/

Quote:
Call us partypoopers, but we're not all that big on parades. There's something about standing around only to see a bunch of floats passing by you that doesn't sound all that appealing. Now if said parade included a little unexpected action, we might be more inclined to enjoy ourselves, but we're not so sure the onlookers at the Washington D.C. Cherry Blossom Parade would agree with us.

After the jump is video of a spanking-new 2011 Dodge Durango Citadel as it sat in the middle of the parade route, spouting flames from the hood. A local NBC affiliate reports that the newly designed SUV began to spew black smoke while towing a float on the parade route. After the hood was propped up the black smoke turned into a full-on car-b-que that engulfed the engine bay in flames. The local fire department, which was likely already participating in the parade, later came and doused the blaze, but the incident prolonged the parade by about 15 minutes.

Hit the jump to watch the flaming Durango. We don't know how much the float it was reportedly towing towing weighed, and we also don't know which engine this Durango has under the hood. On the bright side, we didn't even know that the Durango apparently has a self-closing hood in the event of a fire. At the same time, whether it's operator error or a defect with the vehicle, having a brand-new SUV burst into flames in such a public way has to have Dodge reaching for the Mylanta. Either way, points to the band for continuing to play on! Thanks to all for the tips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWwS...layer_embedded
 
Wow, that won't be good. Wonder what happened, fluke, design flaw or operator error. Also, China is stopping imports of the wrangler from the us due to fire concerns, something to do with the automatic transmission. I've said lately that Chrysler was on fire, but this isn't quite what I meant.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick R
I've said lately that Chrysler was on fire, but this isn't quite what I meant.


lol.gif
 
I guess police cars don't contain fire extinguishers anymore. That one guy was walking around the vehicle with an extinguisher in his hand but never discharged it while the fire was small. Let's all stand back and watch a new vehicle burn...nice.
 
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True...it seemed to take forever to put that out, meanwhile, people are just standing around.....
 
They were probably arguing over jurisdiction. DC has an amazing number of little plots of land owned and managed by different entities. Parade route probably is the dividing line between two or more.
 
I had a year of fire and rescue classes and training in my criminal justice major. From what I recall, if you have a vehicle fire, especially in the engine bay, a small fire extinguisher will do nothing. You basically need a fire truck loaded with water to cool the engine and exhaust. The fire will just reignite.

At the police academy I was taught the same thing. Get far away, get the people back, and wait for the fire department. Even then, they may just let it burn.

A tank load of gas is very dangerous.

My friend is a CPD officer ( Chicago) he came across a car on fire, (engine bay). It was small, pulled out his extinguisher, emptied it into the bay, closed the hood. Walked away, a few seconds later, the car burst into flames again.
 
Well thank goodness it wasn't a GM SUV. It would've went viral and we'd never hear the end of it.
 
Originally Posted By: OriginalRocket
I had a year of fire and rescue classes and training in my criminal justice major. From what I recall, if you have a vehicle fire, especially in the engine bay, a small fire extinguisher will do nothing. You basically need a fire truck loaded with water to cool the engine and exhaust. The fire will just reignite.

At the police academy I was taught the same thing. Get far away, get the people back, and wait for the fire department. Even then, they may just let it burn.

A tank load of gas is very dangerous.

My friend is a CPD officer ( Chicago) he came across a car on fire, (engine bay). It was small, pulled out his extinguisher, emptied it into the bay, closed the hood. Walked away, a few seconds later, the car burst into flames again.


Great!!
I think I would at least TRY to put the fire out.
I have seen engine fires put out on race cars many times, quickly and effectively.
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Well thank goodness it wasn't a GM SUV. It would've went viral and we'd never hear the end of it.


I was thinking the same thing about if it was a Toyota. This thread would have 5 pages by now!
 
Originally Posted By: expat
Originally Posted By: OriginalRocket
I had a year of fire and rescue classes and training in my criminal justice major. From what I recall, if you have a vehicle fire, especially in the engine bay, a small fire extinguisher will do nothing. You basically need a fire truck loaded with water to cool the engine and exhaust. The fire will just reignite.

At the police academy I was taught the same thing. Get far away, get the people back, and wait for the fire department. Even then, they may just let it burn.

A tank load of gas is very dangerous.

My friend is a CPD officer ( Chicago) he came across a car on fire, (engine bay). It was small, pulled out his extinguisher, emptied it into the bay, closed the hood. Walked away, a few seconds later, the car burst into flames again.


Great!!
I think I would at least TRY to put the fire out.
I have seen engine fires put out on race cars many times, quickly and effectively.


I always wondered about fire depts emptying tons of water on a burning car. Thought water and oil fires didn't mix. Of course the fire probably started when oil hit an exhaust manifold and made its flash point from the heat. Take the heat away...

A cop would make a handy hero at least trying the fire extinguisher. He wouldn't look like a useless DB to bystanders at least.
lol.gif
But they could have a work safety rule that says stay back unless lives are in immediate danger, yadda yadda.
 
That isn't good. I wonder if they did anything to it as far as adding anything electrical to do with towing the float? Could have overloaded the wiring and started a fire?
 
It didn't look like the float even had much in terms of electrical on it (I could be wrong... who knows.)

Definitely not good publicity for Dodge!
 
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