Heather and I are trying to figure out the exact cause of Lady Antebellum's backup singer bus fire. They said a tire blew and then they saw smoke. Can a tire blow merely in and of itself cause a fire? Or was the driver driving on it too long? Or was it a brake fire that went unnoticed that cause the tire to blow and the ensuing smoke? Glad they were all safe. Happened here in Texas.
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.local12.com%2Ftemplate%2Fstories%2F2015%2F04%2F16%2Fimages%2FZTAyYTI4YjM3YWIz.jpg&hash=386844e19ef5a9f036e4d7fe7ff2ef8d42affd55)
Hey Scott, my guess would be they had a brake hanging up and it overheated, caught fire, blew the tire, and spread fast. I had that happen on a toter I had many years ago. Only difference was, I knew immediately that a brake was hanging, but there wasn't anywhere to get off the road because I was on a causeway over a swam. 2 miles later the flames came out the fender well and I came to a place to pull off. I was able to extinguish the flames before they did any serious damage. Sad part was the brakes had just been done less than 2000 miles prior and they wouldn't stand behind the fact that it was their part that failed.
Congrats on your forthcoming addition!
Will
Ok. I just wanted to be sure a fire this bad couldn't merely come from a blown tire alone (assuming you got off the road immediately and didn't drive on the blown tire a long time).
When i pulled the tires off my bus to work on the air bags.there a was a strip of grease 2 inches wide a about a 1 inch thick on the iner finders all 6. caused by the tires slinging excess grease off that was not whiped off when it was greased.a grease fire is bad.
I would wager that a tag caliper hung up and did not fully release when the parking brakes were released. The newer Prevosts have Knorr Bremse disc brakes with spring brakes on both the drive and tag but for some reason it is fairly common for the tag calipers to slightly hang. I have seen several fires caused by that and instructed our drivers to be aware upon brake release. Could have also been a flat inner drive tire but probably hot brake, melted seal, then tire ignited. The picture kinda makes it look like the tag area was the problem.
There was a H series that the brakes caused it to burn 3 weeks ago in Needles Ca it didn't make the news but everyone got out safe, it seems like we have 3 or 4 buses burn here every year.We passed a new Greyhound X3 last month that had a engine fire and the Prevost fire suppression did a good job keeping it from burning