Conversion fire 1994

[Timkar]

Was going through some pics my Dad sent me and found these ones he took
near Pilot Knob on his way to Yuma in 1994...Not much left of this one !!!

[TomC]

That must of been a fierce fire that just burned with no one putting it out.  Probably bus was stolen and burned for the fun of it.  Good Luck, TomC

[artvonne]

  About 14 years ago I was at a Pawn shop, when across the street at an RV lot we noticed smoke coming from the right front of a brand new 40 footer bus type motorhome.

  Everyone was calling 911, but it seemed forever before anyone was on scene. Before they arrived, we watched the smoke increase, and could actually see when it started burning inside, you could start seeing orange along the cieling. By the time Fire was on scene it was burning pretty good inside. Then the windshield and windows started to go. The Fire dept didnt do anything but protect the rigs around it, and just kept their distance. It was pretty spectacular to watch. You could tell when the fridge blew, and then the propane started venting and added to the blaze. Then the tires, and each one in turn blew and the rig slowly settled to the ground like some wierd giant dying animal. It looked about like this Bus here when it was over.

  These things will go up fast once the fire gets past a certain point. I mean REAL fast, like you better get moving right away. If you have any intent on saving your Bus you need to act rapidly. Get everyone out, and have a way out yourself before you make any attempt at fighting it. And in case you dont know, aluminum burns at high temperature, so whether its a Bus or a S&S, once its burning good it wont really matter who built it.

  We had an AM General from Minneapolis Transit Commision that we wrecked that had burned real bad. Can you imagine, we found MTC had disconnected the release handles and welded the window frames to the chassis on the outside so they could not be opened? We had to hang from the hand hold bars and kick the glass with both feet to bust the glass out of the frame. Your Mom would never have got out of it, thats for sure.

[happycamperbrat]

I kinda like the idea of putting plastic pipes in the walls and/or ceiling filled with water. If flames touch the plastic, it melts and water pours out..... just a thought....

[Fred Mc]

Keep in mind that this bus was mostly aluminum so a lot of it would have melted so it colapsed in the middle.

[belfert]

I kinda like the idea of putting plastic pipes in the walls and/or ceiling filled with water. If flames touch the plastic, it melts and water pours out..... just a thought....

Unless you got some really thin pipe I think the fire would be well out of control by the time the pipe burned or melted to release the water.  Another issue is that all the water is going to come out at one spot.  A fire sprinkler head spreads water over a fairly large area.  I also doubt you would have enough water to do much unless the pipes are attached to a tank or something.

You could probably experiment with things like wax plugs that melt, but I suspect you going to need the water pressurized to do anything.