In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled MORE EVIDENCE - 2 Miles from Lahaina Fire A Melted Car Surrounded by Gravel! D.E.W. or What? (IMAGES from video and video links), Tellurian wrote: Tire fires are hot. Once something ignited the tires (plastic bumper running into flying embers?), the melted Aluminum & Magnesium alloys in the wheels and engine is not surprising.
Am experiment with some industrial tires has a chart showing them reaching a high temperature around 1100 C very quickly (over 2000 F), and staying there for 20-30 minutes, slowly dropping as it burns itself out over an hour or two.
Tires are hard to ignite and slow to burn. These tires were reduced to dust.
"How hot can a tire fire get?
NTSB tests found wheel components can reach temperatures of 1,300 F. Tires ignite spontaneously at 800-900 F and will reignite over and over again even when suppressed because of the super heat created by the failed wheel-end components.Jul 16, 2007"I don't see how a bumper sets the wheels on fire. Bad design for a car. Not enough fuel and most materials that could burn were reduced to dust. Tires don't explain this.
Is Rubber Flammable?
Technically, rubber is not a substance that can burn. It is even used to put out fires and to make anti-flame materials. So you can say that rubber is not flammable. This is because it has a flashpoint (the temperature at which it catches flame) of around 500 to 600 degrees Fahrenheit, or 260 to 316 degrees Celsius – which is a heat point normally quite hard to achieve.
If it can come in contact with such a hot object exceeding its flashpoint, then the rubber will undoubtedly burn whether natural or synthetic. But that is hard to achieve in our day-to-day life.
What Makes Rubber Flammable?
Rubber is an oil-based material, especially synthetic rubber. Hence, it is not that it is not flammable – it’s just thick which makes it difficult for fire to catch and spread easily. Oil burns fast as a flammable liquid, so rubber too can burn for days, being oil in solid form. Thankfully, It is difficult to set rubber on fire because the majority of rubbers only burn at temperatures between 500 – 600°F (260 – 316°C).
Generally, car tires will appear to melt at around 1,000°F. But before they get to that point, they will break down at about 390°F and explode at about 750°F, all of which far exceed Arizona's hottest day. Car tires are made of specialized rubber polymers that make up what is called vulcanized rubber.Feb 16, 2022What temperature does rubber burn?Oil burns fast as a flammable liquid, so rubber too can burn for days, being oil in solid form. Thankfully, It is difficult to set rubber on fire because the majority of rubbers only burn at temperatures between 500 – 600°F (260 – 316°C).
I suppose the front grill is more likely. The car had probably been driven up the hill on that bypass road escaping the fire, directly into the downslope whole gale winds, with wood embers (900°F - 1650°F) and ash flying all about. The ash and embers lodged into the grill, likely plastic, and continued producing plenty of heat due to the stoking by the wind. Hard plastics ignition temperature is 416°F to 580°F. The grill ignited and eventually the flames were driven to ignite either an oily surface of the engine or the hoses or wires, or the boots around the shocks, or all of these. The smoke or flames forced the driver to stop, who was fortunately safely away from the worst of the fire by then. Being Hawaii, someone else, seeing the car's occupants near the burning car, probably stopped and gave them a ride.
The flames spread to the tires. Tires burn; I wouldn't call it extreme heat that's necessary to start vulcanized rubber on fire. Flame temperatures, especially when wind blown, are easily in the 800°F - 900°F range to do this. Once the tires were on fire, they would generate all the heat necessary to decompose or melt the non-ferrous metal alloys of the wheels & engine.