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.
| 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: |
| 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. 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. |
No.I don't believe that this fire is 'normal.' Your scenario requires a series of unlikely events and does not provide enough fuel to burn a car hot enough and long enough to convert it into to ash.
The aluminum entire roof rack crumbles like dust - no matter how hot the roof of the car got, I don't believe it could burn the entire roof rack, not just the attachment points to dust.
If you put butter in a frying pan it doesn't uniformly convert to liquid, the edges melt first and it takes awhile. In the car fire, that lower temperature burn would consume fuel so at by the time the fire was at it's hottest there's not enough fuel left to melt the car and turn exterior features like the spare wheel to dust. Tires burn but as I posted elsewhere, they are not considered flammable.
I did not title the video - I had to use the original video's title. I don't think this has to be D.E.W. but I think this burn requires technology, not embers. I don't believe the scenarios wherein a grass fire vaporizes the spare tire bolted to the back of the vehicle, let alone all 4 tires. Everything done to a crisp. Not enough fuel, not hot enough, not long enough.
The second link at the bottom of my thread post shows equally unlikely pictures from the Paradise California fire- which was a forest fires that only burned houses down to the foundation slab (turned toilets and other porcelain to dust) but left all the greenery surrounding the houses intact. Seems like the public should find out what it is.