Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: Tellurian
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.

Burning Tire Temp Chart (Celsius 1000°C = 1832°F)

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.

81 posted on 08/30/2023 10:10:55 PM PDT by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies ]


To: ransomnote
I saw one Lahaina fire video of a couple who said they were driving around trying too breach the road blocks. They pulled into the Safeway parking lot and were told by occupants of another car that their car was on fire. They didn't know. The other people let them come into their car for safety. I don't remember if they weathered out the whole fire in that parking lot but the Safeway didn't burn.

The video that accompanied this telling also included a shot of a car driving along the edge of this parking lot which had it's roof on fire. I have no good explanation for that, but something on their roof was making flames - maybe they'd driven under a fallen/burning tree and snagged a branch. I appreciate that the title was not yours, and you're not saying DEW, but nonetheless a War of the Worlds evoking scenario of ray weapons is too far fetched for me. The political incompetence (religious water bureaucracy, old overburdened power poles, unchecked brush undergrowth, etc.) and government's paternalistic reflex (we know best which routes to channel you into) of this disaster are more disturbing issues than speculating about nefarious sources of otherwise explainable car fires.

The coming continued control reflex of government is going to be the kill-shot to Lahaina ever being what it was. They can't help it. They're in a position of authority; the elites are going to brainstorm for new rules and regulations to the point that the old residents (not wealthy in general) are going to be pushed down the road to other parts of the island. The somewhat bohemian whaling village of Lahaina will exist only in the trinkets sold in the gift shops.

84 posted on 08/30/2023 11:09:45 PM PDT by Tellurian (To the Dems, the middle class is a festering wound. They want it amputated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson