The general condition of this car appears that it's driver (if not otherwise incapacitated) could have easily escaped
Posted on 02/09/2011 2:54:05 AM PST by crosslink
Edited on 02/09/2011 6:51:12 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Several sources familiar with the ongoing investigation tell WTOP fire and police investigators believe the radiator in Turton's 2008 BMW X5 was punctured when it rolled into a workbench. The halogen headlights, which emit a bluish light and illuminate the road better than conventional headlights, stayed on after the radiator was punctured.
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I don't know if it would eliminate it but it would greatly reduce the potential for that particular cause. My thinking has mostly been about whether she actually did hit a closed garage door and if so from inside or outside. I agree with another poster who said the firemen probably pulled that garage header down. I hadn't thought about that before.
I believe you’re probably right about the garage door header being pulled down by the firemen. I don’t think they did it by cutting through the roof as the header would have been attached to the front wall but it was flaming and they would have wanted to pull it away from the masonry and douse it. The garage door would have been attached to it so it may have simply come down when they were pulling down the flaming pieces of the door if it were in the open position.
I'd like to see where the pinpoint holes were in the radiator.
BTW, my van had a relatively exposed radiator ~ that was due to the fact the engine compartment was larger than that in a car. You could climb underneath and look right up at the radiator without any obstructions. My cars have always been more enclosed. It may be easy to hit the radiator in this particular BMW.
If you have a hot car suddenly spewing hot coolant as a fine spray (with teeny tiny particles with enormous areas compared to their mass) and the catalytic converter is hot as can be THEN that may have done the job.
I don't believe the lightbulb deal myself.
Not to push too hard on the point but people who drive their BMWs through their junkpile may be poking holes in the undercarriage stuff.
This time, I'm afraid, neatness counted ~ and they just weren't neat.
The problem with an entry door on the shared wall between garage and house is that, from the pics we have here, there is only one place it could be. That is near the front of the garage right next to the front wall. If there were to be a stairway from the basement up to the garage level the headroom needed for the stairwell would be very visible through the glass of the door on the stoop. The top of the stairwell, at the entry door to the garage, would begin about mid-way up the door on the stoop and cross it at an angle downward corresponding to the angle that the stairway descended. The stoop door would be unusable.
We need a better set of photos.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS375&q=800%20A%20street%20SE%20washington%20DC&um=1&biw=1344&bih=630&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il BEFORE THE FIRE
Would it be likely that she typically left the home from the basement? I guess that depends on what rooms they have there. The kitchen is usually the main "get ready for the day" room for most people. My bet is that the kitchen, living room, family room and the like are on the 2nd level of the three.
I just checked that "street view" pic again and discovered how it can be manipulated. Wow! That's amazing, I've never played with G-street view before.
I was wrong, there is no glass on the lower part of the door so a stairwell could not be seen if it cut across behind it. But the window to the right of the stoop, in the basement, would also be in conflict with a stairwell in that spot. I'm pretty sure the only way into the garage is the big door.
As someone said; it's no biggee with a remote door opener. With a remote car starter you could open the door and start the car from inside the house. Not a particularly good practice but one that is probably practiced by a lot of people. The car could have been all warmed up and ready to go when she came out and hopped in.
...The reason they opened the roof on that fire was because they could not get around the car to get into position and extinguish it completely.
By venting above it (or trying to) the idea was it would not CONTINUE to spread into the house which had a door 6″ from the free burning car with a garage full of flammable liquids and access from the interior was difficult.
The fire was traveling the ceiling which shared a common joist space with the garage. By venting the roof they hoped to stop the spread of horizontal fire from taking hold of the structure before they were able to completely open up inside. The house had multiple rehabs and was very cut up in its interior construction making it hard to open up close to the wall/garage.
Sounds as if the poster was there and is very familiar with the fire. If this house had multiple rehabs it is very possible some things were not done to code. The fire was could have resulted from an undetected defect relating to faulty workmanship and reached the that morning.
Well, OK, I sure didn’t see one in any pic and don’t see how it could be up front by the stoop. It could have just been faulty wiring in the garage ceiling. Opening the garage door might have been the trigger.
Cuts way down on the probability there would have been a can of gas in the garage.
Yes it does ~ not a chance. Rich people don’t mow grass. If they need grass for a party or something they’ll send out for sod!
(snort) lol
I did not see any either and if I had to judge by the pictures, I would say there was no door.
I should have qualified my previous post with ‘if the poster was a reliable source.’
Also, the original responders to the fire said they expected the vehicle had come into contact with some sort of flammable or explosive chemical substance.
I would expect this opinion was quickly reached because the automotive glass was blown inwards (versus outwards). The rear window was intact.
If there had been an explosion inside the car, it would have been readily determined such was the case as minimal glass would have been found in the vehicle.
I think whatever exploded was outside the vehicle.
I could be wrong again but I wouldn’t expect any kind of alcohol to explode with a lot of force. Alcohol burns very hot but it doesn’t burn with a lot of force. What was burning under the car could have just been automotive oil or grease. It’s kind of hard to put out an oil fire too.
Just to be clear, e-glycol is the active ingredient in anti-freeze. It is not an alcohol based substance.
As a side note....Pure ethanol (the same alcohol that is in booze) is considered to be close to an undetectable accerlerant as it tends to burn off completely (or evaporate) and not leave any trace elements behind as in the case of petroleum distillates.
The general condition of this car appears that it's driver (if not otherwise incapacitated) could have easily escaped
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