Practical Advice if You Get Caught into a Car Park Fire or if Your Vehicle Catches Fire

Whatever the type of vehicle you are driving, it’s a good idea to learn the key steps to take, as "your IQ takes a little holiday" in such situation!

Australian Auto Expert John Cadogan just released an extremely informative video, with practical advice about what to do in case you get caught into a car park fire or if your vehicle catches fire.

Here is the transcript of his video, starting at minute 22, which you should really watch, as his practical, down to earth advice, is full of common sense and could save your life and that of other passengers, or at least prevent injuries.

As he stresses in the video, “your IQ takes a little holiday in circumstances such as those” so it’s a good idea to learn the key steps to take in such situation.

The first part of the video by Auto Expert John Cadogan is about the Luton fire and what caused it, mentioning past incidents with Range Rover vehicles.

Cadogan is very skeptical about the (current) official version of the Luton catastrophy and explains, in detail, why.

He also highlights the issue of car insurance costs, which may go through the roof, as we previously discussed in this blog.

TRANSCRIPT

Now before I let you go here's some actionable advice about an event that is doubtless coming soon to a city near you.

If you enter a car park just make sure you identify the nearest exits because there might only be the briefest window to affect an escape should Luton 2.0 kick off without warning, and dude it's always going to be without warning, because that's how these things happen.

If you are an inclosed space and if it fills up with thick choking smoke, hit the deck dude get low and crawl on your hands and knees if needs must. There's generally a far greater chance of breathable air down low.

And you got to talk to the kids about this one too because they might be out and you might not be around unthinkably enough and this could happen around them. They have to know what to do.

Despite the visual compelling aspect of events such as this, do not stand there like some freaking and plonker, intent on filming the whole exciting spectacle with your smartphone.

This is a potentially life-threatening event dude, and you're not a citizen journalist or at least on this one, you don't have to be one your function is simply to escape not get injured and live.

Do not waste valuable time that you could otherwise devote to a perfectly serviceable escape from all of that toxic shit.

If you find yourself in an open space and there are cars on fire and you don't know if they're combustion or electric, whatever, head upwind.

If the smoke is coming straight for you, move to the side first several meters and then head upwind.

Do not put yourself in that toxic cloud.

Like if you're at the scene of a car crash and the fire occurs, you got to be mindful of where the smoke is traveling and end up in a place that it's not going to.

Make every effort not to breathe that Hazmat crap.

If you are driving along one day without a freaking care in the world and, suddenly, you become aware that your car has caught fire, while it's in motion, it might be a really good idea to do this.

And you got to bear in mind that people often become aware of this problem only when motive power is lost like the accelerator seems not to be working.

All of a sudden you look up in the revision mirror and there's a big cloud of James Bond smoke behind you.

The reason you're so late in become aware is because you've been leaving all the smoke behind by virtue of your forward progress.

So, rapidly, identify a safe nearby spot to stop and quite important get there without crashing. When you get out, don't forget first to apply the handbrake.

Then when you're out, do a head count — so important. Make sure everyone is out of the car that's a real priority and I would argue something that you really don't want to fuck up.

Then you've got to all move together out of the path of the smoke and away from nearby moving vehicles.

And bear in mind, it's so hard to think clearly in a stressful situation because the way we're wired. Your IQ takes a little holiday in circumstances such as those.

This nearby traffic is going to pose a very real hazard to you outside the vehicle.

A lot of those drivers, they're just not going to be devoting sufficient attention to driving because they're all going to be rubbernecking the entertainment that you've provided.

And you really don't want to be standing in a spot where they might hit you if they go slightly off course and maybe clean up you or the misses or the kitties or something unfortunate of that nature turning a bad day even worse.

And when you're all safe, preferably 50 to 100 m away from the fire, it’s a good time to call Emergency Services.

Don't forget, the batteries in particular can build up sort of enormous pressure inside them during a thermal runaway and this can throw fireballs and shrapnel rather along way, so best not be close by.”

And do not be tempted to approach the car even if the fire appears to have gone out.

The battery could easily still be running away thermally, building up immense pressure and evolving itself into an hand grenade.

Remain at a safe distance dude and let the fire brigade handle it.

It's got me absolutely fucked why there is not a public education campaign about all of this, given the number of fires we've seen recently.

This is like playing Russian roulette over and over and over and over, and just hoping that the hammer comes down on an empty chamber all the time.

In the context of human injury and suffering, isn't it this one of the great failures of leadership currently?

…

The last thing (politicians) want is an inconvenient speed hump made of facts to interrupt progress on the super highway to Electric Utopia.

END OF TRANSCRIPT

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See our own analysis of the Luton car park fire.

And also check this highly informative, and funny, video about the Luton car park fire.