Fire in a prius

There was a member in the United States, had his Prius go up in flames. It was in his driveway in front of garage, there was some damage to front of garage too I think.

He's got a thread here; can't find just now but there is something. Toyota was investigating, not sure if anything conclusive came of it.

At least you're ok, all the best.

 

Sorry to hear of your harrowing experience, but I remember reading hereabouts of a headlight unit getting very hot to the point of melting the plastic! I think the cause was determined to be a badly fitted headlamp-bulb. "search" for "HID melt headlamp" might dig out the thread(s). BTW, welcome to PriusChat - the very best place to learn all you'll ever need to know about your (flaming (sorry)) Prius! - Wil

 

OP: please, please report the incident to NHTSA, this is a huge safety issue.
File a Vehicle Safety Complaint | Safercar.gov | NHTSA

these are obviously rare events, but if that happened to me, i would have lost a house, all my belongings, and maybe even my family. these are serious things.

 

What type of headlight was it? Halogen? HID? LED?
Was the bulb replaced recently?

 

funny how this never happens to priuschat members. guess we've got our guardian angel danny watching over us.

aftermarket mod?

it's amazing how few alt fuel vehicle fires there are.

 

So glad you are OK.
Just to be clear, you are saying passenger side front head lamp region.

Yes we had one similar USA Gen3 report earlier...long thread...should be easy to find. There were a couple other fire reports, but the one is the most obvious match.

How many miles on the car? We are in the same boat as you, the other case we have the car was destroyed and no cause was given.

The general specific causes I guess would be electrical, fuel leak, other leak (lubes/antifreeze). The general root cause could be orig equip defect, after market mod, faulty maintenance ( say loose plug or something), or some deterioration mode, say winter road salt.

It's like HV battery life, I bet internally Toyota must have some good data. But we do not. We just have a small sample of owner reports, sometimes trolls.

 

i found it, here: 2010 Prius Caught Fire | PriusChat

there is one thing in common, both fires started in right front end. there is nothing major electrically there, except for AC compressor. there was also some speculation in the previous thread about coolant leak on an exhaust pipe.

 

Yeah that's the one most similar

 

Not that it is the reason for the fire, but the AC compressor is an electric pump. If a pump bearing fails, it can cause high heat and ignite something, perhaps. It could be an electrical fire.

My 1999 Ford Ranger had a recall for the cruise control system starting a fire. It could happen at any time, even sitting in a garage in the middle of the night with the ignition off.

 

Automobiles catch on fire every day. I would not pop the hood as that will feed the flames. From:
Vehicles


U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 152,300 automobile fires per year in 2006-2010. These fires caused an average of 209 civilian deaths, 764 civilian injuries, and $536 million in direct property damage.

Facts and Figures

• Automobile fires were involved in 10% of reported U.S. fires, 6% of U.S. fire deaths.
• On average, 17 automobile fires were reported per hour. These fires killed an average of four people every week.
• Mechanical or electrical failures or malfunctions were factors in roughly two-thirds of the automobile fires.
• Collisions and overturns were factors in only 4% of highway vehicle fires, but these incidents accounted for three of every five (60%) automobile fire deaths.
• Only 2% of automobile fires began in fuel tanks or fuel lines, but these incidents caused 15% of the automobile fire deaths.

Source: NFPA's "Automobile Fires in the U.S.: 2006-2010 Estimates" report by Marty Ahrens, September 2012.

NFPA does not test, label or approve any products.
Updated: 5/13

 

Surprised your insurance company doesn't seem to want to investigate.

I think The Prius is a complex machine. There are probably a lot of things that could happen to cause a fire. But if nothing is visually obvious, then it would take an investigation.

If nobody wants to do it, or thinks it's worthwhile, then I suppose I'd just be happy my insurance wasn't balking, and accept the check, assuming it is a fair settlement, and I'd start looking for my next vehicle.

 

That is for vehicles in the U.S.A. The OP is not even in North America, so needs to find a similar agency in his own country.

 

The OP has also not been seen here since five minutes after making the post:
E Silver | PriusChat

 

..but we have 20 post rule, right? no more than 20 posts unless OP comes back.

 

i'm in.

 

Hello,
Glad you are all ok. Our 2010 Prius caught on fire in February in the middle of the night while we were asleep. The fire started by the right front headlight. It had been serviced the day before. Our house was a total loss due to fire and/or smoke & water damage. Yes, we had smoke detectors but they are not in the garage (that would be a good law I think) so by the time we woke up the house was in flames. Fortunately we all survived and were able to get out of the house. I tried to add our story to a previous chat about Prius fires. Toyota has been most unhelpful. Just FYI. Best wishes to you.
-Kirsten

 

Wow per below...how do you know it was headlamp? and any idea of mechanism about how that could happen?

Good point about garage safety. The overall point as we go to more electrified cars, the incidence due to electrical could increase, and of course we are saying all vehicles are susceptible. So a garage fire is a generic issue. I was just looking at an old alarm system we have in the attic maybe I could put the speaker in the garage and hook up a fire detector.

 

I put a smoke detector in the garage when a serial arsonists was on the loose in the region, decades ago, targeting garages and carports.

 

Even though not code, it is a good idea to have a commercial fire break door between the garage and the house. If there is living space bordering or attached then it should all be fire rated, even the drywall, studs, and insulation. Not minimum code, so your basic crappy house won't have it. It makes sense though, you have buckets of paints and chemicals just sitting there in the garage along with 1 or 2 or 3 large metal masses with gasoline bombs in them parked in your house. Nobody should think that vehicles are completely safe. Also a good idea to have a smoke detector that can detect heat as well as smoke and a separate carbon monoxide detector, hopefully linked to other alarms in the occupied area of the home. If an alarm sounds in the garage and only the garage, is it really an alarm?

As JimN pointed out, car fires happen all the time. It is not uncommon at all. A bit of gas hits a hot engine, an electric something overheats, or one of a thousand other things happen. The Prius is no safer or less safe than other cars from the data.

Unfortunate it happened, but I would take the insurance company's "blah" attitude about it as reassurance that they deal with it all the time. Important thing is that you're safe.