Williams Garage Fire

[Oneshortplanck]

good job the mg wheels didnt catch

[beelsebob]

Forgive my ignorance, but how would sprinklers play with KERS and / or electrical fires? Are they always a good idea?

Indeed – Lithium + water == bad. In fact... Fuel fire + water == bad... That said, I'm sure the designers of such systems thought of this, and are using a different suppresant than water.

[Just_a_fan]

Water mist systems would probably be useful. Used in places like nuclear submarines for example.

[Goran2812]

usually you would use certain chemichals when tackling fuel fire... foams, powders and such... are there any sprinkler systems out there that use it?

[radosav]

smart kid!
stick with the fastest guy of the day.
just kiddin'.
bravo Pastor!

[skwdenyer]

usually you would use certain chemichals when tackling fuel fire... foams, powders and such... are there any sprinkler systems out there that use it?

There's a liquid system called IIRC 'ColdFire' which is very, very effective on fires such as these. I believe it is intended to be used generally in F1.

[myurr]

usually you would use certain chemichals when tackling fuel fire... foams, powders and such... are there any sprinkler systems out there that use it?

Well data centres, where an electrical fire is more likely than others, use gas based systems like Halon but I'm not sure how well such a system would work in an environment where you have so many people (who'd all either need to get out or get a gas mask) and open fronted rather than sealed garages. Probably not very well.

[myurr]

Would something like this http://www.wimp.com/fireextinguishing/ work with F1 or as part of a 'sprinkler' system?

[myurr]

I'd also like to say hats off to Mike Coughlan and the other brave engineers who threw themselves in harms way to save others and put out the fire. There were a lot of brave men in the pits today.

[andartop]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/99605

FIA says 31 people treated in total. Hope everyone is ok. Hats off to everyone who helped put the fire out, otherwise there may have been casualties today. A day no one will ever forget for Williams!

[Robbobnob]

Can see Maldonaldo being Crowned King of Venezuela after that picture. Perhaps the fuel should be stored in a fire retardant foam bunker and then that bunker purged of oxygen and filled with CO2?? i know this happened whilst the fuel was being prepared for transport and unfortunately freak incidents happen, just as long as they can safe guard from the same mistake in the future.

[Hail22]

Does this mean Bruno Senna will be given a fresh allocation of engine, gearbox etc? due to damage/contamination caused by the CO2 gas cylinders to put out the fire?

Very plausible case.

Also heard the one who went to hospital with severe burns is from Force India, still unconfirmed.

[SiLo]

I was going to ask the same thing, what happens if there was damage to the car and part need to be replaced?

Also Maldonado! A fantastic win and even saving people from the fire. Give him an extra ten points!

[sknguy]

Hat's off to the mechs and crews. My thoughts are with everyone, and those caught in the blaze. Scary stuff actually.

[thearmofbarlow]

I, too, wondered why there didn't seem to be any response from an integrated fire suppression system, but put it down to perhaps a lack of agreement over what said system should be. Water is the last thing you want to put on a KERS fire, not to mention the damage in can cause as a result of a false alarm. Halon, and other compounds, are great for putting out most types of fires, but they're not always compatible with life or metal fires.

So what do you do?

I will not let this line be no-sold.

It astonishes me that with as many high fire danger components as there are in the average F1 car (KERS, fuel, magnesium) that overhead extinguishers are not mandatory for all circuits. Class ABC fires can be extinguished using one system. Class D (metals, like magnesium) would need their own extinguishers but you're usually taking about a localized fire in that case.

Did some tires catch fire in there? That much black smoke... oil maybe?