Shop Safety Cannot Be Ignored

I had a scary situation last week in the garage that I’m sharing in the hope that others who read this will learn from my mistake. When preparing Ringo for welding, I removed the seats and rear carpet and pulled back the front carpet away from the driver’s door opening. I stopped at just pulling back rather than removing the front carpet since it was glued down and the gas pedal also held it in place. And since the floor was in good shape, I wasn’t going to weld in any patches there.

Part of my preparation for welding the rocker panel patch was to locate Ringo’s fire extinguisher. After checking to make sure the charge needle was in the green, I placed it on my workbench a few steps from where I was working. Then, to protect the carpet from sparks, I spread some rags over the exposed portions. I proceeded to don my welding garb and began making molten metal. The commensurate sparks flew, but I was very focused on the work at hand to give them much attention. After twenty minutes or so I noticed it was getting warm in the garage. I attributed it to the heaters I had going, but I decided to lose the sweatshirt I was wearing. At that point, I pulled off the welding hood and found out why it was getting so warm. The rags I had placed over the carpet were on fire. With my welding gloves still on, I gathered the flaming cloths and tossed them on the floor to stamp out the fire only to find that more than just the rags were burning – the backing on the carpet was also going up in flames. I quickly grabbed the extinguisher and put out both sets of flames.

After opening the garage doors, turning off the heaters, and turning up the overhead fan, I let the garage empty itself of the extinguisher powder fog before surveying the damage. I was very lucky (TYL) to find the only damage to the carpet was the burned padding and the slightly melted high-beam button grommet. I’d been afraid that I was going to have to shell out $$$ for a new carpet. I was EXTREMELY thankful that a little voice inside my head had reminded me to find the extinguisher and place it somewhere handy. Again a big TYL!

With all my years of working on cars, this is the first fire I’ve had to contend with. Yes Ringo had his engine compartment blaze a few years back, but that had been extinguished before I'd arrived. It was that incident that prompted me to make sure every old car I’ve got on the road carries an extinguisher. I highly urge all you readers to heed my warning – buy fire extinguishers, place them in a near and safe location when working on your vehicle, and periodically ensure they are properly charged.