Vehicle Fire: What to Do and How Fire Damaged Cars Are Recovered

A car fire goes from a smell to a total loss faster than almost anyone expects. Once flames reach the engine bay properly, the plastics, fuel and insulation give a fire a fully involved vehicle in a few minutes.

Nobody should be hurt by one. Cars are replaceable and every serious injury in a vehicle fire comes from someone underestimating how quickly it moves or trying to save something.

The warnings that come first

Fires rarely start without notice. What people miss is that the notice is not always smoke.

A sharp electrical or hot plastic smell is the most common precursor, and it means insulation is melting somewhere. Fuses that blow repeatedly, lights that flicker, or electrical systems behaving oddly are the same signal.

A smell of fuel while driving means a leak, and a leak near a hot exhaust is a fire waiting for its moment.

Oil or coolant on a hot exhaust manifold produces smoke and a burning smell before it produces flame. Rapid overheating with steam can turn into fire once things melt.

Any of those means stop and investigate, not press on and hope.

If you see smoke or flame

The sequence, in order, and quickly.

Pull over now. Not at the next junction, not somewhere more convenient. Every extra thirty seconds of driving forces air through the engine bay and feeds the fire.

Engine off. This stops the fuel pump, which is the single most useful thing you can do.

Everybody out. Do not stop for bags, laptops, shopping or the contents of the boot. Get the children out and go.

Move upwind and at least a hundred metres away. Further if you are on a slope below the car. Fuel tanks, gas struts, tyres and airbag units all fail explosively, and the smoke is genuinely toxic, full of burning plastics and, in an electric vehicle, hydrogen fluoride.

Call 999. Fire service, and give them the road, direction and anything identifying nearby.

Warn others and keep people back. Bystanders walk towards car fires with phones out. Do not let them.

Do not open the bonnet

This is the instinct that injures people.

An engine bay fire is partly starved of oxygen with the bonnet down. Releasing the catch and lifting it delivers a rush of air onto the fire, and the result comes straight up into your face. Serious burns to hands, face and airway are the standard outcome.

If you must do anything, and only if the fire is genuinely small and you have a proper extinguisher, release the catch and direct the extinguisher through the gap without raising the bonnet.

Honestly, though: do not. A handheld extinguisher holds a few seconds of agent against a fire that is being fed by fuel and molten plastic. If it is not out in the first attempt, you are standing next to a burning car for no reason. Get back.

Electric vehicles

EV fires are less frequent than petrol fires per vehicle, and much harder to deal with when they happen.

A damaged lithium pack can enter thermal runaway, where cells heat each other in a chain reaction. It burns extremely hot, it produces its own oxygen so smothering does not work, it takes very large volumes of water to control, and it can reignite hours or even days after appearing to be out.

Practical implications: get much further away, tell the fire service it is electric when you call, and expect the vehicle to be quarantined afterwards, often outdoors and well away from other vehicles and buildings, for a period of observation.

Our EV recovery guide covers the rest.

Recovering a burnt out vehicle

Once the fire service has extinguished it and declared the scene safe, the vehicle still needs to come away, and it is not a normal load.

Nothing on it can be assumed to work. Tyres are usually destroyed and may have burned down to the rims, so the car will not roll. Brakes may be seized by the heat. Bearings and suspension components may have lost their grease and their temper. The structure itself may be weakened enough that lifting points are no longer trustworthy, and glass will have shattered across everything.

So it is skate and winch work onto a flatbed, planned rather than improvised, with attention to where the vehicle can be pulled from without it deforming. Fire damaged vehicles also drip contaminated water and fluids, which matters for what it is loaded onto and where it is stored.

Tell us it is a fire damaged vehicle when you ring. It changes the truck, the equipment and the storage.

Afterwards

Do not attempt to start or move a fire damaged car under any circumstances, even if the fire looked small and localised. Heat destroys wiring insulation, brake hoses and fuel lines in ways that are invisible, and a car that seems drivable can lose its brakes.

For the insurance claim: photograph everything before it is moved if you safely can, get the fire service incident number, and report it to your insurer promptly. Most vehicle fires are total losses and the claim is usually straightforward, but the incident number matters.

If the fire followed recent work on the car, keep the invoices. Fires caused by poor repairs are recoverable from the garage.

Calling us

SRL Recovery attends fire damaged vehicle recovery across Glasgow and Central Scotland, twenty four hours a day. Call 01698 700970 once the scene is safe.

Quick answers

Should I try to put out a car fire myself? Only if it is very small, you have a proper extinguisher and a clear escape route. Never open the bonnet to do it.

How far back should I stand? At least a hundred metres, upwind, and further for an electric vehicle.

Can I drive the car if the fire was small and went out? No. Heat damage to wiring, brake lines and fuel lines is invisible and dangerous. It needs recovery and a full inspection.

Are electric car fires different? Yes. They burn hotter, resist extinguishing, and can reignite later, so the vehicle is stored and handled differently afterwards.