How safe are you at night in the pits!

[Michael Pliska]

I've had the misfortune of dealing with two fires at the races, both at WDRS (LODRS predecessor) events. One was a good friend and fellow S/G racer, during the day (after our last qualifying pass on Saturday afternoon). He was changing carb jets and spilled gas onto his headers which ignited, catching him and the car on fire. He was worried about the car and trying to put it out. I was able to help put the main fire out, but had a hard time getting more help when my extinguisher was exhausted and the grass was still burning (someone eventually showed up with a big agricultural sprayer with water).

The other occasion was much worse. It was late at night (this was in the early 90's when few people stayed at the track). I was there late along with my friend Steve Federlin, as we were both working on our cars (and pitted close together). We heard a big boom and saw the flash of an explosion from the top alcohol pits. It was at Jay Payne's trailer (back when he was driving TAD), and a crew member had apparently knocked over a drop light into a puddle of fuel, which ignited and caused the fuel cell to blow. By the time Steve and I got there (running with our large fire extinguishers), the side of the trailer was engulfed as well. We managed to put it out with handheld fire extinguishers. Every time I exhausted an extinguisher I looked back at the crowd (who was smart enough to stand back from the flames, unlike me and Steve ), and someone tossed me a fresh extinguisher. Apparently they were grabbing every extinguisher they could find, even those from unlocked but unattended trailers. When we had the fire out, Steve pointed at what I was wearing (an old pair of oil-soaked sweats, from working on the car) and said "are you nuts?". Only then did I realize he was wearing his SFI/5 firesuit (just like mine that was sitting in my truck). We also learned that the inside wall of the trailer wall on fire was line with fuel jugs, so it would have been ugly if it had made it inside the trailer. Jay was extremely grateful, and held a big pizza party in our honor the next night (ironically, Steve and I were both too busy working on our cars still to make it over there until the end). They managed to re-wire and re-plumb the race car and won the race.

I guess the moral of the story is to stop and think a moment, possibly use your racing firesuit for protection if fighting a fire in the pits. And ask more questions while trying to put out a fire (like if there are fuel jugs nearby that you cannot see). I had received basic fire suppression training at work, but those were items they did not cover.