Passerby Helps Extinguish Vehicle Fire With Liquid Carbon Dioxide

Engine 3 was dispatched to a vehicle fire at the intersection of East Washington Avenue & South Sixth Street. There was no active fire upon firefighters’ arrival but there was some smoke coming from an open window.

Firefighters quickly identified there was a truck carrying carbon dioxide (CO2) in front of the car that had suffered the fire. The driver of that truck used a hose line from his vehicle to deliver liquid CO2 to the car that was burning. The CO2 snuffed out the fire, and Engine 3 pulled a hose line from their fire engine to further cool down and extinguish the fire with water.

Carbon dioxide is a known extinguishing agent commonly used on fires involving electrical or manufacturing equipment.

Damage from this vehicle fire was limited to the driver’s-side console and dashboard, as well as the area of the fuse panel. There were no injuries during the incident.

The vehicle owner reported there was work done on the vehicle recently involving wiring to the radiator. This fire appeared to have started in the area where the wiring work had been performed.