Fire retardent car covers.

[Keith Clements]

Do you cover your car with a material cover?

Beware, a friend of mine did and had just put the car away in the garage after a run in it and returned to the kitchen. It was just lucky that his wife smelt the smoke through the kitchen extractor opening. On opening the garage door the flames were up to the roof and would have soon consumed the car, the garage and two houses. A spark from a battery charger had ignited the cover and which had then enveloped the whole car within minutes. Assessor estimated more damage to the car than the car was insured for!

Yes it took less than 5 minutes from the time the car was put to bed! The cover was 95 % consumed so that the whole paint surface, even under the car, was affected. The molten/ignited mass had burnt through the hood and ruined the interior as well.

It was an expensive cover that had been made for the 25 years and sold (allegedly) by Aston Martin and Rolls Royce with their cars. The cover was bought at Goodwood Revival.

Disappointingly most other car cover manufacturers do not use flame retardent material either, although (allegedly) this manufacturer now does.

It is certainly safer not to cover your car unless you know the material is fire retardent. A stray spark from a cigarette or grinder could ignite the whole car in less than a minute.

Probably worth cutting a small piece off and applying a flame. See if it self extinguishes, slowly smolders into molten mess or ignites and flashes across the whole remnant.

That is lesson one.
Lesson two is insure your car for more than you think it is worth!
Lesson three is have a fire extinguisher or sprinkler system installed.
Lesson four is double check all electrical connections and any other potental sources of combustion around your expensive toys before leaving the garage.

[Keith Clements]

A Google search gave this as a possible partial solution. http://simplyextinguishers.co.uk/fire-r ... spray.html

or
http://www.fireproofspray.co.uk/flamete ... s-60-p.asp
http://www.fireproofspray.co.uk/flamete ... d-64-p.asp