What Causes Car Fires? Car Mechanics Answer

Maruti Suzuki has been ordered by the police to conduct a probe into reasons behind their car fires. This comes after a recent incident in which a senior assistant manager working at Gangavaram Port, G. Venkata Giri, was charred to death, when a Maruti Suzuki Celerio went up in flames on the Outer Ring Road of Sultanpur village under Ameenpur police station limits.

A minimum of one case involving car fire comes to the notice of Telangana Fire Department. Car mechanics point to several reasons for car fires but maintain that a majority of them were caused due to electric short circuits in the engine area which they hold as the main reason for car fires. V Papaiah, a regional fire officer said that overspeeding for long hours could also cause internal fires. External fires are when the car comes in contact with a high tension wire, or somebody setting the vehicle ablaze or smoking inside a car, he added. “But even if he was over speeding, the distance covered was not too much for the car to catch flames. Chances are that a short circuit because of faulty wiring could have caused the fire,” said Papaiah. The transport department officials, Clues team and the police came to a conclusion after inspecting the spot that the fire was caused due to a short circuit.

Ameenpur inspector S Prabhakar said: “Some eye-witnesses said the smoke emanating from the front portion of the car was noticed when Venkata Giri was pulling the car to the left side of the four-lane road. Preliminarily, it is suspected that a short-circuit could be the only reason. However, letters have been addressed to the company that manufactured the car to give a report after inspecting what caused the fire.”

An official from IFFCO Tokio General Insurance company on the condition of anonymity said that after receiving information from the customer, a surveyor will be appointed to look into the claims:

“The reports given by the police, doctors and car manufacturers will be taken into consideration before providing the claim amount. If a technical glitch in the vehicle caused the fire or any factor other than due to smoking, the customer will get the claim amount.”

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