A scary, and what could have been a devastating experiance

[Shrimp]

This morning, I found out that our friends lorry had caught fire yesterday whilst being used and was burnt untill all that was left was bits of the metal work. Thank God, there were no horses (especially as two of the horses which had just been it in were'nt the lorry drivers own) in it when it happened otherwise that would have been devasting.
Luckily, the horses had just been dropped off at camp after Area showjumping and the lorry was being taken home when they think an electrical fault occured in the engine. The whole lorry (all 10/11 tonnes of it) was engulfed in flames within minutes i.e. before the fire brigade got there.
This lorry very rarely goes out without horses in and it was going up to an ODE on Saturday and then Peterborough in just over a week. Imagine if it had happened then, it gives me shivers just thinking about it

Sorry, if i'm freaking any of you out at all but I can still barely believe it, but it is only a big container of metal which can be replaced but people and horses cant.

 

[Haflinger]

Thats scary...lets be glad it didn't have any horses in it and no one got hurt!

 

[riotgirl]

Jeez, you are quite within your rights to freak out. It doesn't bear thinking about if there had been horses in it. Thank God the people driving it are ok. x

 

[Parkranger]

Doesn't even bear thinking about......could have been a complete tragedy.....

 

[JAK]

Thank god there were no horses onboard at the time & that the driver managed to escape unscathed!
It would have been difficult, if not impossible to have got any horses out easily & safely under those circumstances, especially alone!

Older lorries are sadly rather prone to electrical fires in the engine, as older vehicles tend to be full of flammable materials, e.g. grass that has blown up into the engine & mixed with the oily gunk, creating, effectively a 'wick', so when an electrical fault occurs...........!
Or the electrical fault has started a fire that has burnt through a hydraulic line for example, older oil-based hydraulic fluid being extremely flammable!

Have seen several lorry fires on the motorways over the years & they catch light at a a frightening rate of knots!
Again, thank god it was empty!

 

[Shrimp]

This lorry wasnt even that old! It was a new conversion about 3 years ago and the cab is no older than 10 years old but it shows it can happen to anyone at any time.

 

[alfirules]

that would have been scary, so glad it didnt hurt anyone!