Overspeeding for long time can cause fire in vehicles: Official

Hyderabad: The police have written to Maruti Suzuki to conduct a detailed probe into reasons behind car fires. This follows a recent incident in which Mr G. Venkata Giri, a senior assistant manager working at Gangavaram Port, was charred to death, when a Maruti Suzuki Celerio he was driving on Outer Ring Road of Sultanpur village under Ameenpur police station limits, was engulfed in flames, charring him.

The Telangana State Fire Department receives at least one vehicle fire complaint every day. Officials accorded various reasons for the fire but said most were caused by short-circuits in the engine area.

Regional fire officer V. Papaiah said overspeeding for a long time could be a reason for internal fires in vehicles as faulty wires sometimes catch fires. External fire, he said, are caused from coming in contact with a high-tension wire, or somebody setting the vehicle ablaze or smoking inside the car.

Regarding the Ameenpur fire, Mr Papaiah said, “Even if the car was speeding, it was not a great distance for the engine to get heated. Chances are that a short circuit because of faulty wires caused the fire.”

The police, clues team and transport department officials who inspected the scene, came to a preliminary conclusion that blazes erupted in the car from the engine portion because of a short circuit.

Ameenpur inspector Mr S. Prabhakar said: “Some eye-witnesses said the smoke emanating from 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.”

“After receiving information from the customer, a surveyor will be appointed to look into the claims matter,” said an official from IFFCO Tokio General Insurance company on the condition of anonymity. “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.”

“Every day, the State Disaster Response and Fire Services department receives at least one or two calls on an average about fire in a moving vehicle,” RFO Mr Papaiah said. “The vehicles are mostly cars and goods vehicles. Most of the time, the reason is a short-circuit because of faulty wires.