Semi went 'Splodey

[MiloMorai]

It was more likely to be a faulty inverter. Those trucks have fridge, microwave, laptop, tv, etc. for when at a stop. If the driver bought one at a truck stop the quality isn't so good and they tend to fail. Cheap price, cheap product.

Keep us posted. See who has the best guess?

Hey I didn't get snarky or break a rule. YAY me!

[Mamochan]

Looking at it, my guess there was 2 fires. the second photo shows what looks to be a class b fire, Note the thick black smoke. also, it seems to be coming from the drivers side fuel tank. The real question is what caught fire first since I highly doubt a fuel tank will spontaneously combust.

[Crossbow]

Looks like a sleeper cab, so he could have had a bunch of electrical stuff in there to short out. Easy enough to get truck-ready fridges, microwaves, tvs, etc. One good short, and bye bye!.

Hope the driver got out ok. That's a nasty one.


(And thanks for the pics. I needed a few new ones for my "dead semi" collection for work.)

[protege]

Looking at it, my guess there was 2 fires. the second photo shows what looks to be a class b fire, Note the thick black smoke. also, it seems to be coming from the drivers side fuel tank.

The black smoke could be from the truck's interior burning. Foam and rubber tends to generate thick black smoke. Plus, once that crap starts melting, it can easily drip down...onto things like the fuel tank. With that said, the fire appears to be from something inside the truck--a power inverter failing, the heater burning out, or even some wiring finally failing.

[Mamochan]

Doh, I forgot about plastics and foam. Those would still be class B fire material. I have to agree 100% with you on that being the most probable fire.

[PepperElf]

i was personally thinking a crock pot. there's a popular truck stop here that sells 12-volt crock pots for truckers that don't wanna eat fast food.

[LillFilly]

i was personally thinking a crock pot. there's a popular truck stop here that sells 12-volt crock pots for truckers that don't wanna eat fast food.

That's AWESOME! I have a coffee mug that plugs into my cigarette lighter, but I needs me a crock pot now!

[Jay 2K Winger]

I hear rumors of places where skies are an odd blue color with a bright round thing in the sky. Nature is just weird in some places, I guess.

But yeah, the sky is bright blue, and there's a hot round thing up there.

CURSED DAYSTAR! IT BURRRRRNS!

[wolfie]

It was more likely to be a faulty inverter. Those trucks have fridge, microwave, laptop, tv, etc. for when at a stop. If the driver bought one at a truck stop the quality isn't so good and they tend to fail. Cheap price, cheap product.

Also, a lot of inverters don't get installed properly. They need heavy-gauge cables to feed them (rule of thumb - an inverter draws roughly 10x the amperage that it gives out), so if there's a short it will draw a lot of power. Virtually all truck stops sell el-cheapo installation kits for around $20. A couple times I've seen good installation kits for around $100. Guess which one people will buy? What's the difference between the 2 types of kit? The good one has a FUSE in it, so a short will blow the fuse rather than burn the truck to the ground.