In case of fire...

[whiskychaser]

Went to a friend's over the weekend. Overnight the daugther's car had had an under-bonnet fire. When we arrived friends and family were gathered round inspecting the damage and merrily poking around in the ashes. I quickly pointed out that when a car goes up, an evil little acid called hydrouflouric can be produced from seals burning. It attacks your bones and wont stop - you may even have to have a finger or two taken off. I also pointed out the fire brigade had cut the aircon lines. Well the gas in there makes hydroflouric acid too when heated - so as it was under pressure it could have gone anywhere. Big laughs all round. Only I used to run a chemical distributorship and wasnt joking. Couple of links if you are interested:
http://www.mawwfire.gov.uk/business_...rson/viton.htm
http://www.aircondition.com/wwwboard...ages/1995.html

Just thought I would cheer you up

[Bin_jammin]

Went to a friend's over the weekend. Overnight the daugther's car had had an under-bonnet fire. When we arrived friends and family were gathered round inspecting the damage and merrily poking around in the ashes. I quickly pointed out that when a car goes up, an evil little acid called hydrouflouric can be produced from seals burning. It attacks your bones and wont stop - you may even have to have a finger or two taken off. I also pointed out the fire brigade had cut the aircon lines. Well the gas in there makes hydroflouric acid too when heated - so as it was under pressure it could have gone anywhere. Big laughs all round. Only I used to run a chemical distributorship and wasnt joking. Couple of links if you are interested:
http://www.mawwfire.gov.uk/business_...rson/viton.htm
http://www.aircondition.com/wwwboard...ages/1995.html

Just thought I would cheer you up

Meh... worst case scenarios under ideal conditions. Never seen it happen, never even heard of it happening.

Can it happen? Sure, probably. Anything's possible. Will it? Probably not.

[whiskychaser]

Meh... worst case scenarios under ideal conditions. Never seen it happen, never even heard of it happening.

Can it happen? Sure, probably. Anything's possible. Will it? Probably not.

Yep. I dont know what the fck I'm talking about and neither do the fire brigade. But smoking may seriously damage your health after all

[E34-520iSE]

I've heard of hydroflouric acid before, and the damage it can cause to humans. Sounds like something out of the Alien film!

Cheers,

Shaun M

[BMWDriver]

I used to work in a pharmaceutical company's chemical lab that does quality control. They have this type of acid and some technicians expressed serious concerns about manipulating this chemical - which they keep secured in a vault. Indeed, it is a very deadly acid as you can see on Wikipedia's entry on the subject.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroflouric_acid

The last line of Wiki's entry on the subject states on the hazard brought up here: Hydrofluoric acid is a known hazard in car engine fires, forming when Viton o-rings and hoses are exposed to temperatures in excess of 400 °C.