Step-By-Step Guide On Dealing With Car Fires

Have you ever heard of an incident where a car just suddenly caught fire while on the road? Chances are you haven’t seen one yet.

Cars suddenly catching fire is a rare incident, especially in Singapore where car owners take good care of their vehicles. There are many factors that are involved in cars suddenly catching fire. It pays for you to know what to do when such an incident happens.

 

Causes of Car Fire

Let’s first look at common causes of car fire:

1. Faulty Electrical system

A car’s electrical system is complex and interlocking with the other systems of the car. Because of the complexity of the system, it’s not impossible for human assemblers to misconnect some of the wires leading to a faulty electrical system.

A faulty electrical system can often cause a short-circuit with other wires and parts of the car. This could lead to a spark that could be the start of a fire in the car. Automatic cars are even more prone to faulty electrical systems than manual transmission cars since they have more electrical connections.

 

2. Overheating engines

When a car’s cooling system is broken or faulty, it could cause the car’s engine to overheat.

When the engine overheats, coolant fluids could heat up and spill over to the car’s exhaust system or spill over to the engine. These kinds of scenarios can lead to combustion in the engine and start a dangerous fire.

 

3. Design Flaws

Car fires can also start simply because the design of the car is highly prone to fire. Some car designs take into consideration the space of the engine hood that manufacturers are lenient with safety and other aspects that would help reduce the chance of car fires.

Sometimes, cars are fitted with faulty batteries or tanks with leaks during the manufacturing stage, leading to faulty design issues.

 

What Should I Do When My Car Catches Fire?

If your cart catches fire, you could be in a lot of potential risk of injury. It doesn’t matter if the fire is big or small, you should do the following as soon as you see or suspect that your car is on fire:

1. Slow down and immediately pull over to the side of the road.
2. Turn off the engine and quickly evacuate everyone from the car.
3. If you have an extinguisher, you may try to put out any sparks. But you may damage it further so we suggest proceeding with care.
4. Quickly move away from the site to avoid injury from an explosion.
5. Put up the breakdown sign to inform the ongoing traffic.
6. Quickly call authorities at 995 for emergency or 1777 for non-emergency. You may contact the police at 999 and inform your insurance provider too. Hong Leong Assurance operates a 24-hour Emergency Hotline at 6922 6009.
7. Stay calm. Do not alarm anyone especially your loved ones.

 

What Car Insurance Cover Car Fires?

Depending on your car insurance policy wordings and type of insurance you have, car fires may or may not be covered by your car insurance plan. Plans are either for comprehensive or third party fire and theft coverage.

Comprehensive coverage should include car fire incidents while third-party coverage could be limited. However, every insurer is not the same so we advise car insurance buyers to check the coverage and its benefits carefully.

Hong Leong Assurance provides coverage for loss or damage by fire in their car insurance plans.

 

Get Insured now

Having a car of your own can be enjoyable and convenient. But it takes a lot of effort to take care of a car. And when your car unexpectedly catches fire, it’s important that you know what you should do in that situation and have a car insurer that will back you.

 

Want to get insured now? Click here to get a quick car insurance quote and see what HL Assurance has to offer you!