Fire Destroys Excavator (With Explosion Photo)

February 14, 2011

Fire destroyed a John Deere excavator about 10:40 Monday morning on South Highway 99 at Tungoil  Road.

The Walnut Hill and Molino stations of Escambia Fire Rescue responded to the blaze. There were no injuries. The excavator, which was being used to clear a lot of brush, was a total loss.

In the photo above, fuel or fluid from the excavator explodes into a fireball before the first fire units arrived on scene. Pictured below: The excavator burns less than second before the top photo. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

15 Responses to “Fire Destroys Excavator (With Explosion Photo)”

  1. My Three Cents... on February 16th, 2011 1:24 pm

    Why is it our business who owns the equipment or doing the land clearing? No one reports on who owns house that burn or land that is burned in brush fires.

  2. parts guy on February 15th, 2011 7:10 pm

    This is possibly not a total loss. I know its not usable, but the owner might want to contact a few tractor junkyards and see if you can get anything for it. Try Bootheel tracotr parts, Turnage tractor parts, or Russells tractor parts. They buy burned tractors/equipment for the parts that are still good.

  3. SW on February 15th, 2011 2:57 pm

    @Horrific

    There are a number of ways equipment can catch on fire, i.e., hydraulic fluid leak on hot components, fuel leak on hot components, electrical short, hot components on dry foliage, etc. Of course, there’s always arson.

  4. Floridawife on February 15th, 2011 2:32 pm

    @ Just a thought…this company is very strong, and you are right, you can’t keep a good company down!!!!

  5. JUST a Thought on February 15th, 2011 2:11 pm

    You can’t keep a good company like these guys down. They will be back to work in no time.

  6. Horrific on February 15th, 2011 12:52 pm

    Well I hope they had insurance. Sounds like at least two people are going
    to be out of work now, and who knows how many it really is since we don’t
    know if this is a small two man operation or a large one.

  7. Sandra on February 15th, 2011 10:08 am

    To..Know your neighbor. Yield to emergency vehicles and you wont have to worry about being “taken out” at the light!!

  8. Floridawife on February 15th, 2011 9:11 am

    My husband works for the company that owned this excavator. It had been in the woods doing some clearing. I will not mention the name of the company,it’s not my place to report who owned it.

  9. Horrific on February 15th, 2011 9:00 am

    Who Owned this Excavator, do we know that?
    I don’t know anything about an excavator but what I see when I see one,
    can someone please explain to me how an excavator explodes and
    burns to a total loss. WOW
    I HAVE seen a FEW cars do it, but usually have been in a wreck or in a gas
    station or something.
    This is a first for me.

  10. William on February 14th, 2011 6:50 pm

    “Know your neighbor” wrote:
    >>>I thought a 6 week old child was stranded in a two story house fire. The fire department almost took out the traffic at 29 and 31 redlight.

    That’s nice, but none of the fire departments responding to this would have gone through that intersection.

  11. Know your neighbor on February 14th, 2011 6:48 pm

    I thought a 6 week old child was stranded in a two story house fire. The fire department almost took out the traffic at 29 and 31 redlight.

  12. Erin on February 14th, 2011 3:17 pm

    Big Al,
    I’m not quite positive, but I think the auction will be February 26th.

  13. interested reader on February 14th, 2011 12:55 pm

    This happened right up the road from our house and it was a REALLY big fire. Glad no one was hurt. Hope the owner had insurance.

  14. aubrey king on February 14th, 2011 12:50 pm

    Bet they will sell the john deere cheap

  15. Big Al on February 14th, 2011 11:33 am

    Does anyone know when the Walnut Hill Ruritan Club is having their annual farm equipment auction?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News