Idle TVR Catches Fire

A member of the TVRCC (the TVR UK owners club), Finn Kolling, based in Denmark, had just reversed his 1992 Griffith 400 out of his garage. He left the engine running while he got out of the car to close the garage doors. Unfortunately, during that time he received a phone call which meant he didn’t return to the idling car for about 10 minutes.
When he did return, he saw smoke coming from the cabin, in particular, the passenger footwell. So, he immediately ran to the driver’s side of the car where he had stored the Fire Safety Stick. Running back to the passenger side, he activated the stick and pointed it directly at where he felt the heart of the fire was.
It appeared to extinguish the fire immediately, and so he moved the Fire Safety Stick away, but the fire re-ignited in some insulation foam stuffed behind a hot piece of metal in a small confined area. However, because of the incredibly long discharge times of the Fire Safety Stick, meant he still had plenty of time to re-direct the stick and therefore ensured that the fire this time was well and truly out.
This is a large portion of the email received from Finn.
‘I had backed out my Griffith 400 from the garage and left the engine running while closing the gate. The phone rang, I spoke to the person for 5 or 10 minutes leaving the engine idle. When I noticed smoke coming up from the cabin I ran to the car to grab my Fire (Safety) Stick on the other side of the car. Around again to the passenger side turning on the Fire (Safety) Stick as I ran and pointed it at what I thought was the heart of the fire and (the fire stopped) immediately. When I removed the Fire (Safety) Stick the fire lit up again but stopped again when I pointed it back at the fire. Leaving me with the disastrous look (in) the footwell. The picture speaks for itself. It was some foam material that lit, probably left behind the fuse board from the factory in 1992 or by a previous owner.
The fire had actually also lit the GRP bodyshell leaving a hole of app. 15 cm diameter. Had I not had the Firestick, the car might have burnt down to the ground. As you can see from the pictures, it took the fuse board and some of the wiring loom with it but also the heater box (in top of the picture “First sight”) above the fire melted down partly. Both components are extremely hard to get secondhand but I managed due to some of my “friends” on the Griffith Facebook group...’
Please note some grammar alterations were made for legibility
Even if Finn had a 1kg or 2kg dry powder extinguisher with their very short 7 to 14 second discharge times, he may have struggled to extinguish the fire, in those hard too reach areas. But do remember the highly corrosive nature of dry powder and the damage that it does to all surfaces that it comes in contact with.
He, and the Griffith, certainly had a very lucky escape!