Getting the tires to light on fire is far more sus than whatever may be happening to the fuel. As I stated in this thread with response to the drone footage contained within:
@4:00: A Huge tree (Oak?) is not even singed sitting right next to a building that is not singed. Right next to the tree are cars with melted tires. What melted the tires? There is no apparent nearby fuel source for these cars to catch fire....
There are several other examples throughout the video of melted cars/tires on the edge of destruction that are very suspicious. There are cars just out in the middle of nowhere, not next to a burnt structure, that are themselves burnt to a crisp. It takes a lot to melt a car (or even have it deform from the heat). It needs to be in an oven. Such an oven can conceivably be created in the middle of a street with buildings burning on both sides, but not on the edge of a street, or the middle of a parking lot, sitting next to unburnt trees.
Tires are not particularly flammable in that they need to be heated to 750 degrees Fahrenheit (400 Celsius) for several minutes in order to ignite. However, once they do catch fire, they can burn for a long time and produce some very toxic smoke.
How are they heated to that temperature when they are next to non-burning trees and 30 to 50+ feet away from any other possible heat source? The temperature needs to be sustained for several minutes. How is that temperature sustained for minutes, in the middle of nowhere, without a heat source, open to air?
If the temperature is hotter than the required lowest temp (750F), it doesn’t have to be sustained for as long. Indeed, if you give the input source enough energy like say, a super high powered microwave laser, you could ignite a car tire in seconds. Notably microwaves preferentially heat up metal, like aluminum wheels, or steel car frames, which can then transfer that energy to the tires. Microwave lasers would probably also transfer a fair bit of energy to the steel belts in tires. DEWs, if they exist, are almost certainly microwave lasers.
I'm not sure why you think that it would. There are three ingredients required for combustion. Oxygen, gas, and heat. But that's just to burn. To explode you also need pressure to build up with a force stronger than the container (in this case a steel tank).
So just to burn, you need to get enough heat and oxygen into the gas tank. Heat shouldn't be a problem if cars are melting (though it does require a rather high heat for gas to ignite at 540F), but gas tanks are designed to be reasonably airtight, so not a lot of oxygen going into the system. If they do get oxygen in, then it will start to burn, but if oxygen is getting in, that means air is getting in, and if air is getting in, there is a hole. If there is a hole then there is a way for the pressure to release. Thus burning, no exploding.
Lack of oxygen and no spark inside the tank. If the tank was violently ruptured so the gas could pour out, then yes there would be a flare up of gas pooling up on the ground. but a burst & explosion is unlikely as the vehicles are designed to mitigate that scenario in an accident.
The theory is the steel belts in the tyres heat from microwaves. We saw canvas belted tyres in the California fires didn’t burn next to steel belted ones.
I was thinking it might be aluminum wheels v. steel wheels, but that's certainly a solid theory worth digging into. It could even be a combination of both. At the least, it would be an interesting dig to get some statistics on.
Getting the tires to light on fire is far more sus than whatever may be happening to the fuel. As I stated in this thread with response to the drone footage contained within:
@4:00: A Huge tree (Oak?) is not even singed sitting right next to a building that is not singed. Right next to the tree are cars with melted tires. What melted the tires? There is no apparent nearby fuel source for these cars to catch fire....
There are several other examples throughout the video of melted cars/tires on the edge of destruction that are very suspicious. There are cars just out in the middle of nowhere, not next to a burnt structure, that are themselves burnt to a crisp. It takes a lot to melt a car (or even have it deform from the heat). It needs to be in an oven. Such an oven can conceivably be created in the middle of a street with buildings burning on both sides, but not on the edge of a street, or the middle of a parking lot, sitting next to unburnt trees.
The melted tires are themselves SUPER sus.
According to this fire fighter website:
How are they heated to that temperature when they are next to non-burning trees and 30 to 50+ feet away from any other possible heat source? The temperature needs to be sustained for several minutes. How is that temperature sustained for minutes, in the middle of nowhere, without a heat source, open to air?
If the temperature is hotter than the required lowest temp (750F), it doesn’t have to be sustained for as long. Indeed, if you give the input source enough energy like say, a super high powered microwave laser, you could ignite a car tire in seconds. Notably microwaves preferentially heat up metal, like aluminum wheels, or steel car frames, which can then transfer that energy to the tires. Microwave lasers would probably also transfer a fair bit of energy to the steel belts in tires. DEWs, if they exist, are almost certainly microwave lasers.
Yes but what is keeping the fuel in the tanks from exploding?
I'm not sure why you think that it would. There are three ingredients required for combustion. Oxygen, gas, and heat. But that's just to burn. To explode you also need pressure to build up with a force stronger than the container (in this case a steel tank).
So just to burn, you need to get enough heat and oxygen into the gas tank. Heat shouldn't be a problem if cars are melting (though it does require a rather high heat for gas to ignite at 540F), but gas tanks are designed to be reasonably airtight, so not a lot of oxygen going into the system. If they do get oxygen in, then it will start to burn, but if oxygen is getting in, that means air is getting in, and if air is getting in, there is a hole. If there is a hole then there is a way for the pressure to release. Thus burning, no exploding.
Lack of oxygen and no spark inside the tank. If the tank was violently ruptured so the gas could pour out, then yes there would be a flare up of gas pooling up on the ground. but a burst & explosion is unlikely as the vehicles are designed to mitigate that scenario in an accident.
The theory is the steel belts in the tyres heat from microwaves. We saw canvas belted tyres in the California fires didn’t burn next to steel belted ones.
I was thinking it might be aluminum wheels v. steel wheels, but that's certainly a solid theory worth digging into. It could even be a combination of both. At the least, it would be an interesting dig to get some statistics on.