“Safety is very important in rallying. Do not neglect extinguishers,” says Mkwawa navigator after Ford Fiesta Proto burns to a shell.
VETERAN Tanzanian navigator Misam Fazal has called on African rally competitors to treat fire safety as their top priority, after the Ford Fiesta Proto he was navigating with Samir Nahdi caught fire and burned to a shell during the Mkwawa Rally in Iringa, Round 1 of the NCR Tanzania championship.
Speaking to "FullSend TV EA" Fazal said the incident, which happened early in the second stage, was a first-hand lesson in how quickly a rally car can be lost to fire.
“The car caughtfire, and in my 20 years experience we have rolled, I mean, we’ve seen it all, but finally I got the experience first hand how fires burn rally cars, how to escape whenever the car burns, what are the precautions you have to take,” Mkwawa Rally Team navigator Fazal said.
The fire started on the first stage towards the flying finish, with the brakes fuming. The crew continued, but it became clear something was wrong.
“I was asked the driver why he is not driving the car, he said, I’m scared because of the fire behind, so I just turned around and the fire was just near me,” Fazal recalled. “In the second stage, what I did was too quick. I unbuckled the seat belts, opened the door and ran off the car. At the same time Shanto also discovered it, put the car on the sand bank and got out.”
--Cheating Death--
The crew escaped unhurt and managed to switch off the car, but the blaze was too intense. Fazal said the fire brigade arrived minutes later, by which time the car was reduced to a shell. He believes the fuel breather, not the brakes as initially thought, caused the fire.
“We had fire extinguisher, we managed to escape and even switched off the car but the fire was too powerful,” he said. “Sometimes in rallies we don’t look into fire issues. When you say fire extinguisher, we drivers do not care. Sometimes when the scrutineer comes, we’ll tell him that we’ll fix it.”
Fazal, who has navigated for drivers including Stado Team’s Omar Bakhresa and Jamil Khan during his two-decade career, said the fire experience had changed his approach.
“This is my experience from this scenario. Safety is very important in rallying. Do not neglect extinguishers. When it happens you’ll come to know, and today (raceday) it happened to us. We need to learn how to switch off the fire, we need to learn how to treat injuries of your partner if there is no third support.”
--Safety Message To African Rally Fraternity--
He added that crews must act in seconds, not minutes. “It took us 5 seconds to come out of the car. I’m thankful to my God we are here safe. To the rally fraternity in Africa, please let’s try and learn safety, to drive cars. When it happens you don’t even have time to think about it. Breather of fuel is what caused the fire, we thought it was brakes. I was reading the notes but not getting the momentum, so I was asking my driver.”
Fazal said he was still shocked by how fast it happened, but the crew is already looking ahead. “Next time I’ll take precautions. Let’s keep up and wait for the next event. We’ll talk to our sponsor Ahmed and see what to do.”
Mkwawa Rally Team later released a statement saying, “Despite the challenge, our team remains committed to rallying and we will continue competing while standing together as a family.”
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