Australian Cat Lost in House Fire! Battery Charger Blamed

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Community Discussion
1

Not much detail but guessing if this Cougar made the local news had to be a special one.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/perth/muscle-car-worth-50000-among-items-destroyed-in-spearwood-house-fire-ng-b88770380z
https://thewest.com.au/news/perth/muscle-car-worth-50000-among-items-destroyed-in-spearwood-house-fire-ng-b88770394z

Even given the exchange rate sill a $40K US loss.

“Mr Civil believed the cause of the fire was a faulty car battery charger, which was charging batteries at the time when the blaze started.”

Too bad us Yanks will probably never know what happened. But this piece from Hagerty and others from a Google search makes me want to review my winter battery charging options. Going to assume more of a concern for purists that have original wet cell batteries but something to think about.

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2017/03/28/burned-out-bikes
http://stangsunited.com/showthread.php?7233-Battery-Tender-Fire
http://www.600rr.net/vb/35-maintenance/260966-bad-leave-battery-tender.html

Thoughts on safe winter battery charging?

2

Long term unattended safe battery charging is to remove it from the car and use a battery tender. Good possibility a circuit in the car failed causing a short and starting a fire. Removing the battery from the car would prevent a short circuit from smoldering.

3

I have seen many house fires in my career and they are all devastating. The blessing and the silver lining to this story is that the news is reporting on the Cougar and not a family member.
Steven

4

Amen!