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I received the following message from a friend and would like verification or confirmation of the potential problem. My friend and I are both firefighters and really need to verify this information. See below:

I recieved this message and thought it would be good
for everyone to
keep this in their "toolbox of knowledge"
FYI-My uncle works for Stop Fire and he recently
received an e-mail
from ford motor inc. regarding the new 2004 truck
series. It stated that
the radiator mounts are made of magnesium approx. 3
pounds worth and
without a class D extinguisher it could take approx 1
hour for it to
completely burn out. I just thought I would let
everyone know.

If you've never seen magnesium burn it's rather
impressive. You cannot
extinguish a magnesium fire with water as it reacts
violently with the
material.

Thanks,
jlautz

This is true. I heard there are several mfgs. out there using magnesium for structure support such as this...Be careful!

Yes, there was a an article just the other day that the new F150 is using more magnesium than any of their new vehicles. It saves weight, but is also very expensive.

As a former 12 year law enforcement person, I have seen several of the older style mag wheels burn. They really go, almost like a misassembled firework.

Although this makes it more dangerous for firefighters, I suspect this will be the trend in future MV's so consumers best get use to it.

Just weight till we start having mishaps with some of the fuel cells in the works.

Magnesium will seem like a sparkler.

Now THATS something to look forward to :)...but you are correct!

I like Medic911's comments! How true.
Personally if my vehical is on fire enough to ignight the radiator, I'm probably not worried how "hot" the fire is since the vehical is probably toast at that point. I just hope I'm out and far enough away to keep from being toast myself. :)
I usually worry more about my house catching fire than my vehical. Maybe we need smoke detectors for trucks? :-X05

Nice info though. I'll be sure to keep the marshmellows close by just in case.

I may be wrong, but I was told that older model VW's had Mg engine blocks. I think I read somewhere that a guy set one on fire and it burned for 4 days staight. I read it on the internet so IT MUST BE TRUE! lol, I've burned my fair share of Mg in chemistry lab while I was supposed to be conducting my experiments. It looks cool and to my knowledge it is used for deep sea welding on oil rigs and stuff bc it'll burn under water.

I remember an old episode of MacGyver where he used a magnesium bicycle frame to make a torch or something...lol I thought he could do everything with just a pair of pliers and a roll of duct tape? :D

You could always fill the bed with sand to put the fire out. That extra 4 inches in depth might just come in handy....

No worries, All Class A Fire depts. have pleanty of tools and Tactics to combat this problem, not sure if a Vol. Dept does though, but as a Profesional Firefighter if it catches Fire let it burn you do not want it back, collect your insurance and get another one.. it will never be the same.

The metal beam inside the instrument panel (dash board) is also magnesium in F150. The 2002+ 4-door Explorer I.P. beam is also magnesium. However, I filed off some small shavings and attempted to burn them with a small propane torch and they barely ignited. From what I understand they're using a magnesium alloyed with high % of aluminum.

If the small shavings barely burned with a torch then I don't think the 1/4" thick rad support catching fire is too big of a concern. The heat required to catch the rad support on fire would far exceed the comfort levels of the cab interior and you would hopefully be long gone!