These are great Andy and exactly what I'm talking about. Toyota has done its own version of this with the fusible links it fits. The problems come when additional items are added or the spec is altered in some way.
"My fire" started as a consequence of Mr T's power supply to the rear wipers situated in the aulance doors. Now, before I get suggestions of it not being a "proper" 80 series (which I'm reasy to accept on the chin) I still don't know how a live wire can short out to such an extent to cause a fire, without blowing the Mr T designated fuses.
Because I trust nobody, I checked the rating all the fuses upon initial purchase of the truck, and not only did none of them blow during my incident, the short even melted the under-dash fuse box carrier of all the fuses, Karl kindly posted me a replacement.
So the chances of melting the fusable links close to the batteries would be even less.
A red-hot wire does all sorts of damage in a loom, it affects other wires that have nothing to do with the original fault, and can set off a chain reaction causing other live wires to short.
Personally, I was very disappointed that a short on the back door would burn all the way back to the fuse box without blowing a fuse. That will always be a mystery.
We've seemed to have somehow assumed that poor Byron's incident was a heavy drain short, but the chances are it was no more serious than a side-light or similarly innocuous short, but nevertheless, it's enough to ignite plastic insulation and anything flammable close to it.
From my understanding of the event, the key to (possibly) saving the moment was threefold and in this order:
1. Opening the hood to get access;
2. Disconnecting the batteries;
3. Extinguishing the fire.
Any attempt to extigish the fire with the power still providing the heat source would be limited and of course, not being able to access any of it because the hood wouldn't open prevented battery disconnection and effective fire-fighting.
So, by installing a simple external bonnet access cable pull, rapid and effective access could be secured.
Then, disconnection of the batteries would have been possible. Whether to use a 10mm spanner, cable croppers or a kill-button switch, makes little difference.
Finally, attacking the fire with effective extinguishers, assuming the fire is accessible with the hood open.
My problem was at the rear, so I instinctively grabbed the extinguisher first, ripped away the side trim and blasted it first. Because it was obviously electrical, I then ran to the front with my 10mm spanner and disconnected the batteries. When I got back to the rear, there were flames, which I put out with the second extinguisher I carry.
I was lucky, but the point I'm trying to make is that installing a grand's worth of automatic under-hood fire fighting equipment would have done nothing in my rear fire scenario.