Vehicle fire — Delaware Permit Test
Vehicle fire on the Delaware permit test — 2 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
If no fire extinguisher is available for a vehicle fire, Delaware's manual says to smother it with dirt or sand, not water, because burning gas floats on water and spreads.
Throwing water on a fuel fire carries the burning gas across the ground and makes the fire bigger.
If no chemical fire extinguisher is available, use dirt or sand to smother the fire.
If a vehicle fire gets out of control, Delaware's manual says to move at least 100 feet away, as the gas tank may explode.
Standing close to watch a burning car puts you in reach of the blast if the tank goes.
If a fire gets out of control, move at least 100 feet away from the vehicle as the gas tank may explode.
On the test
Why should you not use water on a car fire?
Burning gas floats on it and spreads. Throwing water on a fuel fire carries the burning gas across the ground and makes the fire bigger. Delaware Driver Manual, p.138: “If no chemical fire extinguisher is available, use dirt or sand to smother the fire.”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
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Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Delaware Driver Manual, published by the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-10-05.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DE.pdf (Delaware Driver Manual, July 2026, Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, retrieved 2026-09-14; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DE.pages.txt (scripts/de-text.sh: plain pdftotext cropped to keep the section tab out, physical 47 under -layout; the fixture every citation here was cut from and verified against; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/DE-exam.html (Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles, Driver's License Exam, https://dmv.de.gov/DriverServices/drivers_license/index.shtml?dc=dr_lic_written, read 2026-10-05; states both exam figures; sha256 pinned under examSource)
- https://dmv.de.gov/menu/forms_manuals.shtml (read 2026-10-05; links the manual)
- https://dmv.de.gov/DriverServices/faqs/index.shtml?dc=dr_faq_general (read 2026-10-05; its 30 and 24 are the exam page's figures before 2024-12, per the Internet Archive)