Car fire from electrics!!

[Aquaheat]

Hi, i don't normally post this side so bear with me.

This evening i'm out with my girlfriend and after doing a little shopping we drive away. Within 30 secs the dash is billowing white smoke and within 60 secs its coming out of the bonnet as well!!

We pull over sharpish and isolate the ignition and the smoke dies down. I should add i did ring the fire brigade during this!!

After the smoke had stopped i was brave enough to open the bonnet... slowly!!!! I tried to cancel the 999 call but they said that they would attend anyway to ensure nothing else was smoldering etc.

Anyways, I managed to track it back to an additional lighter socket that had been installed before she bought the car. Pretty easy job as all of the cabling to this had melted through to the wire!!

Fire brigade then cut the internal wiring out to check and then i removed all the wiring in the bonnet before reconnecting the battery. No other faults appeared to be present.

Does anybody know why this would have occured and why no fuses blew to stop this in the first place? Surely with a live hitting earth it should have blown something?

BTW its a peugot 106 on an L

 

[Spark123]

Think you hit the nail on the head with it being added later - some people don't understand the need for correct fusing and all they are bothered about is it working. It is only when something happens and it all goes wrong that it comes to light (excuse the pun).
Whats the odds on the wiring was directly to the battery?
A few hundred amps through a thin wire would make it glow nicely, and without a fuse, will carry on taking a few hundred amps. The only way it can dissipate the energy created by this is by heat, the heat causing the wire to melt and smoke.