Flaming Audis

[Kneale Brownson <knotnook@traverse.com>]

A friend of mine who last spring lost a '89 5KSQ when his home burned to
the ground (not related to anything to do with the car, it was just parked
in the attached garage) just lost a '91 (I believe) 200Q  to  an
on-the-road fire that started in the switchbox surrounding the steering
column.  He was hauling a couple kids to school when the car began to fill
with very acrid smoke and then he could see a glow behind the plastic
covering  all those electrical connections related to lights, turn signals,
wipers, etc.  He was near his neighborhood volunteer fire department's
firetruck barn, so he pulled in there and went to an adjacent business to
phone the fire department, but the car was engulfed in flames before anyone
arrived.  I asked if he had thought about pulling the cable off the
battery, but he said he was more concerned about getting the kids into a
safe shelter (it was dark, snowy and the temperature was in the teens-F).
He said he also  didn't have a screwdriver to undo the back seat to get at
the battery.  

Has anyone installed a killswitch somewhere like on the front of the rear
seat compartment near where the seat is screwed down?  Could you splice a
killswitch circuit in at, say, the under-hood positive terminal, or does
some of the battery output go elsewhere before reaching that point?

Kneale Brownson