Well, here is Lenny's 1970 bug that burned a little while back, was the one that Travis was talking about in another post.  The fuel inlet nipple pulled out of the carb when the bug was running, then just fed the fire.  The fire dept. showed up in time to put it out before the block lit off and we were able to get it back on the road.  Lots of stuff melted and generally just made a mess...took longer to clean everything up than anything else.  The firemen also smashed the rear window and bent the deck lid beyond re-use.  Now he just needs a body shop to repair some body damage and paint it up.

Glad to see it was put back on the road!

I've experanced and engine fire myself and it's not a fun experiance.  My was due to an old piece of gas hose between the pump and carb blowing out . . . about 1/2 mile down the road from where I had just bought it.  I got it put out quickly with two bottles of water (and trying to put out a gas fire with water is almost as fun as watching your new purchase burn).  The damage was limited to melting the bottom of the breather, burning all the insulation off the wiring and melting the original Sun Bug emblem on the deck lid.  I was one of the lucky ones.  I've seen a lot of what had been nice bugs and busses in junk yards due to engine fires.

This article written by the late Bob Hoover should be required reading for every new air-cooled VW enthusiast:
 http://groups.google.com/group/rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled/msg/756a4a442e3c0996