OT: A crushed pair of battery leads eventually shorted together and generated enough heat to start a fire that has a curious burn pattern--it appears as two charred areas, one forward and one aft of a central region with no burning. What is in the central region that wasn't affected?
I guess that's why a picture is worth a thousand words. I wish they'd publish some pictures of the beacon in question. Maybe the wires weren't pinched, crushed, or smashed after all? Maybe some high voltage got in those wires/leads and arced through the insulation, like a spark plug wire in a car arcing to ground, during wet weather? That's a high tension lead arcing to earth, for British Pruners, I think.