Car fire extinguishers

[TAB]

Today, i had a car infront of me have a under hood fire.   I jumped out and grabed my 5# abc fire extinguisher.  You know the kind that are pretty small and sell for $20-30.    I did what you were supposed  to do, not pop the hood, spray it, pop the hood but dont open it, spray in a bunch more.   It was not enough.  The fd got there just as the front of the car was a puddle of aluminum.   

If you are going to run one of these guys, run at least 2.   I just order 2x 10# for the truck.  Yes, they are big, yea it was way more than $20, infact you can add a zero.  Next time i will be prepared.

[les snyder]

additionally... from experience...if you have to discharge a dry chemical extinguisher around a group of people, warn them to hold their breath...

[alfsauve]

5# ABC are good for 2 small office trash cans or one frying pan fire.  For a car I'd prefer 20#.

Now about FD response, remember they joke about the guy who calls 911 and tells them he shot the robber, because they were too busy to send someone for just a break in?    Don't ask how I know, but if your car is on fire and you're near a gas station, park on top of the tanks.  FD will show up very quickly.

[TAB]

5# ABC are good for 2 small office trash cans or one frying pan fire.  For a car I'd prefer 20#.

Now about FD response, remember they joke about the guy who calls 911 and tells them he shot the robber, because they were too busy to send someone for just a break in?    Don't ask how I know, but if your car is on fire and you're near a gas station, park on top of the tanks.  FD will show up very quickly.

  they were only 2 blocks away.  The car was toast in about 45 seconds.  2x 10# for the truck.  The 20# will not fit behind the rear seat.

[Big Frank]

I'm not sure what size the fire extinguisher in my truck is but it's small. Not quite as small as the halon fire extinguisher in my kitchen though. Or maybe the handle and dial just make it look bigger because this one has neither. It's 18.6 + or - 0.4 ounces gross weight, so maybe a pound at most of liquid halon under 300 p.s.i. pressure. If it's underweight it's no good, but I don't have a scale to tell me if it's under 17.9 ounces. I don't know how big of a fire it will put out but it will suffocate fires, people and animals. I keep it by the back door on the opposite side of the kitchen from the stove. It's wall-mounted above a Mini-Maglite that's mounted next to the light switch right next to the door so I can find everything in complete darkness. Some people make the mistake of keeping a fire extinguisher by the stove so it's right there when they need it. But do you really want to step into a splashing grease fire to grab it? The fire extinguisher needs to be far enough away from the stove that if it's engulfed in flames you can still grab the fire extinguisher to use it.

I check the gauge on the one in my truck fairly often to see if it's still in the green. It might put out a small fire from an electrical short, but once gas and oil start burning all I can do is walk away. I don't check the fire extinguisher in my bedroom as often as I should but I just did and it's good. It's an ABC dry chemical extinguisher with a gross weight of 3 pounds 5 ounces to 3 pounds 10 ounces. I would just say it's a 3 pound fire extinguisher but that's what it says on the label. I have 2 windows apiece in 2 bedrooms that have windowsills just a few inches above the roof over my front porch. There's an air conditioner in one window but the one next to it doesn't have anything in it and no furniture or anything in front of it. The fire extinguisher just has to put out the fire around the curtains so I can break out a window. I may break bones or sprain joints jumping out into my front yard, but it's better than staying in there burning. That's assuming I can't get down the stairs which would be faster than breaking a window and crawling out. I have one window that leads out to a small roof over the back porch too. There's concrete in two directions and grass in one, so if I had sense enough to jump off that side it wouldn't be onto the driveway.

Maybe I should buy 2 rappelling ropes, one to keep tied to the bed frame at all times and one ready to be used in another room. I rappelled off a wooden tower once and off a cliff once. It was part of a confidence course or something the army had. After the cliff I think I know how I was supposed to do it. I think I could figure out how to drop ~15 feet with nothing but minor rope burns. And I need to buy more fire extinguishers. I think this is fire prevention month. Maybe I can find some on sale.

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

We carry 5# in the trucks.  Meets all DOT regulations, and they are small enough to be mounted where they are handy.  I have no interest in putting in more firefighting power in any of our units.

Rule #1:  If you can safely extinguish the fire, do so;
Rule #2:  If getting the extinguisher or attempting to get the extinguisher puts you in harms way, let it burn;
Rule #3:  If you don't get instant change with extinguisher, abandon fighting and flee;
Rule # Pre-#1:  You are more valuable than your truck or cargo.  The extinguisher is meant for DOT regulations and not to make you a firefighter.

[Big Frank]

I took another look at the fire extinguisher in my truck and it's a Kidde brand that must be the smallest size they ever made. It's only 2" diameter and 9.5" tall. Nothing they make now is even close to that small. Also, it's NOT an ABC fire extinguisher like I thought it was. It uses “Purple K” extinguishing agent, so that means it's only good for Class B and C fires. Kidde still makes one Purple K fire extinguisher. It's a wheeled cart with 125 pounds of Purple K and a shipping weight of 188 pounds. They also have a version of the cart with 36" steel wheels with a rubber coating for spark reduction if you don't want 16" semi-pneumatic rubber wheels. The steel wheel cart has a shipping weight of 210 pounds, and my extinguisher feels like it weighs a few pounds. The good news is it's about 4–5 times more effective against class B fires than carbon dioxide, and more than twice as effective as sodium bicarbonate. It's mighty small, or small but mighty.

They had to quit making Halon fire extinguishers because Halon has 6,900 times the Global Warming Potential of carbon dioxide and the EPA banned it in 1994. If you look under fire extinguishers for business instead of for home Kidde has Halotron extinguishers. It's GWP is 77 which is 99% better than Halon, but still worse than carbon dioxide which is what the scale is based on at 1. When people say how bad CO2 could make global warming, Halon is 6,900 times worse. Venus is the most Earth-like planet but had a runaway greenhouse effect and it's surface temperature is 872 degrees day and night. That's even hotter than Mercury which is 840 degrees during the day but drops down to 275 below zero at night and has ice in the craters around its north pole. Venus is almost twice as far from the sun as Mercury but the average temperature is way hotter. Runaway greenhouse = bad news. Back on topic, Halotron is a type B and C extinguisher that won't leave any residue on valuable electronics, but since it's a gas it won't work very good on anything with a source of fuel like burning wood or furniture. Regular dry chemical fire extinguishers with Sodium Bicarbonate, which is just baking soda, are only suitable for use on Class B (liquids & gases) and Class C fires (energized electrical equipment). That's why most of their fire extinguishers are multipurpose dry chemical with Monoammonium Phosphate which makes them Class ABC.

[billt]

For a vehicle, an under the hood suppression system is the way to go. They're not exactly cheap, but if you take into account the fact a really nice, decked out 3500 Series pickup today can run upwards of $80K, and most full sized SUV's are at or above $50K, they're a bargain. Not to mention you might be able to negotiate a much better deal on insurance costs if you have one installed.

https://www.jegs.com/i/Stroud/877/9302/10002/-1

[tombogan03884]

Frank. It works on Class D as well for when your aluminum block catches.

[Timothy]

Car fires, I agree with Mike...

Ex Navy, trained in firefighting on a basic level.  If you’re going aboard ship, your training is much more intense since you’re trying to save your floaty thingy!

Car fires, fight to save lives but otherwise, stay away and call a pro!