The list of safety items to stick in your ride hit upon FEs. What do you have and why?
Kitchen: 1.25# BC Halon bottle (no dry chemical residue to possibly contaminate food stuffs after use). This is a tad small, but very maneuverable, which may make a difference in the kitchen.
Outside M Bedroom Door: 3# Dry Chemical ABC in a bracket centered 30″ A.F.F. (low height is so it’s where I’ll be in event of a fire, low and going).
Garage/shop: 3# ABC Dry Chemical (used to be the kitchen unit). This one is actually one that really wants chucking out, excepting that I’m just to stingy (or something). I may let my fire protection guys talk me into a better unit (probably a 3# CO2 BC unit).
Ride: 2# BC dry chemical metal bottle. This is my “upgrade.” The First Alert I scored after having had a ride burn up was satisfactory, but only rated for storage up to 95 degrees. Off to both the fire protection outfits in town to debate available/in stock/preferred. The bottle I have is rated for unconditioned factory/warehouses and if there’s s fire under the hood, the ride needs towing anyway, so no grief about powder residue. CO2 would be “best” but it wants more checking for bouncing around one’s ride than is likely to happen.
Replies
I have a thought to add on fire extinguishers.
Dad had a combine fire a couple years ago. As soon as he saw flames he shut the thing down and emptied his 10# extenguisher on the fire.
Trouble was, he didn't QUITE the fire out. And he didn't have another extenguisher. So all he could do was run for the truck, head to the house, and call 911. The combine was a total loss by the time the FD made it out there.
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There's a fire extenguisher place not too far from where I work. I asked the owner what he recommended for a combine. He said a 10# one was about $120, and a 20# one was about $140. If Dad had carried a 20# extenguisher he might not have lost the combine.
So my long-winded point is to get a big one, not a small one.
If you break anything down into its subatomic particles, what *isn't* natural? Cheese Whiz?
Good point.
Better to have some extinguisher left over than end up with a not enough. Almost out won't get it. Get the biggest one practical. The only consideration is how much of an extinguisher can a small person or someone injured handle? Will it be so bulky and in-the-way that it get tossed out or left behind.
After talking with a couple of fire fighters, and a bit of experience, I settled on avoiding, for the most part, dry chemical units. These are great outdoors when fighting a flammable liquids fire in a tray. This is how some are tested.
My objection is that dry chemical units are poor performers against Class-A fires. A fire in a house will usually include some, if not mostly, Class-A materials. Wood, paper, most plastics. Also fighting a fire on vertical surfaces with a dry chemical unit is frustrating as the chemical falls off leaving sprayed but uninvolved surfaced vulnerable.
These units are also messy. Five pounds of dry chemical will spread the power, in the form of a cloud, 30' or more and settle on all surfaces. Use on in the kitchen and the entire house typically needs to be cleaned in detail.
I do like Halon units but these, the original highly effective ones that were also fairly cheap, units have disappeared from the market. There are ones available reported to be effective but they are expensive.
My preference is foam. A moderately sized two liter unit is as about good at fighting Class-B, oil and flammable liquids, as a similarly sized dry chemical unit. It is much better at fighting Class-A fires and can be used on Class-C fires with some voltage limitations, 230v to ground which makes it pretty safe to use in residential settings.
Always better in an electrical fire to deenergize the circuit before reaching for any extinguisher. Most electrical fires, assuming they were correctly installed to begin with, will put themselves out once deenergized. A fire extinguisher then can be used on any secondary fire spread.
A couple of other things I like about foam units: While they are messy the mess is easy to clean up and the foam is localized to the fire area not floating on the breeze to all corners of the house. A bucket of clear water, a sponge and a mop will handle the clean up in short order. Also the foam sticks where it is sprayed.
Even if you can't kill the fire foaming the surfaces around the fire, an inevitable consequence of shooting at the fire, leaves a coating that slows the fire down allowing time to escape and the FD to arrive and substantially reduces damage from the fire. Dry chemicals fall to the floor wasted and gas disperses or blows away. It also reduces reflash problems common to gas charged, CO2 or Halon, extinguishers.
Kiddie, I assume other manufacturers carry similar, makes a good two liter foam model rated: 8A 70B It lacks a 'C' rating because at higher voltages you could get a shock if you shoot directly into an open panel. A slightly larger 10 lbs dry chemical unit only has a 4A 60BC rating.
I bought a couple and gave one a go, I'm still looking into refilling it, on a couple of gas soaked pallets, an old steel trash can with a mix of gas, paint thinner and oil inside. The single unit put out both fires and still had some left. I will say I have had some training so I had an advantage.
I was impressed and the FD, when they showed up, seemed impressed also. I plan to buy a couple more of these units.
This is kind of off the subject, but I love the story. One of my most unusual repair jobs was fixing and painting a wall that was damaged by a small fire caused by an electrical shortage in a faulty, hard wired ... smoke detector.
Yes ... the smoke detector caused the fire! Anything can and apparently does happen.David H. "Splinky" Polston
Founder of Sawdust, Norfolk, Virginia
You sure have more than most people.
I've got a 2½ gallon pressurized water extinguisher for the shop that I bought at an auction for $2. There's one trash can in the shop and it's metal with a tight fitting lid, kept away from any other materials.
The kitchen has a standard dry chemical extinguisher. Auto has a small dry chemical (more to help someone else than me). Both personal watercraft had extinguishers on board when I owned them, though strangely enough New York State dropped the legal requirement for PWC's to carry them.
Halon is no longer allowed because it depletes ozone. The dry chemical makes a mess, but won't harm food because it's all packaged or refrigerated anyway.
When I was in the Navy, we had a fire in the galley one day. The chicken for the evening meal was all set out on trays, covered with wax paper, ready to cook. After the fire was put out with dry chemical, they just removed the wax paper and cooked the chicken. I'm still doing fine.
For your garage/shop, I don't think a BC unit is better than the ABC you have. It's very possible that a shop fire will be a class A, so your new extinguisher won't be much good.
Uncle paid to send me to Fire School--this will give a person a different perspective on fire. The low bottle outside the bedroom door gets comments occasionally--most don't believe me it's mostly for creating expedient exgress <g> . . .
May or may not have put out (or supervised the extinguishing) of fires in landing craft a time or two--diesel-soaked plywood next to POL or paint storage will also change a person's perspective <g>
Your kitchen may be organised differently than mine, I've got onions & taters & fruitand citrus "out." Also, the improved DC (to give A ratings) are not quite so "people friendly" as the USN DC powder formula, which used to be rather benign, as it was mostly borax IIRC.
My shop "switch" may or may not happen, but a B or C is much much more likely than an A, I'm sad to say (or, any A in that space would require an Engine Company . . . )Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Truck has 5# ABC dry chemical behind the seat in a bracket. Have used it three times, all on other people's cars.
Kitchen has 3# BC specifically for oil/grease and electric.
Laundry room has a Kidde ABC Foam extinguisher, used it once and found it to be nearly worthless and very expensive to refill. Replaced with 5# ABC dry chem.
Shop/garage has a 10# ABC dry chem hanging on the wall near the door, and a 20# CO2 monster on the back wall. The big one I got as part of a construction company tag sale.
I have them checked occasionally and tagged by a past chief of the local FD who sells and services extinguishers for a living.
BTW, I'm a volunteer FF (8 years now) so it's a lot more than most folks have. Rather have a bunch of them that you never use, than need one and not have it.
Jon E
Kitchens= CO2 ... don't wanna be cleanin up that damn powder....DW will not be happy....
Kitchens= CO2
CO2 can "push" burning liquids, this is scary to see. Doesn't make it a bad choice.
Which brings up a point I probably should have put in the original post. It is not a bad idea to talk to your local fire fighters. Ask them if they have a fire extinguisher course (many do, the rest might start one, never know unitl you ask). Roller pan with gasoline to actuall extinguish can be an enlightening experience. (Also way more fun than putting on turn-out gear, a steel bottle air-pak & going through the smoke house until you get it right . . . )Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Purple K!!!!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
Purple K
I heard ya th' foist tyme, sheesh . . .
I don't want to manke the local FD jealous . . .
In case you haven't googled purple k, here's a couple links:
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/content.php?P=PURPLEK
http://www.smokesign.com/purktypdrych.html
Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Edited 8/6/2004 3:31 pm ET by CapnMac
All (plenty) my extinguishers are PK...
Some in powder... Some in gel....
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming.... WOW!!! What a Ride!
My two cents...
#1 On the Kidde brand portables...most of the ones you see have plastic valves, the guages are all plastic and mounted with a clip and o-ring, plastic pull pin, on and on. Actually, I have seen the siphon tube fall off several inside the bottle. If that happens, the only way it will discharge any chemical is if you hold it upside down! Amerex and General make good portables with aluminum or brass valves...brass being a bit spendy but worth every penny.
#2 If you have a portable in a vehicle, you should maintain it by hitting it on the bottom w/rubber mallet, or bang it against a tire while upside down periodically. The chemical settles/packs in the bottom of the bottle from the vibration.
Peace