OT - Car Fires - Im carrying a extinguisher now!

[nas90]

For motorsport use you have to use AFFF or Zero2000 these days since halon was banned. Zero2000 is much more expensive than AFFF, about 3x, but is apparently more effective, although haven't used it myself. What's best? An old halon one carried out of sight although these are getting a bit far out of date now and they attract a possible big fine.

Problem with Halon is that the re-filling companies cannot legally re-fill them! I have some Halon's which are down on pressure but still usable, taken out of service at t'mill. Halon are by far the most useful extinguisher being capable of use in windy conditions, do not damage electrical circuits, do not corrode parts within the fire and most importantly expand to a much greater volume than any other type. Large volume = greater fire coverage. Damned inconsiderate these EU committees.

[western]

A note on this page http://www.mfs-fire-extinguishers.co.uk/halon.htm

Legislation prohibits the sale of halon products from December 31st 2002.

Furthermore, with the exception of equipment deemed critical under the Regulation, all fire-fighting equipment in the EU containing halons must be decommissioned before 31st December 2003.

[leeds]

Thanks folks

Managed to buy 2 litre ones no problem today

Regards

Leeds

[Late in Life]

Several write-offs that I dealt with in the past were destroyed by fire.

If the owner had been carrying an extinquisher of some sort then the fire could have been put out before it had got out of control.

Imagine smelling a burning plastic smell, finding a hot wire and seeing it ignite in front of your eyes, and then not having a way to put it out.

That can turn into the situation in the picture - and all you could do was watch it happen.

If you travel on the continent you have to carry one by law.

[Fishd]

Joining this one a bit late, but I've now equipped my daily driver with a fire extinguisher.

Back in November I drove round a corner to see a pair of cars at strange angles in the middle of the road, one a new Mini (I'd sold mine two months earlier), the other a Pug 206, both with mangled front ends.

The few of us that actually stopped to help (several cars left the scene, one even beeped to get us to move out of its way!) quickly assessed the situation, got the engines switched off and began to check the vehicle occupants.

I was helping the woman in the Mini, the car was totalled, the front was gone and the dashboard was pushed into the passenger space badly, the steering wheel was crammed between her legs and the drivers door was bent with the window blown out. We were trying to work out how badly injured she was when she suddenly went hysterical. She could see a small fire had started under the bonnet.

After only a few seconds it had grown substantially as we were trying to extract the woman from the car. Luckily she was only small so she slipped out fairly easily and we were able to carry her away to safety. Within two or three minutes the whole car was a fireball.

All I could find out about the woman was she was taken to hospital with back injuries but released a few days later, I hate to think we might have caused her any more pain or damage by dragging her from the car but we obviously had little choice... while the fire crew were tackling the fire (took over 20 mins to put out) those that had helped talked about what happened... out of 11 people who stopped... no one carried a fire extinguisher.

It seems we, and the woman, were lucky this time... but we could have lessened the risk if one of us had been able to stop the fire before it took hold. Obviously I wouldn't tackle a blazing car with 1litre of foam... but it could stop small fires from becoming larger ones. Also makes me think about attending some formal fire training... I did a little as a Race Track Marshall several years ago, but a refresher wouldn't hurt.

So, now I carry a 1litre extinguisher, some welding gloves, rope and a warm blanket... I'd encourage everyone else to do the same.