Check your fire extinguishers!
 

I just got home from a routine mud bug trip that turned real bad real fast.

Luckily no one got hurt.
We all met up for a Memorial Day picnic and decided to run over to the "Junction" to sling a little mud at the end of the day. The Junction is a strip of land owned by the rail road. It's full of trails and mud pits. We just took my Baja and my friends monster Toyota 4-runner. He has a 10" lift, 39" Super Swampers and a 350 Chevy in it. Well he goes first and just gets swallowed. So I decide to back off the trail and spectate. He finally gets out of the hole after alot of floorboarding and rocking it back and forth. He pulls up out of the hole and shuts it down. He hops out and POOF flames drop out of the engine compartment! He grabs his fire extinguisher and we get the shovel out of the Baja. The fire extinguisher is dead! We start throwing dirt on the fire and it keeps burning...

I grab my over boots out of the bug and use them as buckets. Someone driving by stopped and called 911 for us. We fought the fire with a shovel and two boots for over 20 minutes. It spread into the dash before we were done. We got the fire out a couple minutes before the fire trucks showed up. They came down and used the hose on it just in case.

The sheriff said if we could get it out of there he wouldn't have it towed so we went and got the other 4X4s and pulled it up to the road and loaded it on a trailer.

What a day. I am buying a bigger extinguisher tomorrow and keeping it in the car. Alot of good mine did us today...sitting in the garage.

One of the fireman told us you need to periodicaly turn your extinguisher upside down shake it, and tap it on something to keep the powder suspended. I have never done that so my extinguisher may not have been any help anyway....:(

Wow, that sucks. I wonder if the up-side-down-shake-it thing applies to halotron extinguishers, too.

Not sure about Halon. Matt had a standard ABC extinguisher, which is what I have as well.

No. Just the dry chemical ones. Dry chemical is MUCH more effective than Halon, BTW. Yes, it makes a mess. It also puts out the fire.

The dry chemical stuff is a very find powder. Over time, it settles in the bottle to almost a solid. I've watched guys service them. Turning them upside down and banging them is a major part of the service. It losens up the fine powder. Don't be gentle. Don't dent the extinguisher either, but go ahead and rap it firmly with a soft-faced hammer.