A very important PSA....
 

About fire extinguishers....

(sugarwood's brought back some memories)

Yeah/// I know we all have one...
But here's the newsflash- make sure you are familiar with it.

"well I'm an intelligent gent.... I can figure it out..."

Ok whatever....

I have had not one, but TWO cars catch fire, and I will tell you this- when it happens, you go straight into adrenaline mode.

On my most recent "incident", I yanked the entire top off of the extinguisher rendering it useless!

So basically this. Give yourself a sunday morning project, go find your extinguisher, and familiarize yourself with how it works. Especially if it has a lot of PLASTIC on it.

Believe me, you will DESTROY it with adrenaline really quickly in a real fire.

Practice how you will pull it out of however you have it stored.

Familiarize yourself with how to pull out the pin etc... (I know-- seems stupidly easy)- for me, at least in one instance- it wasn't ....

Practice Practice Practice....


Your are welcome! :D

It's one of those things you'd rather have and not need, than need and not have. Unfortunately there are no "fire extinguisher ranges" where you can practice and build muscle memory...

I think all I can say is if you need to buy one, buy one with a full metal handle, etc... If your's has plastic, go study it, and how to really use it delicately , because, believe me, you will get incredible hulkish real quick.

Also getting re acquainted with where where you store your extinguishers in your house/ garages. When I pulled the top off the extinguisher in my car, I ran to garage #1, where I just knew I had an extinguisher. It was there, (where I had left it in an obvious location years prior) but my eyes went right over it.

It was then (and only then) when I ran to my SC (in another garage) , were I have 4(yes four!) of them in the rear seat (g#$#$ it' that aint gonna burn!) I pulled out two, and then put out the fire in the other car....but it cost me minutes...

That's not entirely true. When I was a fireman, we had a way to recharge training extinguishers and use them for practice.

And for Pete’s sake don’t lift the engine lid all the way and expect to put it out. Just crack it and slide the nozzle in...

That's what she said.

... sorry, it's late and I'm tired. I just couldn't help myself.

When 16 had my engine catch fire while driving. Pulled into a full service gas station next to the pumps, jumped out of the car and ran. The gas station employees ran out with an extinguisher and put the fire out. Then *****ed at me because I interrupted their lunch.

Don't think they would do that today. Good luck even finding a full service gas station.

‘Fire’


‘Gas pumps’


Comics!!!! Must’ve been like keystone cops!


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The gas station guys came out pretty quick. From the station workers griping me out for interrupting their lunch, pretty sure they would have just let it burn if I hadn't parked next to the pumps.

Called my Dad and brother, told what I did and they both lost it for a few minutes laughing. Then told me to try to get it running and drive it home. Made a makeshift throttle cable out of a coat hanger in the back of the car to replace the melted one and drove it home. The heater and defroster never worked after that.

It was my first car, a 1968 Ford Country Squire station wagon. I bought it for $1. Ran when I bought it, but there wasn't a body panel that wasn't dented, You could easily tell the paint was dark green with a light blue primer, and a ruddy brown primer. The seats were mostly duct tape and the rear window just pushed up and down. The Ford 390 got a whole 8 mpg. Always thought if it got stuck or broke down, I would just leave it. Ended up giving it to my oldest brother after he rolled his van hunting.

Back in college, I remember guys occasionally doing an extinguisher test after the bars closed.

The cloud of powder had a slight yellow color with a bitter/acidic taste.

I have no idea how the extinguishers performed at putting out fires, but they made an incredible mess in the dorm.

My 997 has the factory extinguisher in front of the driver's seat. At Porsche prices, it would take a special fire to get me to use it.

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At a former job that the company was going out of business, I grabbed an old fire extinguisher with a plastic handle. It was one that can't be recharged. It was going to the dumpster like everything else left behind. I pointed it at the inside of the dumpster and squeezed the handle. It was dead. It did not even make a noise. I went home and checked my old extinguisher. I was ready to pay to have it recharged so I aimed it at the trash can. Nothing. I took it to an extinguisher company, They looked at it for a second, and declared it trash. They sold me one that was designed to be able to be recharged.

Unless you have a Halon extinguisher that is still sloshing around if you shake it, replace it if it has been hanging there for years. Especially if it has a plastic handle.

If a car catches fire, I watch intently from a distance.
Let the darn thing burn, it's not worth risking your heath or well-being for. That's what insurance is for.

(Univ. Of Nevada Reno Dodd-Beals fire academy, Texas A&M TEEX fire school.)

You also want to look at the date on the extinguisher , if all you can remember is that " it's been there forever " the damn thing probably won't work when you need it ! Dry powder settles so sometimes you have to invert or shake them to break up the powder . Even better have an older Halon or newer Halotron or whatever the latest flavor is as they make much less of a mess . Like insurance you gotta have it but hope you never need it .

That's how the local FD looks at it. If it's already a total loss, and there's no loss of life or immediate harm to anyone.
They'll take their time putting it out.

When my 951 caught fire they were there in minutes so I only had a crispy engine vs. Full car burn out