After revealling the contents of my boot, I have started thinking about whether I should carry a fire extinguisher.
I have never had a car fire, so I cannot talk from experience. Have you ever experienced a car fire and did an extinguisher do a good enough job putting it out or did the car still burnt out.
It would also be relevant if you could state if your car is petrol or diesel.
The only people I have ever talked to who have had and used an extinguisher, used them on other people's cars. What was most surprising was those drivers never offered to replace the extinguisher, presumably thinking this was a free service like the fire brigade.
Let me know your views.
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I carry a 1kg powder extinguisher, Halfords ~£20, in my diesel car. Mainly because it is compulsory in France where we camp each year.
Never used one but nice to have especially if there is a cooking related conflagration.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Nope, never carried one.
My feelings are (and I have done a bit of fire and firefighting training years ago - mostly on aircraft)
1/ Most are useless at engine fires. To get to a fire you need to get under the bonnet, and this means lifting the hood. To do this you are in severe danger of providing a sudden inrush of oxygen and a massive intensity of the fire. The fire brigade always douse them first with high pressure water through the radiator grill, the wheel arches and then lifting the bonnet a crack. Your average car extinguisher is hopeless used like that.,
2/ In the event of fire your immediate actions should be to get yourself passengers and other people away to safety. Dont get back to a car with a piddly little extinguisher, let the pink flufy dice burn - its only a car.
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. Dontget back to a car with a piddly little extinguisher, let the pink flufy dice burn - its only a car.
My sentiments too, let it burn. Get you and passengers to safety. Forget the car.
RF i have agreed with you too much lately, you'll convert me to Renaults if things carry on like this!
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The only time I've ever used the Halon (now banned) extinguisher that I had at the time (1985) was when a Ford Cortina caught fire in front of me whilst driving round the Walton Road gyratory, in Aylesbury.
Having used it, and put the engine bay fire out by squirting through a popped up (but not lifted up) bonnet, I then found out that the car had four bald tyres and no current tax disc. Humph. Should have poured petrol on, instead.
The owner who had welcomed my assistance ("Would you like some help?" "Yes") then told me to go forth and multiply when I suggested that a contribution for the cost of a recharge might be nice.
The only satisfaction was that being close to the Plod Shop, it wasn't long before a policeman turned up and noticed the same details that I had. Oh, yes. The fire brigade turned up too, alerted by a resident, and promptly jemmied the bonnet open without even trying the release mechanism, first!
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Wouldn't bother having one for the car, keep it in the car for camping etc, but you are better off fighting a car fire with a mobile phone (call 999). In all the car fires I have seen you would not have enough time and the fire ex. would not be big enough to tackle a car fire. Best bet is to get as far away from it as possible.
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I've used one on my own (petrol) car and it worked very well. I tried first to throw my jacket over the top of the carburettor to act as a fire blanket (should have used my trousers as I'd probably wet myself at the time) but it didn't work so used the fire extinguisher instead.
Fire brigade were there in a few minutes, but by then the car would have been well ablaze, but there was so little damage that I could actually restart the engine when I got the car towed home!
A new pair of carbs and a new fire extinguisher and all was well again.
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you are better off fighting a car fire with a mobile phone
But my mobile doesn't have a hose attachment.
;-)
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I used to work for a company where all the company cars had fire extinguishers. A Health & Safety guy said they had to be taken out, in case anybody hurt themselves fighting a fire.
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i had my car catch fire when i was working on it(my fault) the got nasty within like a few seconds...i managed to whip the extinguisher from the car and put the fire out and i only had a mess and some burnt wires to deal with
for me it was WELL worth having, saved my car, my insurance no claims etc etc for the sake of £9.99
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I only carry one as it was free from work when they banned Halon ones. I used to have a powder one, which did come in handy when the car was parked nose to a wall and a tilly lamp burst into flames on the floor behind the car, it was much easier to put out the fire than shunt the car between the fire and wall to get out of the way.
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As a generality most extinguishers sold for car fires are too small to be of any use. Minimum would really be in the range 3 - 7kg Dry Powder but you still have the problem of directing the content onto the fire. Better left to the professionals and viewed from a safe distance.
Happy Motoring Phil I
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Have bought 2, and had both (not on display) stolen from the car in separate incidents - the second time, the thieves emptied the contents over the windscreen.
Lost interest in the idea now.
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Plus, would you rather your burning car was written off, or repaired because you extinguished the fire early on?
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The powder used in extinguishers has a rather unpleasant impact on the ability of your ECU to function. If you want to have the car written off, watch the fire. If it goes out, use the extinguisher and point it at all the electrical bits.
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"Plus, would you rather your burning car was written off, or >
repaired because you extinguished the fire early on?"
Exactly
Dont want a car back thats had a fire thank you. Never get rid of the damp smoke smell, plus you never know what the fires done that has not been repaired.
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I now always carry a fire extinguisher in my car. I experienced a car fire on the M25 some years ago. I was the passenger in a vehicle returning from a video shoot and we had in the region of £20,000 worth of equipment with us. We ground to a halt during a stop start traffic jam and managed to get onto the hard shoulder. I opened the bonnet and was surprised to see a tiny flickering flame. Within seconds the whole engine compartment was ablaze and flames were leaping several feet into the air. The feeling of utter helplessness was something I never want to repeat. Luckily another motorist pulled in and had an extinguisher so was able to put out the fire in seconds. Unluckily the car was a write off but there was no damage to any of the video equipment. The fire brigade and police did attend as we had been spotted by traffic cameras and we had a long wait for a tow truck home.
I immediately purchased an extinguisher and several years later was able to do a similar favour for a motorist on the M2. It's an experience I wouldn't wish on anybody.
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Mmmm. got mixed feelings about this. Although I havnt used it for a while, I have an ADR certificate for carrying hazardous materials by road, in packages or tankers, for all classes of hazard except explosives and radioactives-and I dont EVER want to go near those (again). Part of the training (5 days for the packages, with an extra 2 days for the tanker side) was fire fighting. all the usual stuff you might expect, what colours are what extinguiser, what to use on what type of fire etc, plus some practical. Anyhow, in my experience you only seem to get one type on trucks, and thats dry powder. usually you get 3 types of fire on trucks, fuel, electrical, and brakes.
fuel fires are usually down to the high pressure side of the fuel system,tucked away under the cab. cant get an extinguisher there becaue engine is pretty well surrounded. But usually, stopping the engine usually puts out the fire. On diesels.
Electrical-can be nasty. Isolate batteries if possible. good luck with the powder as electricals are usually buried somewhere inaccesible and will smoulder for ages. Thats why fire brigade spend ages damping down.
Brake fire. you get this when a brake sticks on, or a (usually trailer) wheel bearing collapses. this causes the drum to twist on the shoes. net result, lots of friction and LOTS of heat. this transfers through the drum and wheel to the tyre, igniting it. I once came out of the showers at sandbach services one evening to see a truck pull in the slip road with a trailer wheel on fire. I ran to my vehicle, grabbed the (powder) extinguisher and went to help. on the way, I noticed @ 8 other drivers all doing the same. when we got there we found we ALL had powder extinguishers, just like the driver on the burning truck, who was doing a blue peter impression with the tyre. (remember that when the fireman tried putting out the burning hoop with CO2 but couldnt get all the way round before the flames caught up?) what was needed was a water gas type to cool it down, but no-one had one,so we just stood around and waited for it to either go out or go bang. (it went out without our help. or despite it!).
Sorry to ramble on, but IMHO, unless you want to custom plumb one into the engine bay, like rally cars, then probably more trouble than they are worth. Might even be legal implications to using one one someone elses vehicle. They might try to stiff you with a bill for cleaning it after.
Like it used to say on the telly ads:
Get out.
stay out.
call us (fire brigade) out.
oh, and get a LONG way out.
You and the car will both burn just as well. Main difference is that the car is already dead.
WTM
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I would never travel in any of my cars without a fire extinguisher. Not just for my protection but other road users as well particularly where several cars may get tangled up, me one of them, and one of the another vehicles catches fire. I have used an extinguisher on a fire in the boot of a car that had rolled over but was on its wheels whilst my son and an another driver pulled the driver out of the passenger window. Why the fire started in the boot was a mystery but if was full of cardboard business filing systems and I think a short in the rear light cluster was the cause. So lets all carry an extinguisher and be safer. Fire services arrived well after the event and took over. Regards Peter
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I wouldn't be without one - and a proper one at that.
The look on someones face, trapped in a car that has just caught fire.......
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>>I wouldn't be without one - and a proper one at that.
I think that's the telling point - "a proper one".
Most of them are not and you might as well throw your macdonalds cola at the fire as use one of them.
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I think that's the telling point - "a proper one". Most of them are not and you might as well throw your macdonalds cola at the fire as use one of them.
But that weedy extinguisher *might* be enough to delay the fire spreading further whilst trying to get someone out of a trapped vehicle. During part of our fire training at work, the fire officer always stipulates that a fire extinguisher is there to enable you to help get out, not necessarily put the fire out.
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Ok
You might have arms 12 foot long and two heads so you can put the fire out and get someone out, but for most of us while we are trying to struggle with the fire the person is still trapped.
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Aside from the idea of you in your job having to know about fires, which frankly I find a little scary; I refuse to believe that the hairspray can sized ones are any good at all.
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RF,
I'm not suggesting fighting the fire and helping someone get out on your own. Hopefully there might be some extra help around. One to delay the fire, and someone else to get the trapped person out.
Mark,
Am I to assume that not all businesses conduct regular fire training and drills then? I thought this was common practice throughout?
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Fire training ? Maybe for the Fire Marshalls. Of course we do on all operational sites, but I think it must be restricted to just fire marshalls in the offices.
Fire drills - then yes, we all go and stand in the car park from time to time.
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In my experience tiny (1kg) dry powder extinguishers are pretty much useless for anything but making a mess and car hijack prevention!
Looking at extinguisher types:
Dry powder goes everywhere and wrecks anything electrical.
Foam is great for most things, especially petrol fires, but again wrecks anything electrical
CO2 on the other hand is pretty good, doesn't make a mess and puts most things out. However they are big, and can cause frostbite if used incorrectly.
In practical terms the old Halon ones were best, but the do-gooders banned those!
Do I carry one? yes. Do I think it will do much good? Depends on the fire (its a 5kg dry powder). Mind you a toerag will be in for suprise if he tries anything while I'm in the car!
Joe
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Been driving since 1958, carried a fire extinguisher for about 10 years and never seen a car on fire. Have I been lucky? What is the incidence of car fires?
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To digress slightly, I'm sure I remember reading that the Fiat Punto had a rally-style under-bonnet fire extiction thingy when it first came out. Or did I dream it?
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