PCA SDR

On the way home from work Friday I got off the 15 North at my usual exit ramp. On the right shoulder was a car that was just beginning to catch fire, with flames coming from under the hood. People were standing around, but nobody was in the car. Zooming on down the ramp in my boxster with the rest of the fast moving traffic, I said to myself, "Too bad they weren't carrying an extinguisher...wait I'M carrying a fire extinguisher . I pulled over, grabbed my quick-release 2.5 lb extinguisher, and ran 50 yards back to the scene, where the front end was rapidly becoming engulfed. I pulled the pin, aimed at the base of the fire (thanks, Steve McKay), and used the entire thing. The base of the fire was actually not fully accessible, at that point consisting mostly of the gas and oil on the ground beneath the front of the car. I knocked down about half of it very quickly, but it came right back. If the hood had been open I might have had a better chance at getting to the real source of the fire in the leaking fluids. In 10 seconds, the front end became completely engulfed again, and the other spectators and I cleared WAY back as things began to explode. The rest of the car was consumed VERY quickly.

LESSON: A 2.5 lb extinguisher is like a squirt gun once a fire really gets going, especially in a closed engine compartment. With 2 or 3 times as much, I might have had a chance. I'm going to look for a bigger one, or carry two!

Question: Where can you get these recharged after use?

Fire is kind of tricky especially in cars. There are no small fires, just big fires that haven't really got going yet. With a hand held fire extinguisher, time is of the essence. Hit a small flame in the first few minutes with the standard 2.5lb and you will likely put it out. Once there is a lot of heat, a lot of fuel, and words like "engulfed" being uttered, you don't need a fire extinguisher any more, you need a fire truck... or a LOT of water fast.

In my car the Ext. is at the base of my seat and it has one purpose... to buy me enough time to get out of the car. If it also manages to actually put a fire out I consider it an extra bonus.

Most 2.5 extinguishers are 1 use only so you just discard it and buy another one. If it is rechargeable it will be listed so on the label.

We recharged all the club's extinguishers a few years back when Lori S.-T. And Monica were equipment chairs. I can't member the name of the company, but they were at the corner of Aero Drive and Ruffin Road (across from the police station). Hope that helps.

As for putting out fires, Smiling' Dave's got it right: time is of the essence. Back in college my '61 VW bus caught fire from a spark-gas vapors-cheap foam air filter- incident. A quick grab of the extinguisher and mad sprint to the rear of the bus put the fire out with only a few singed wires and ruined air cleaner. I drove home. Had I not been quicker, the fire would have caught the bedding and interior goods on fire. Cooked bus, no more fun-wagon.