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?