Poor guy I wish I had a fire extinguisher...

I was driving home yesterday on hwy 101 in Northern Ca exiting at 37 and this poor guy and his wife were on the side of the road and they were driving a very clean 64 or 65 Impalla (i think) the hood was open and about two feet of flames were coming out of the hood. I felt bad i didn't stop but i would have just been in the way but i will be buying extinguishers for all my cars just for that reason. I feel really bad for the guy and hopefully his car didn't burn to the ground. Anyone know this guy?

 

Cover your hand with a shirt, cut the radiator hose with a knife and put the fire out. Yeah it isn't driveable at that point, but it beats burning down to the ground. I had to do this once, it was a lot better replacing 2' of wire and a radiator hose than losing the car.

 

For a small fire, a Dr. Pepper bottle shook up with the thumb over the opening works well, and saved my old F100 from total burndown long ago.

 

gotgas quick mind dude! i will file that away in shit to remeber when im panicing..but i do however carry extinguishers in my cars because of bad experiances..guess i lernt my lesson

 

A buddy of mine had a flooding carb catch on fire and all he could find was a watermelon to put it out with. He smashed the watermellon over the carb and put the fire out. Made quite a mess but a quick trip to the car wash after getting the carb fixed cleaned that up.

 

x2...The carbs in my cars sit right on top of the exhaust manifolds, scary to think about sometimes...

 

I was taught as a pilot that if you had a carb backfire ..fire..to give full throttle and suck it into the running engine (that is if it is running)..than once it was sucked into the running motor shut the ignition off and get the fuck out..with the fire extinguisher in hand

 

Being from the desert, I have to say sand works too. You are in for a cleaning job, but your car isnt burned to the ground.

 

If it's burning - the fuel is coming from somewhere.

I had my camaro catch on fire, and I put it out by reaching in and sticking my thumb on the broken fuel line.

No fuel, No fire.

No arm hair, either.

 

ALL great possible solutions to a major problem BUT hopefully everyone here in HAMBland WILL carry a fire extinguisher in their cars. Everyone needs to learn from others mistakes. I bought two at Costco a couple of months ago for $18 for the pair. A second one for Big Olds and a second one for the garage.

I tell you what, I saw some of the smartest muscle car guys this weekend at an autocross track with fire extinguishers in their hands ready to use. Not sure why this particular event warrented such behavior but it was nice to see everyones concern over a possible fire-y accident.

 

I should mention that I pulled the above thumb trick only after exhausting my fire extinguisher which only knocked the fire down momentarily.

Those little car extinguishers are better than nothing - but a real dry chemical in the trunk is better.

 

i just love the guys that use long lengths of cheapass rubber hose and just let it flap around and then go KABOOM then they think about next time i'll have a fire extinguisher

 

Don't laugh, but I had an alternator catch fire on I-70 west of Topeka, KS.
It was a frantic balancing act,
right foot on the front bumper,
left on the core support,
left hand hanging on to the hood for balance,
right hand on my dick,
while I pissed all over it,
with what little piss I could squeeze out.
It hissed, and stunk, but saved everything but the belt and alternator.

It was a clear afternoon, with cars and trucks wizzing by both directions. I didn't care.

 

It was a clear afternoon, with cars and trucks wizzing by both directions. I didn't care.[/quote]

Sorry but its kinda hard not to laugh nice save. Sounds like there was wizzing in all directions .

 

Hmmmm...OK!
YOU get out with the fire extinguisher in your hand...I'LL be taking the PARACHUTE!!!

 

never had anything catch on fire before 3 weeks ago when my big rig caught on fire.

starter got stuck at the truck wash, water going on when i fired it up and didnt hear it get stuck, after i drive out of the drive way 30 seconds go by and wires got so hot they burned a fuel line that sits right on top of the starter. needless to say fire extinguisher that sits under my drivers seat was the last thing i remember. i splashed my 64 ounce cup of soda and my bottle of water took my shirt off and tried that and after about 2 frantic minutes i remembered my fire ext. hahaha nothing like 4 foot flames coming out of your engine to put crap in your pants.

 

oh crap thats a line!!!

 

The only car I was ever in when it started fire was my 75 Celica. Seems there is something solid near the center of a Fiero and I found it. I had my laundry in a bag in the passenger floorboard. Pretty much all the clothes I owned at the time. Something electrical blew under the dash and started the clothes on fire. It smelled all right, they were freshly laundered...

The battery started a fire under the hood. The fire department got that one.

I wish I could have thought of something heroic to do to put out the fire but I was desperately trying to figure out where the hell my front teeth went after the steering wheel liberated them...

 

I'm pretty sure you know this, but most aircraft engine fires happen during the start-up procedure.

A modest dive from altitude will many times blow the fire out.
As long as you don't exceed the max speed rating for the aircraft.
If you do, control surfaces start fluttering, come off and it doesn't make any difference whether you're on fire or not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I carry em in all my cars.
Two in the pickup, one big one in the car trailer.

Saved my Olds powered 50 Ford coupe once upon a time.

The real basic thing about fighting a fire with a fire extinguisher is to direct the foam/powder at the base of the flames.

Watch some of the track hands at some of the races and you'll see some of them hosing down the flames from the top and the only thing they accomplish is emptying the extinguisher.

NASCAR seems to do real good when they have to fight a fire.
The NHRA safety guys are just as good.
No criticism's with either of these organizations.
Just that some races have volunteer help and sometimes those people don't have much training in the fire fighting end of things.

We got a lot of hands on training with real fires when I worked for the power company.
Pits of flaming liquids, low voltage (16kv for example) not-connected-to-a-source circuit breakers set up to flood flaming oil over the top.
And even fighting wood fires with a hose.
Worthwhile training for sure.

I'm sure there's some Fire Dept troops here on the HAMB.
Fire fighting car fires would be an excellent tech article.

Wouldn't hurt to touch on fighting a fire in the garage and the house as well as give an indication as to when you should give up and get the hell out.

 

Wouldn't hurt to touch on fighting a fire in the garage and the house as well as give an indication as to when you should give up and get the hell out.[/quote]

if the shop is enclosed, you've got about 45 seconds worth of breathable air in your average garage. (2 car) for a decent sized flame. The problem I see is more often than not, it's not a "hey looky, it's on fire" situation. Home garage fires are either slow burners (ala DamnedMk.- was inside having dinner before the flames actually became flames) or the "vapor puddle" variety "and then, all of the sudden POOF! everything was on fire!" - there isn't a whole lot a single guy with 6 arms and 6 extinguishers can do in that reguard.

Simple solution? Sprinkler system. (Not neccecarily the cheapest solution, but dig this) we are typically some fairly intelligent mammals around these parts- I cannot see how one of us couldn't make a working water based fire supression system for our garages. I feel like it's just about the only way to be 100 percent safe in a home garage. It's worth a shot!

Oh yeah- Denise, I'm a muscle car guy...apparently, we are quite flamable. hence all the extinguishers.

 

There is some good advise here. I'm a fireman for my real job and one of our saying's is "improvise, adapt, and overcome". Obviously an extiguisher or a hose bigger than a garden hose is best, but quick thinking can go a long way.
As far as a sprinkler system for your garage, check this. Any commercial remodel typically means a change or upgrade to the sprinkler system. Those heads cannot be reused. If you talk to the contractor they will usually give them to you. One thing I was told is that PVC pipe is okay to use for a home garage system. It won't meet the bussiness code, but it's cheap and easy. The absolute worst case senario is the system is over run with fire and the pipe will melt, thus releasing more water.
Maybe one day I'll put one in my garage.

 

I had an old 6 volt horn start on fire while I was testing it. Poured my root beer on it. Now theres this one spot on the bench that flys and bees always go to, and is kinda sticky!

Jordan

 

do you have to put the airplane on autopilot and climb out to extinguish the fire

ok, i get it... perhaps this is if you are taxi'ing on a runway or idle'ing... but throttle a motor and dump more fuel into an engine that is on fire?
doesnt make much sense...

 

my take on this is that its inside the motor, with an amount of gas it cannot burn quickly, so it smothers itself out. the same principle with the gas station fires. you dont pull it out, you put it back in and keep pumping!

 

Kind of sacrilegious but I was told a long time ago by my father to always carry a can of beer in the trunk of my car. Shake it up and it makes one heck of a fire extinguisher. Trust me I know, had A brand new AC compressor catch on fire in me 72 Cutlass once.

 

Seeing as how we have a "PRO" in the audience; WHAT IS THE BEST TYPE of extinguisher to have in a shop??
Dry chem?
CO2?
Water?
Haylon?

And what sizes should we go for?
The little Cosco dry chems have a live span - of extinguishing output - of about 1 1/2 min. (if that)
They worry me if I had something REALLY burning!!

 

http://www.firecomusa.com/clips/

Another option

 

That stick looks pretty neat. (for smallish fires I guess)
But I think I would like to use it on the voice-over woman first though... jeeeszz how annoying can you present a product.

I wonder how it works on a windy day when the stuff is blown away.

 

His name wasn't Galagher was it ?