Anyone keep a fire extinguisher in the car?
 

After see the "how not to race a civic" post and having a fuel line come apart on me, I think that I may want to keep something in the car just in case. I am not looking to mount it somewhere visible, just keep it readily accessible. Anyone got one on-board and where did you stash it?

Rob

I don't keep one in my car, but I really should get one in case. I would keep it in the big box behind the passanger seat, that's if you get a small one and it fits in there. I've seen a pic somewhere, where some1 mounted it on the rear strut bar facing the driver seat, it wasn't hidden, but it did look nice.

Here is a picture of how I mounted my Halon 1211 fire extinguisher. Easy to reach, and out of drivers sight through rear view mirror.

you definitely should. I second the halon extinguisher

I have one mounted behind the the driver seat and it's covered by the floor matts for daily driving. After I saw a Viper catch on fire at the track this is a must have.

doesn't everyone? how many times have you seen a car burning up on the side of the fwy? too many times for me.

What other systems do people use? I am thinking about getting this one from Summit Racing. It looks like you are able to have lines run to different parts of the car to have it extinguished. Anyone else have other ideas on how to mount this thing? :)

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...=egnsearch.asp

i use the costco "system".;)

I want one. We need some pics of easy access but out of the way install

The hood liners on most cars these days are designed to drop onto a burning engine to smother a fire. I guess a [small] fire extingusher would be effective on a small engine fire, too. But most of the fire extinguishers I've seen in cars are so small (5BC), that all they may provide is a false sense of security.

A couple years ago, I awakened in the middle of the night only to see a car burning in my apartment complex parking lot. I called the fire department, then grabbed my extinguisher out of the kitchen (1A10BC) and ran outside. I completely discharged the contents of that fire extinguisher onto the base of the flames in about 10 seconds or less, but the fire continued unabated. I was shocked! I expected the fire to go out. With my fire extinguisher empty, all I could do was stand-by with bare feet and wait for the fire truck to arrive.

Within a couple minutes, the fire truck pulled up, and firemen began to douse the flames with a 2" line. Surprisingly, it took several minutes to extinguish the fire. Later, a fireman explained to me that once metal starts to burn, the fire is so hot that it is very difficult to put it out. All you can do is dump gobs of water on it, to slowly remove enough heat to eventually put out the flame.

The moral of the story: If you are going to have a fire extinguisher in your car, make it a good-sized one, rated at 10BC or larger. If you are going to fight a fire with your extinguisher, act quickly yet carefully. You may have a very short window of opportunity to extinguish the blaze before it gets too far along to douse with your limited charge of fire extinguisher material.

I just placed the order and will let guys know how it turns out :) Full race car is coming :) jk

i hope so. i saw brian from technosquare's race z the other day, and it looked like a cyclone hit the interior. almost made me cry. the things we'll do for a little weight savings. :icon31:

As a fireman who's put out many, many car fires, I can tell you one thing...all of the cars were totaled. It does not take much fire to total a car.

Anything more than a small extinguisher for a street car is overkill, if it's the car you're thinking about. Because if you don't put the fire out in the first 15 seconds or so, chances are the only thing you're going to need is marshmellows....your car is history. ANY fire in a car, no matter how small, will burn the car to a charred hulk if allowed to burn. Virtually everything in a car is flamable.

Where a fire extinguisher can become a lifesaver is if someone becomes trapped in a car accident, and then the car starts on fire. I have personally used my extinguisher to save a man's life who was trapped in a burning vehicle. But it took my 2lb extinguisher, PLUS two 5 lb. extinguishers from a couple of DOT trucks, plus a few other small ones, to hold the fire down until the fire dept could actually extinguish the blazes, (this was a small engine fire, not a fully involved car).

If you have a race car, a total fire system with automatic activation is really a great idea, whether your racing class requires it or not.

This will make you want one
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=SRgtiFIRE

yeah seen that video before

what caused that fire?

If I were him I would have started pulling everything off the car that wasn't bolted down - gauges, his steering wheel etc and save what i could

I'd guess that since there's fuel in the car/engine, the fire would have a nearly impossible time to put out without a firehose

In that video, somone had a small extinguisher, but didn't really go at it too agressively; it only showed them using it for a few seconds. If they had emptied that extinguisher at the source of the fire, (my guess would have been a turbo oil line leak), they might have had a chance. Try to remember this acronym for using an extinguisher: PASS

P for PIN (remove the pin stupid!)
A for Aim (at the base of the fire)
S for Squeeze
S for Sweep (gently pan the extingusher right and left from one edge of the fire to the other, while still focusing most of you attention on the base of the fire)

Off topic,

What harness bar is that?

Mine. Check out www.BCRLtd.net for info.

I just installed my safecraft fire extinguisher system with nozzles currently ready to spray the trunk and driver area. I ran out of steel wire and will hopefully run one to the engine bay tomorrow. Pics will be coming shortly tomorrow evening or late next week since my car will be in Canada :icon28:

Wow! That's nice!