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Fire extinguisher


TomoHawk

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Jim, the foam I was speaking of is a solid material, less than an inch thick that is applied to bulkheads, partitions, walls, etc. Get it hot (fire in the compartment) and the walls and ceiling "grow" toward you and insulate the adjacent compartments. Even if you close all the hatches with a fire, the steel walls etc. transmit enough heat into the adjacent spaces to start another fire.

 

This was in the ONR 6.2 Research and Dev. stage years ago. I don't know if it is on its way to the fleet or not.

 

That foam you were refering to, is that AFFF?

 

Yeah, slow day.

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Hmmmmm.... Class "D" (combustible metals)...

 

I wondered a few times if real "Mag" wheels (Mag as in Magnesium) ever caught fire. From high school chemistry class we learned that Magnesium burns REALLY hot ( and bright) so if you lost a tire and your (Magnesium) rims scraped the cement enough to catch fire, you'd really be in trouble- the rear wheel(s) could easily burn through the fuel tank and you'd be histoir.

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Mags are magnesium alloy. I don't think they burn. I know old Volkswagon bettles had magnesium alloy differential cases that would burn if they got too hot. I remember reading "how to make a dune buggy" manuals that warned to take frequent breaks when griding on the diffs or else they would light up.

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I'll stick with BC Halon or a replacement. Unless someone comes out with a CLEAN ABC.

 

Dry Chemical is a pain to clean up. My Z was covered in it due to a welding fire (don't ask) Cleaning that stuff out was horrible. And where it didn't get cleaned out, it caused alot of rust (like up in the back edge of the roof).

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Really, how often are there fires in automobiles cause by electricity? Dont fusible links and fuses protect them from that? The most common cause of fire ive seen is from fuel related items such as injectors, cracked or loose fuel hoses, or overflowing carbs, etc. Heck, we all know what the best chemical for fuel related fires is, right? Foam, like they use on jet airplanes.......jk :D

 

So what im saying, is that a Class A B canister would be just perfect for automobile usage.

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A good friend's 70 SS Chevelle race car burnt the the ground, took out most of the garage, and damaged his father's Mercedes convertible that he was working on for him. About a year ago. Some wiring near the firewall started it. There was no leaking fuel. The fire investigator showed how the short heated the plastic and started the fire. The car had not run in 3 hours when the fire happened.

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A good friend's 70 SS Chevelle race car burnt the the ground, took out most of the garage, and damaged his father's Mercedes convertible that he was working on for him. About a year ago. Some wiring near the firewall started it. There was no leaking fuel. The fire investigator showed how the short heated the plastic and started the fire. The car had not run in 3 hours when the fire happened.

 

Ouch. I stand corrected. Ive been lucky and i hope it stays that way. You learn something new everyday, especially here. But an all purpose abc or a b will be just fine, ive put out a fire in a volkswagon bug with a small canister of all purpose. I was driving to the mtns one day to go play in the snow and this poor guys bug was on fire. I snatched my canister before i even had the car stopped and i jumped out to put it out :lol:

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  • 4 years later...

Ive used a fairly LARGE 10lb CO2 extingisher on most shop minor fires (yeah youll eventually have one if you do enought work) and its so far been ADEQUATE but surely not overkill, I used a 5 lb ABC dry chemical extingisher on a car ONCE! WHAT A TOTAL P.I.T.A. to clean up that total mess! and it BARELY was able to do the job.

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I've heard from one military police officer I know about a problem that cropped up with AFFF, when it comes to car applications.

After they soaked one of their squad cars due to it just being too near a burning aircraft, they found that the paint would not stay on the car. After three cleanings and repaintings with different methods, they gave up on it.

 

As far as carrying an extinguisher, I got started carrying a 5# CO2 years ago when I was first driving a diesel car. Good way to stop a runaway diesel engine.

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