Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

[Patrick B.]

The complexity of 3 x 2 carbs makes me wary of fire risk. What models of fire extinguisher would you recommend for effectiveness and ease of storage in a C2.

[Frank D.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

The complexity of 3 x 2 carbs makes me wary of fire risk. What models of fire extinguisher would you recommend for effectiveness and ease of storage in a C2.

Get an Element 50 and stick in a glovebox or somewhere else convenient, you don't need the Hot Rod Harry "show" mounts with big bottles, if you DO go that route get Halon or Halitron - these leave no residue (ask me how I know based on my dual quad fire) Ugh! Took a whole weekend to clean up the mess in the picture....this fire happened in my garage and I was damned lucky to see it before entering the house since the hood was down. Result of mounting rebuilt (by someone else) carbs I just bought and not checking things....the big fuel inlet nut was loose on the front carb letting fuel seep all over the place. Also cost me a pair of underwear.

https://elementfire.com/products/element-e50

[Mark F.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

The complexity of 3 x 2 carbs makes me wary of fire risk. What models of fire extinguisher would you recommend for effectiveness and ease of storage in a C2.

Patrick,

The site below rates the 5 best extinguishers in their opinion - specifically for cars...
As Frank says, dry chemical extinguishers are a REAL MESS to clean up after they extinguish a fire...I did a clean up after a kitchen fire (not mine) - and the residue from the ABC dry powder extinguisher was like baked-on glue!

That being said, this site looks to only have one Halon/Halotron type (the 3rd one down)

https://firefightergarage.com/best-car-fire-extinguisher/

• Buckeye 13315 2.5 Lbs Extinguisher
• First Alert FE10GR Car and Marine Fire Extinguisher
• H3R Performance HalGuard HG100C Clean Agent Extinguisher
• Amerex B417T 2.5 Lbs Extinguisher with Vehicle Bracket
• Victory 2.5 Lbs Extinguisher with Vehicle Bracket

and, if you have never had to use and fully discharge a fire extinguisher...this link gives some simple instructions on proper use for effectively putting a fire out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUojO1HvC8c

good luck!

[Leif A.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

And, you don't need a very large Halon extinguisher either. They'll mount quite nicely behind the passenger seat up against the bulkhead using some Velcro wrapped around the bottle.

[Frank D.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

A Halon will even fit in the "seat separator" of a C1...
You can buy a "Jeep" rollbar Velcro mount in a C2 and secure the bottle type right behind the passenger, super quick access and not too "in your face". Cheap and convenient.

But, I'm an Element 50 fan now

[John F.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

I use the Element 50 as shown on Jay Leno's Garage. It lasts 50 seconds. I glued a strong magnet to the clip that comes with it. You can then mount it to the Bird cage where your VIN/Trim tags is.

[Mark E.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

I'm not familiar with Element 50 and will have to check into it. Jay Leno is a good guy.

I've "used" Halon (now Halotron; Halon was depleting our ozone layer and is phase out) for the past 40 years. I say "used" because luckily I've never had to use them. A big advantage of Halotron with an engine fire, which I learned years ago when I was a volunteer firefighter, is it can be sprayed through the grille and radiator to extinguish the fire without opening the hood (which can be dangerous) because it's a gas. Back in the 80s when I was doing this, the preferred method for fire departments to extinguish an engine fire is to push the hose under the car with the nozzle cracked open. Again the idea is to get to the heat without opening the hood (we didn't use our halon extinguishers because of the recharge cost).

Halon/Halotron works best in a confined space because in displaces the oxygen. It's less effective in an open area that may have a breeze.

In 1999 my Jaguar XJ12 melted on Central Expressway during rush hour traffic in Dallas. The ignition for the left bank of cylinders failed causing unburned fuel/air to be pumped into the exhaust and catalytic converter. The converter became beet red, which caused the console and left seat to melt in about 10 minutes. My halon extinguisher was useless; I needed water to cool the exhaust. The damage to the interior was more than the car was worth, even though it was a gorgeous 41,000 mile car. I didn't notice the failure until it was too late because the engine continued to run smoothly on its right bank of cylinders.

[Ed H.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

I carry two, both 2.5 pound. One is Halotron, the other, for when TSHTF, is Purple K. I use DOT approved brackets, mounted via adapters from The Bracketeer. As others have noted, I have had multiple experiences (none mine) and I can state that 2.5 pounds is gone in a heart beat.

[Patrick B.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

Thanks guys for the good suggestions.

[Michael J.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

This is what I use:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KAO63G...roduct_details

[Terry M.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

IMG_0699 (1).jpg

You didn't see this picture and it doesn't exist, but I will set the stage for you because all fire control is relative.

These are in a room that is perhaps 250 feet by 250 feet and contains about 150 to 200 computer work stations. I can't tell you where it is or what is done there. Each work station has four PCs and 8 monitors. What you see as the "floor" is actually about 2 feet above the real concrete floor. That two feet contains power and computer interface cables. What you are looking at are three of a bank of 8 dewars containing Halon. I couldn't get a person in the photo, but each dewar is about 5 feet high and around 3 feet in diameter. There is a like bank of 8 at the other end of the room. Their purpose is to extinguish a fire in the cable space under the "floor" but they do have heads in the ceiling of the room as well. Their purpose is to protect the electronic equipment. Those who work there have 30 seconds to leave the room once the alarm sounds; then the Halon goes off. It is recommended that one not delay in leaving the room.

Timed fire drills are routine, both announced and unannounced. Fire protection is taken very seriously here.

There are some extinguisher training videos on youtube. They are worth your viewing before you need to use an extinguisher. Most of us, hopefully, will go through our whole life without the need to use an extinguisher, but when the need arises there is no time to ask: 'How do I do this?" Fire extinguishing is also an area where size does matter. As shown above you can never have too large a supply of the proper fire fighting material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktrv34zW7-A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvKDZZ9ipvI

There are other videos in this area. Please take a look before you need to use an extinguisher.

When more time is available I will try to tell you what wading through knee deep Purple K is like, but I run the risk of dragging this thread off course and it is too important a subject for me to do that.

[Mark E.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

Get an Element 50 and stick in a glovebox or somewhere else convenient

https://elementfire.com/products/element-e50

Has anyone used an Element E50 in a real fire? Or has found a testimonial or video showing it in action with a real car fire? All I can find are demonstrations. There's a lot to like: small, no residue, 50 seconds of discharge. But after watching several videos it looks like you need to get close to the fire (1 to 3 feet) to be effective.

[Frank D.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

This guy seems a good bit farther away than 3 feet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwzZJInS40g
With a regular ABC bottle type, I was just as close as this guy when I put out the fire on my 61 (in the pictures above).

Having said that, at some point, if the fire is extensive enough, your best bet is to move off and have the pros deal with it.

[Richard M.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

I'm just learning about E50. I had always carried Halon extinguishers though. One saved my '59 in Manchester NH years ago on a hot August Saturday. I didn't do a video during the catastrophe though... lol. No smartphones then.

But I learned something later from a retired firefighter, if it's a windy day, Halon won't work. If its windy and you have a engine fire, leave the hood down and shoot the Halon under the engine up into the bay. It eats the oxygen accelerant to extinguish the fire.

You'll have to view a video of this in your own brain, but here's how it went. (Copied from a old CF post regarding the infamous hood release cable breakage).

Go get a soda and a bag of chips for this one.........

Arghhh!!!! Reminds me of an episode about 10 years ago when my wife and I left a downhill parking lot on a hot summer day in NH. My 59 had a hot start problem then. Car has dual fours, old wcfbs. I made the stupid mistake of flooring the throttle, you know, to open the throttle plates to get more air, to start. But I should've only half throttled, to get the primary carb open. Flooring to start a hot engine with dual fours dumps lots of fuel into the front carb too. You know where I'm heading with this don't you. So we go to leave the lot, downhill, waiting for traffic to go by to turn left to get on the highway for a 2 hr journey for an overnight stay in the mountains, top down, beautiful day with my lovely bride of many years.

Finally traffic passes by, I turn left, shift into second, and "BANG", I thought, s__t, backfire, it'll be alright. Next thing, I smell it, that horrible feeling set in. Oh my God, FIRE! Yes, the engine was on fire!
Pulled over just before the on ramp. Wife tried to get out, her sneaker laces got caught on the window crank, she panicked. I tried to keep my cool, OK Rich, stay calm, we can fix this, had to get wife out first, then just reach under the dash, pop the hood. I prayed, Please God, don't let the hood release cable break on me, just this once, I promise I'll go to church this Sunday, really, honest. The hood popped open, I saw smoke coming out towards the windshield. I figured the car was doomed. 10 years of hard work gone.....no, had my mini Halon extinguisher in the center glovebox, and a full size in the trunk. Grab the Halon stupid, no time for the trunk!

Got out.....wife was screaming, I was starting to panic. Opened the hood and there it was, a round cone of fire completely surrounding the beautiful 2x4 air cleaner she got me for Christmas 10 years earlier from Ecklers. The flames were about 2 feet high......Ok, how does this Halon thing work....pulled the pin and in one circular motion around the air cleaner I shot the yellow & black flames. What seemed like forever, but actually seconds.......OUT! No flames, nothing, gone, poof. I stood there looking for more, ready with my handy dandy fireman's friend to kill anything that even blinked yellow. Nothing. We looked at each other, sighed, said a few explatives, and sat on the curb hugging each other. She was crying. I was shaking my head, wow, that was cool! These Halons really do work!

After a little while, I let the air cleaner cool off, took my Mothers polish out of the trunk. Cleaned off the black soot from the edges of the air cleaner(came out like new), put it back on and started the engine. All's ok. Got in the car, took a right onto the onramp and had a beautiful ride to the mountains for the weekend. Car was fine.

Morale here......make sure you check those cables often, they will let you down when you least expect it. AND, carry a fire extiguisher close to you in the car for those sudden emergencies. We were lucky. Also make sure those throttle shafts on your old wcfbs are not worn so badly that they let unspent fuel leak out onto those hot intake and exhaust manifolds. That was the reason for my episode. When we went downhill out of the lot, the fuel in the front carb leaked out the shafts as the carb was not sucking fuel as it was not being told to with less than half throttle. Fixed that with new ones and a rebuild when we got home.

Rich
ps Went to Church twice that weekend. Second time to cover us for the ride back home.

[Frank D.]

Re: Fire Extinguisher Recommendation Wanted

Rich told me that story in person years ago and it gave me chills then. In the interest of promoting safety and awareness here is mine:

I bought two rebuild carbs for my 270hp car off eBay and put them on my 61 (WCFB clones) and they ran well. Got home with the car hot from running and parked it in the garage and started into the house and heard a weird "pop" as I entered the house. On a whim I turned back and lifted the hood on the 61 (didn't know there was a fire at the time!). A two foot finger of flame lept out at me. I didn't think opening the overhead door and rolling the car out of the garage could be done in time. My ABC extinguisher was 15 feet away near the A/C air handlers so I grabbed it, pulled the pin out and soaked the carbs down and the fire abated - you can see the aftermath in the pictures above.

I was damned lucky I returned to the car when I got suspicious or I could have lost my whole house, once the resin ignites on these cars its a true conflagration. Anyway it turns out the rebuilder failed to completely tighten the fuel inlet fitting and a significant amount of fuel spewed out onto the hot manifold, I can't explain the pop as the car shouldn't have backfired after shutdown - who knows?

The point being that situational awareness and having an extinguisher close by is imperative. Also, I've seen several car fires and if they aren't brought under control within a brief period you're not going to do it with a hand-held extinguisher.