quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Skimping on fire extinguishers is like buying the cheapest tires possible. I would not even bother with anything but the Haletron type. They also will not destroy computer equipment and data. The other extinguishers may put out the fire, but it will be a mess.

Yeah except for the lofty price that most people cannot afford. I'd rather someone have 5 10lb ABC fire extinguishers scattered throughout their home, than 1 5lb Haletron for the same price if that's all they can afford.

Keep in mind that Halotron extinguishers aren't rated for Class A - Normal combustible fires, same as the carbon dioxide extinguishers.

CO2 extinguishers are good on oven fires because they don't make a mess. The best option for a stove top fire is simply covering it if possible.

And the rule of thumb I've always been taught is, if the extinguisher doesn't have a hose on it, it's useless.

I like having a water extinguisher on hand as well for normal combustible fires because it doesn't make as much of a mess, and it can be refilled and recharged at home with a regular air pump. Add a little bit of blue dish detergent in it as well to break the surface tension of the water and make it penetrate better.

quote:

Originally posted by aileron:
We've just finished 2 years of construction of a new 2-story home, attached 1,800 sf garage and a detached 2,500 sf workshop. I'm thinking we need some kind of fire extinguishers, as we live out of town and our volunteer FD says it would be 10 minutes (at best) before they'd arrive.

What do I need to know?

Suggest to your FD they equip with a Federal Q siren, and they will cut their time in half.
 

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
Fire extinguishers are great for small fires. Pots and pans, maybe small electrical fires, as long as you catch them small. If it's in the cabinets, furniture or larger you better hope their response time is better than 10 minutes.

In a fire, 10 minutes is a LONG time. You can reach flashover in a small room in half that time.

I suggest a 5,000 gallon cistern, 200' of 1-3/4" double jacketed attack line with a Task Force tip nozzle and fight it yourself.

Or put in a pond. My mother worked in insurance. Most of her clients were very wealthy. She saved one client something on the order of $10,000 a year on his fire insurance when she noticed that having "X number of gallons of water within 500 feet of the residence" cut his rate. He gladly put in a fish pond and banked the money.
You do like to fish, don't you?

Bruce

Just as The Monkey said, aim for the base of the fire.

One of the items that came from my local CERT training was the PASS method:

P - pull the pin on the extinguisher
A - aim the nozzle at the base of the fire
S - squeeze the trigger of the extinguisher
S - sweep the extinguisher's spray from side to side, again keeping it low at the base of the fire

https://www.totalburncare.com/PASS_firepage.htm

As also stated, your local FD would likely welcome an opportunity to walk you through the process.

Call these guys. They're in Montana Fire suppression systems

Bruce

Lots of rules about fire extinguishers. I have a bunch of them that I consider worthless. Only 2 Halon, one 1201 and the other 1307, what ever that means. The 1201 I bought with a boat. That was 1979. I've never had to use it, but I always carry 2 in my jeep. The Halon for my fires and a dry chemical for other peoples.

One rule is no one ever reimburses you for your empty extinguisher. You donated it. Its why you use a cheap one. Unless someones life is in danger, don't expect my Halon.

CO2 has other uses. Say you've got a warm 12 pack of beer and need it cold. CO2 is your friend. In seconds, you have a big snow cone. Let it melt and your beer is cool at least. Hint: use the other guys. Gases like Halon and CO2 don't solidify unless its really cold. Old Dry Chem is about as useful as chucking a large rock at the fire.

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:
A Task Force tip, you heathen. Real men use Akron smooth bores.

What are you hoarding that you need the penetration?

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
Lots of rules about fire extinguishers. I have a bunch of them that I consider worthless. Only 2 Halon, one 1201 and the other 1307, what ever that means. The 1201 I bought with a boat. That was 1979. I've never had to use it, but I always carry 2 in my jeep. The Halon for my fires and a dry chemical for other peoples.

One rule is no one ever reimburses you for your empty extinguisher. You donated it. Its why you use a cheap one. Unless someones life is in danger, don't expect my Halon.

CO2 has other uses. Say you've got a warm 12 pack of beer and need it cold. CO2 is your friend. In seconds, you have a big snow cone. Let it melt and your beer is cool at least. Hint: use the other guys. Gases like Halon and CO2 don't solidify unless its really cold. Old Dry Chem is about as useful as chucking a large rock at the fire.

Halon has been outlawed well over a decade ago. It can be VERY corrosive in an engine room and on machinery and metals. I sure as hell wouldn't want to breathe it or anywhere near where you breathe it when you discharge it. The modern Halon replacements like seafire are far superior to the old halon in terms of not destroying things and being just as effective.

I keep a full size fire extinguisher in each room of my house and I am lucky the fire department is about 3 miles from my house. Now I just need to get all of these fire extinguishers serviced as it has been over a year since the last service.

quote:

Originally posted by StorminNormin:
I keep a full size fire extinguisher in each room of my house and I am lucky the fire department is about 3 miles from my house. Now I just need to get all of these fire extinguishers serviced as it has been over a year since the last service.

I get a bunch of fire extinguishers serviced every year, because you have to on the yachts I manage. On dry chems, they look at the gauge and make sure it's in the green and they tip it upside down and bang the base a few times real hard with the base of their hand....on CO2 they simply look at the gauge and call it a day....this is for portable fire extinguishers. On the automatic Halon or newer Seafire systems it's a lot more complicated.

Being serious about fire protection brings into play a water system run beneath the ceiling and a pressurized system.

The down side is the water is stagnant, so if it goes off your furniture and carpet might need some attention.

A 5# dry chem. will only give you about 20 seconds of suppression.

Unless you've had professional instruction get in touch with your fire dept.

Don't store dry chem. horizontally.

Chemical fire extinguishers have a pickup tube which runs from the head to the bottom, if the chemicals are on the side there could be issues with disbursement.

quote:

Originally posted by Neel:
Being serious about fire protection brings into play a water system run beneath the ceiling and a pressurized system.

The down side is the water is stagnant, so if it goes off your furniture and carpet might need some attention.

It's been a while since I looked at NFPA 13D, but doesn't it allow a dry pipe system? That will keep the stagnation and water weight in the system down. As for carpet damage, if you have a fire that triggers the sprinklers, the carpet and furniture are probably going to need a look. Are you seeing a lot of Residential sprinkler systems in your area? I'm a fan of them, but they never seemed to take off by me.

quote:

Originally posted by 10-7 leo:

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:
A Task Force tip, you heathen. Real men use Akron smooth bores.

What are you hoarding that you need the penetration?

It's not hoarding, I just like the simplicity of the smooth bore. I'm not smart, but even I can tell you when I'm not getting enough water flow from a smooth bore. The automatic regulator of the TFT can be deceptive.

You guys are gettin a little carried away and probably way over the OP's head with the FD lingo....

I'd suggest a 2.5 gallon water can that you can fill and pressurize yourself for fires involving furniture, wood, and common household items.

Then a couple ABC extinguishers for cooking grease, auto, wood stove, electronics, etc. They create a mess but work very well.

Just my 2 cents

y

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

Halon has been outlawed well over a decade ago. It can be VERY corrosive in an engine room and on machinery and metals. I sure as hell wouldn't want to breathe it or anywhere near where you breathe it when you discharge it. The modern Halon replacements like seafire are far superior to the old halon in terms of not destroying things and being just as effective.

As with so many of your posts, this one can be used in the garden to grow tomato's.

Halon isn't "outlawed" except the EPA doesn't allow new production of the material. If its so hard on machinery, I wonder why they used it in Tanks with people inside. And computer rooms. About the only place you don't want to use it is on diesel engines. They like it and tend to speed up. The halon one's I've got are vastly superior to anything else. Its because I already have them, they're paid for, and on hand. Go spend someone else's bucks.

I knocked down a grease fire on a stove with a 5lb extinguisher but it was empty when I got done . 10 lb minimum from now on for me . Dry chemical works well but it makes a HELLUVA mess . Sometimes it's the best option but do your research . And store it where you can get to it . In the cabinet over the cooktop is a bad idea .

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
I wonder why they used it in Tanks with people inside.

Still do. Crew bottle is halon, engine bottles are dry chem.

quote:

Originally posted by DCFD4:
You guys are gettin a little carried away and probably way over the OP's head with the FD lingo....

I'd suggest a 2.5 gallon water can that you can fill and pressurize yourself for fires involving furniture, wood, and common household items.

Then a couple ABC extinguishers for cooking grease, auto, wood stove, electronics, etc. They create a mess but work very well.

Just my 2 cents

The old school water can can do a lot, even save a house in the right hands.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CD228,

quote:

Originally posted by rburg:
y

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

Halon has been outlawed well over a decade ago. It can be VERY corrosive in an engine room and on machinery and metals. I sure as hell wouldn't want to breathe it or anywhere near where you breathe it when you discharge it. The modern Halon replacements like seafire are far superior to the old halon in terms of not destroying things and being just as effective.

As with so many of your posts, this one can be used in the garden to grow tomato's.

Halon isn't "outlawed" except the EPA doesn't allow new production of the material. If its so hard on machinery, I wonder why they used it in Tanks with people inside. And computer rooms. About the only place you don't want to use it is on diesel engines. They like it and tend to speed up. The halon one's I've got are vastly superior to anything else. Its because I already have them, they're paid for, and on hand. Go spend someone else's bucks.

Halon is also used on a lot of Engine rooms on diesel yachts, luxury yachts and commercial ships also. The first two are what my business specializes in (managing, not fire suppression). They all have engine shut down systems that automatically shut down all of the engines and generators if the halon bottle discharges. However, if those shutdowns fail the engines are all done/destroyed and need to be rebuilt afterwards and it's very corrosive to the cylinder liners and such, doesn't harm anything else in the engine room like electrical etc. But the reason it was used and worked very well at fire suppression in engine rooms and computer rooms is it is a complete flooding agent, very very effective, and leaves no residue. It's production was stopped in 1994 by the EPA. 23 years ago. What systems are in place, are grandfathered in, however if the level gets below the green the entire system has to be junked as they cannot be re-filled and a modern system has to replace it as there is no halon around to refill them, not even recycled. (In places that require fire suppression by law or insurance). This is a different Halon (1311) than what is in your portable fire extinguishers however (1201) which is a streaming agent.

They used it on tanks too, because if the tank is on fire with people inside, the last thing they care about is the engine getting destroyed.