Fire extinguisher.....need to get one for the truck.

[T Bone]

Note to self. Throwing snow and mud at an engine fire is less effective.



We stopped on a rural road to help a guy looking under the hood of his older GMC.

A little smoke evolved into a full blown engine fire within 5 minutes.

 

[MarvB]

Yep, that would suck. After one of our small buckets caught fire they issued the below bag to every rig. Crew gave me one at retirement along with a window break tool for my center console. Hope to never use either but they stay in the truck 24/7.

 

[T Bone]

That's a good little kit Marv, thanks!

 

[COEngineer]

Just be aware that a fire extinguisher will not put out a full-blown fire or even a relatively small fire if it has a gasoline supply. I came upon a car accident a few years ago within a minute or so of the crash. There were several other people trying to get the female passenger out (the driver was deceased). Someone voiced concern about moving her for fear that she had spinal injuries and one of the rescuers said something like, "I'm an EMT, forget her back, we have to get her out NOW." I saw they had enough help there so I focused on putting out the grass fire around the vehicle and then started trying to fight the fire on the underside of the truck. A friend of mine was waving people down on the interstate and bringing me extinguishers as fast as he could. I would spray the fire (the easiest access to the fire, and the closest point to the victim, seemed to be between the bed and cab of the pickup). I started out spraying bursts, but within seconds of stopping, the flames leapt back up. I then sprayed several full extinguishers and again, within seconds, the fire blew back up. At this point, they had the lady out of the vehicle and I was out of extinguishers, so I backed off. A minute later the fire department showed up and gave the truck a burst of foam (which was 10x what I had been able to put on the fire), but again, within a second the fire popped back up. At that point the fire fighter sprayed until the foam completely enveloped the truck stem to stern, which finally put the fire out.

So, an extinguisher is a good tool, but just know that unless you catch a car fire early, it may have limited effectiveness.

 

[Dakotakid]

The local fire districts bought new super duper extinguishers for their trucks. I meant to track down what they got but haven’t yet.

 

[noharleyyet]

I keep one under the rear seat of my truck. I'm surprised I have it every time I lift the seat to get something else.

Thanks for the reminder T.

 

[hank4elk]

Reminded me to get 2 new ones for the trucks.

 

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

Pick a size, and then get one that's bigger than that. Certainly, for most fires, any fire extinguisher is better than no fire extinguisher but twice I've wished I had more.

Personal experience: the little 2 lb fire extinguisher is not sufficient. A 4 lb is barely sufficient.

I now carry a 7 lb in my 4runner and a 10 lb in my truck.

 

[Nameless Range]

It’s a good idea.

I have put small engine fires out with an extinguisher successfully. I have also put 1000 gallons of water on a full blown car fire and needed to call for another truck of the wet stuff.

Either way, it is a good contingency for all sorts of situations you may come across.

 

[Scott85]

If I was to carry an extinguish it would be this one 2.5 gallons of water 55 second discharge time. But it’s not something you can put under the seat and I don’t know how they handle sub zero temps.