Do you have a fire extinguisher at home?
Poll: Do you have a fire extinguisher at home?
Total Members Polled: 305
Discussion
AndrewTait said:
I have a fire blanket in the kitchen, and a small fire extingusher in the car, mainly for camping rather than for a car fire.
Unless you have been trained in the use of fire extinguishers, and have a suitably large one (such as the ones you find in offices etc) then they don't do much except keep you in a burning building.
The old addage, get out, get the fire brigade out, stay out works for me.
Unless you have been trained in the use of fire extinguishers, and have a suitably large one (such as the ones you find in offices etc) then they don't do much except keep you in a burning building.
The old addage, get out, get the fire brigade out, stay out works for me.
And its all well and good having one, but how many of you extinguisher owners have them serviced annually?I know in the 6 years we've had the car ones, they havent been done.
knight said:
Halon in the kitchen and one in the garage, can't remember offhand what type though!!
Halon are now illegal now in the UK & potentially deadly.http://fireextinguisherguide.co.uk/types-of-fire-e...
Quote "Halon 1211 and Halon 1301 are special-purpose fire extiguishing agents that were banned by the Montreal Protocol.
Halon works by removing the Oxygen from the air and is not in use anymore because it is fatal to Humans. It has been replaced with FM-200 which is not fatal".
Edited by chevykevv on Wednesday 17th December 14:36
chevykevv said:
Halon works by removing the Oxygen from the air and is not in use anymore because it is fatal to Humans. It has been replaced with FM-200 which is not fatal".
So, just like a CO2 extinguisher then? 
Halon reacts with the fire, chemical reaction, but it is not specifically dangerous on its own until it has reacted. The main reason it was banned is because of the lentil weavers complaining about the ozone hole.
chevykevv said:
knight said:
Halon in the kitchen and one in the garage, can't remember offhand what type though!!
Halon are now illegal now in the UK & potentially deadly.http://fireextinguisherguide.co.uk/types-of-fire-e...
Quote "Halon 1211 and Halon 1301 are special-purpose fire extiguishing agents that were banned by the Montreal Protocol.
Halon works by removing the Oxygen from the air and is not in use anymore because it is fatal to Humans. It has been replaced with FM-200 which is not fatal".
Edited by chevykevv on Wednesday 17th December 14:36
King Herald said:
chevykevv said:
Halon works by removing the Oxygen from the air and is not in use anymore because it is fatal to Humans. It has been replaced with FM-200 which is not fatal".
So, just like a CO2 extinguisher then? Halon reacts with the fire, chemical reaction, but it is not specifically dangerous on its own until it has reacted. The main reason it was banned is because of the lentil weavers complaining about the ozone hole.
Inhalation.
"Exposure to concentrations of this material above 4% for longer than 1 minutecan cause toxic side effects.
These can include dizziness, impaired coordination, reduced mental acuity, & cardiac arrest.
Higher concentrations with longer exposures can cause unconsciousness or even death".
In a similar vein http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7787513.stm
The long-running advice to use a wet tea towel to tackle chip pan fires is being scrapped by the government.
The long-running advice to use a wet tea towel to tackle chip pan fires is being scrapped by the government.
GetCarter said:
Had a visit from the Fire Brigade last month (routine). They saw my extinguisher and said: "We now suggest that nobody buy these... if there is a fire, get out of the house and phone us". Hmmmm.
I can kind of understand the logic but I keep a large CO2 extinguiser in the bedroom cupboard for exactly the get out of the house problem, my logic is that if we are in bed on the third floor when it starts we've got 2 flights of stairs to get down, a good extinguiser might make the difference between getting out and not.GTIR said:
Right, I will be getting a Co2 2kg bottle and a fire blanket asap. 
But don't release it in the bedroom, then sit back admiring how valiant and efficient you were, else you might find yourself dead from oxygen starvation.......It puts out the fire simply by displacing the oxygen in the area.
just turn the shower on and point?mel said:
GetCarter said:
Had a visit from the Fire Brigade last month (routine). They saw my extinguisher and said: "We now suggest that nobody buy these... if there is a fire, get out of the house and phone us". Hmmmm.
I can kind of understand the logic but I keep a large CO2 extinguiser in the bedroom cupboard for exactly the get out of the house problem, my logic is that if we are in bed on the third floor when it starts we've got 2 flights of stairs to get down, a good extinguiser might make the difference between getting out and not.Lucky!
J500ANT said:
I have to say I dont see the point in having one in the car, if its burning leave it to burn 
Especially as far to many people leave them in the boot or in the spare wheel well with the jack. Fat lot of good its going to do you there when your trapped and listening to the sound of fuel slosh out of your tank and your hot exhaust go tink tink tink....As mentioned a couple of times powder extiguishers do 'compact'. Those of you that have them go and grab one and tip it upside down pressed against your ear. You should be able to hear the powder move around and perhaps here a soft thud as a clump of it falls. Tip it the right way and repeat until you hear the powder move straight away and make it part of a fortnightly routine.
If you get to a race track early enough you will see the marshalls all doing the same thing with the powder extinguishers and having the ones that dont move replaced.
I think powder is the best kind to have at home. It will deal with most types of fire so you dont need to try and remember that chip pan or electrical fires + water dont mix.
It is incredibly messy and the powder is so fine it gets in EVERYTHING but IMO its better than losing your house or car.
As for car fires the big mistake people make is to see smoke and then fling their bonnet open letting oxygen in to the fire...best option is to just pull the bonnet release so you can shove the nozzle under the gap and give it a squirt...just dont use it all incase the fire flares up again.
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