Carrying a fire extinguisher

[Stephanie Plum]

Not a plumbed in jobby, just one affixed in the cabin somewhere within reach. Do many of you have one in your E Type? I was reading a thread on PH about a chap with a 57 Chevy that sprayed fuel from a fractured line in the engine bay and without an extinguisher the car would have been toast. Got me thinking about those three big old carbs up front in mine…..

Am I being an old woman or is it a sensible thing to carry? What say you chaps?

[cactusman]

Well I carry one in my E type and also in my mg. Never needed one in 25 years but you never know....mine is fixed up inside the passenger foot well. Relatively easy to get rapidly but out of the way...

[mgcjag]

Have a look at this RAC info page....some usefull advice http://www.racshop.co.uk/travel-touring ... shers.html

[Mark Gordon]

An electrical fire in 2007 in the engine bay cost me my '78 Spitfire which I bought new. A fire extinguisher would have easily saved it. I carry one in both of my Jags. The one in the E rides on the floor behind the driver's seat. Out of the way, but easy access.

[BRM]

If you're an old woman, Stephanie, so am I !
I bought a new 1kg extinguisher specifically for our trip to France last year. I figured it's a small price for a bit of peace of mind. Also you just might be able to save someone else's car - or life.

I made a simple ally bracket that just hooks over the bulkhead between the seats on my FHC and it lives there permanently now.

[Nickleback]

An electrical fire in 2007 in the engine bay cost me my '78 Spitfire which I bought new. A fire extinguisher would have easily saved it. I carry one in both of my Jags. The one in the E rides on the floor behind the driver's seat. Out of the way, but easy access.

Me too, I carry a 1kg narrow one upright behind the drivers seat on the floor, easy to get to quickly !

[Heuer]

Never bothered with one for the E-Type, essential for the glass fibre body Elan with the carbs sitting directly above the dizzy.

[38E]

You're right there. I had an Elan I'd just finished restoring catch fire at the gas pumps when I started it after a fill-up. Smoke curled out around the sides of the bonnet and when I popped it, flames too. (Fuel from the Webers had dripped onto the distributor).

I pushed the car away from the pumps, then remembered I had a small Halon aerosol type fire extinguisher under the seat. I quickly grabbed it and it put the fire out almost instantly to my great relief. No damage and no mess with the Halon. This was more than 30 years ago, I still have that little extinguisher and amazingly it still works.

I have a dry powder one in the E-Type, bolted under the passenger glove box. A warning though if you enter concours. At the last one I entered, the JCNA judges deducted one point for it... and another point for my airplane association sticker on the rear window. Needless to say, I don't bother with concours any more.

[JagWaugh]

Eminently sensible. In all your cars.

I have used them to stop a fire, break a car window to get someone out of a crashed car, and also been prepared (but not actually had to) to use it as a self defense measure.

Andrew

[Stephanie Plum]

Thanks everyone. Will get one sorted.

[Heuer]

Don't get caught using a Halon extinguisher - hide or toss the bottle before the authorities arrive Highly illegal to discharge one unless you are putting out an aircraft fire or are part of the millitary.

[Stephanie Plum]

Eek! It'll be a foam jobby. Probably one of these

http://www.msar.co.uk/motorsports/Fire- ... _1013.html

[Heuer]

Halon is/was the ultimate extinguisher for fuels because it acted fast and left no residue. The bottles themselves are also very small compared to the foam ones. Keep an eye out for the little green bottles, you will not find one for sale commercially but they may turn up on eBay. Not illegal to own, just illegal to discharge hence the 'use it and lose it' qualifier. In the garage I have CO2 and foam but I keep Halon in the car, purely for decorative purposes, obviously

[Neil1624]

Hi all.

I have carried one (foam type) in my car for a number of years - this was really spurred by my experience whilst working at the National Motorcycle Museum in 2003 when the Museum suffered a dreadful fire - it's an unremitting thing, better to be equipped in some form is my recommendation........

KR Neil

[rfs1957]

I was researching this, too, a couple of weeks ago, before our Pyrenean trip ; didn't need one, good job since I hadn't bought one.

The best info I could find, with someone on the end of the 'phone, an increasingly deal-breaking test in my book, was here at Lifeline. Their site wasn't the easiest to navigate, but the guy pointed me to this .pdf that told me a lot I didn't know :

http://www.lifeline-fire.co.uk/content/ ... 1-2015.pdf

The vital bit for me was that the AFFF foam leaves no horrible corrosive residues.

I had settled on the 1.75L AFFF type that comes in a polished finish (a bit more discreet within the Jag cockpit ?), 201-101-002, or red (for the Mini ?), 201-100-002 - both weigh 2.65kg and the dimensions are 375mm long for 108mm diameter - that fits comfortably across the width of the front seat, passenger side I had thought, and since they also publish fitting advice and bracket dimensions :

http://www.lifeline-fire.co.uk/content/ ... 2-2016.pdf

it appeared easy enough to rig something up from the box-section traverse.

This type of extinguisher isn't big enough to meet the FIA Historic Racing requirements (2.4 kg AFFF) but at 440mm long I thought that was a bit excessive for what we're trying to do, and the 1.75L volume does at least meet the spec for "Period F 01/01/1962 to 31/12/1965 from 1/1/1961 for single seat and two seat racing cars and up to 31/12/1966 for Formula 2 excluding Formula 3 and single engine make Formulae", so they're obviously not toys. Refillable, obviously.

Available from Demon Tweeks for £91 for the polished

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... r-1-75-ltr

and £70 for the red.

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... r-1-75-ltr

Unless someone shoots that down I'll be getting these shortly and will report back.

[chrisvine]

I've been carrying one of the 1kg powder extinguishers since getting the car back on the road but have just swapped to a unit that was being sold at a stall at an event at Goodwood this weekend. Its aim is to offer something similar to the now illegal halon extinguishers and doesn't leave a residue.



The main difference is that it isn't under pressure and can therefore pack in more fire suppressant in a smaller volume. So the sales blurb claims. I opted for their middle sized extinguisher above which is said to be equivalent to 4 of the larger powder units. On activation, a chemical reaction starts in the solid fuel which creates the gaseous output.

I've no association with the firm but thought it might be of interest to others and I hope I don't ever need to use it!

Firetool Extinguishers

Chris

Edit - if you catch them at shows they were offering them at around 25% off making them more reasonably priced

[Heuer]

Yes, that is the one to go for - same principle as Halon and more effective.

[neil4444]

Thanks for this info Chris. I've always been uneasy about idea of using my powder extinguisher on the car due to the mess it would leave behind (although clearly better than nothing). I note on the website there's limited info as to which one to select for which application although it does suggest the mid size is suitable for van engines. I like the compact nature of the small one so was thinking perhaps to get 2 small ones (1 in car & 1 back up in boot). What were the recommendations when you bought yours ?

Cheers,

[chrisvine]

Hi Neil,

The smaller one is designed for an average car engine bay although he thought it would be beneficial to go for the volume of the next size up for a E-Type, due to the size of the engine bay. The units operate for approximately 12 seconds regardless of their size.

I must admit that I opted for the middle unit rather than two of the small ones on cost, as they provide the same output. He did say some owners had purchased two of the smaller units, as you're suggesting, which gives them more flexibility.

Chris

[64etype]

My '81 Lotus Eclat burned to the ground as a result of a fuel fed fire. Small extinguisher didn't make a dent. Could have been worse...it might have only been partially damaged and I'd have been faced with repairing that abomination.