Workshop Fire Extinguisher

[A10 JWO]

My little fire extinguisher is very old. I want to get a new larger one for the garage as the bikes do add up to a bit of money. Which type would be the best for petrol/oil fires in my cave.
Thanks.

[a10 gf]

^^^ Good move +++

as the bikes do add up to a bit of money

.. and the tools, the garage itself, the heartattack from panic & trying to extinguish while waiting for the fire brigade, etc.

[scotty]

I have a couple of ABC Dry Chemical units in the shop

S

[RichardL]

Pretty sure you won't have trouble finding extinguishers for the shop, but way-back-when we had an interesting discussion of extinguishers to keep on your bike in case the unthinkable were to happen. Here is the link: https://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=615.msg4047#msg4047

Richard L.

[muskrat]

G'day JWO.
I only have a small dry powder one in my shed/mancave, which is below the main bedroom. I've had to use it twice due to backfires on bikes. Doubt if I used 1/10 of the bottle but once it's been cracked it gets replaced. Then two months of finding white powder in nooks and crannies.
I'd prefer a CO2 type but they are too expensive and I have insurance. 
Cheers

[coater87]

 I wish my house came with a man cave.

 All I have is a wet pit of despair and agony.

[Brian]

I cant stress enough the importance of having a fire extinguisher, I had a shed fire and if not for the extinguisher I would have lost everything. At the time I put up a post about it on the forum, here is a link to my original post.

https://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=3462.0

[Butch (cb)]

I've suffered a few minor fires in the back of my garage. Too little good housekeeping when I'm welding or grinding. Nothing I haven't noticed early and been able to stamp out. There's been a few time when I've been messing around with gasoline and found I've still got my pipe clamped between my teeth ... which probably wouldn't be survivable anyway

I've got a couple of CO2 extinguishers for when things get too far out of hand.

[Black Sheep]

I have a couple of RAF surplus BCF extinguishers. Ozone unfriendly but they don't leave the mess of white powder. Fire is scary. Look what happened at the National Motorcycle Museum where at least there were no casualties.
Note to self. Buy more extinguishers.

[chaterlea25]

Hi All,
In the past couple of years I know of 3 people who have had total loss garage fires 
The cause of two of them was battery / tool chargers so Be Warned

I try and do any grinding outside if possible
Last week while doing some heavy turning in the lathe where the chips were coming off blue I saw smoke coming from the chip tray    the cutting oil that had dripped down was ready to ignite

When we did fire extinguisher training at work, they would light off some diesel in a 3ft square tray by adding a petrol soaked rag 
We used 20lb extinguishers to take turns putting the fire out
It would use a full extinguisher to put the fire out 

Once the fuel got hot it was even more difficult to put out, and sometimes the tray of fuel would flash alight again
after the extinguisher exhausted

I keep a 20lb dry powder and a big CO2 in the shed, and a 10 lb in the house

The other important thing to do if you do "hot work" is to go back into the work area again 10-15 minutes after finishing the job and check for smoke / smouldering around the place

John

[Daithi]

A fire blanket is a very handy thing to have at hand . In the "heat" of the moment you don't have to think about what extinguisher for what type of fire, may buy you extra time to deal. Having a bucket of water and/or sand about is a good idea too. Welding sparks in oily rags ect. Could be worse though...
 https://youtu.be/fWC-Nk5JBzg

[Tomcat]

Something else previously mentioned on this forum was to install a smoke detector in the garage and have a fire extinguisher mounted at the exit door. Both are really good ideas.

[RogerSB]

Also a pile of oily rags in the corner, in a bag, a bucket, etc, can spontaneously combust because the solvents create heat as they dry and if trapped they are likely to catch fire.

If you do keep a bucket of water handy remember never to chuck it on an oil or grease fire - you'll make it far, far worse.

In the military we got lots and lots of training on different fires but a pal of mine made a fatal mistake while draining old petrol into a container from the petrol tank of an old Austin car he was restoring. He was under the car with a wondering lead, which had an incandescent bulb. The heat from the bulb ignited the fumes causing an explosion. He ended up in hopital for weeks, the car and garage was completely destroyed.

[bsa-bill]

little tip I was taught (god knows where or when) by a fire brigade officer.
When using a foam extinguisher on a burning fire try to bounce the foam of something (wall, back of tank ...) so that it floats on and over the flames putting them out rather than blast the foam into the flames which just spreads them.
Not possible in every case but you get the drift

[RDfella]

Having had to deal with a few small garage fires over the years, I'm not a fan of foam or dry powder and water is useless for liquid fires unless it's a fog type. Can't beat CO2 in my opinion. Also, unlike many small dry powder or foam ones, they shut off when you release the trigger. And they don't make a mess.