Fire Extinguishers... Update: Actual fire.

[DodgeRover]

I've got an ex Mod halon one, I would quite like a full sized one if they're still available....

[sal]

Still looking for recommendations. What about this 2kg powder one for the kitchen and maybe another for upstairs or the shed as seems a good price (£16 inc delivery):https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powder-Extinguisher-OFFICE-Fully-Certified/dp/B008D3M0B8/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1487937448&sr=8-9&keywords=car+fire+extinguisher

And this £9 600g powder one for the car:https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Fire-Safety/Eurax-NEX01201-Fire-extinguisher-600/B007T74X78/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1487937820&sr=8-14&keywords=car+fire+extinguisher

Yes/no? Bigger/smaller? Cheaper/ more expensive? Powder or not powder?

Sorry to keep asking, I want to get these while it's on my mind, otherwise I'll end up putting it off and intending to do it but not actually doing it,

I'd still advise you not to tackle a fire but hypothetically if I were to purchase extinguishers for my own use I would get the following

 

Kitchen - blanket for pans of oil. Powder for oven, bin, clothing etc.

Car - powder

Shed - powder

 

Powder is messy but reasonably effective and not too expensive.

 

If you want any other advice feel free to pm me.

[Noel Tidybeard]

water mist extinguishers seem to be the be all and end all choice as it will work on class A, B, C, F type fires and live electrical equipment

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Maybe instead of powder or water, fire extinguishers should spray skunk smell to encourage people to leave the building.  

[Eddie Honda]

 

I wonder if chip pan fires are as common as they once were?

[Junkman]

Extinguishers in every car, and one in the kitchen at home.

 

^^

That.

 

Every car should have a fire extinguisher. In Belgium, it's The Law and it must be mounted within the reach of the driver, i.e. on the floor in front of the seat.

Not having a fire extinguisher there is a CT PHALE.

If every car is fitted with one, they all of a sudden do make sense, don't they?

 

Also, the house should be festooned with them, not only one in the kitchen.

 

I know that this sounds pretty pillepalle, but trust me, you'll understand once you have lost a friend in a fire.

[sal]

water mist extinguishers seem to be the be all and end all choice as it will work on class A, B, C, F type fires and live electrical equipment

I wasn't actually aware of this type of extinguisher being available. It's using the same principle of tiny water droplets that the branches on the end of a fire hose are designed to create. It does appear to be a good all round option.

[Noel Tidybeard]

no i'd not heard of them until i went mooching about the halon ban

 

and for 46.5 squid for a 1 litre chap you cant go wrong really

http://www.safelincs.co.uk/1-litre-water-mist-fire-extinguisher/?fGB=true&gclid=Cj0KEQiA88TFBRDYrOPKuvfY2pIBEiQA97Z8MQjerbOkLN2HcfOgavhanSCRu2ViZXLueFc4al3kw7IaAq4C8P8HAQ

[inconsistant]

An unexpected update: we had a fire.

 

We’re all OK but a bit shaken even though it was relatively minor. We had recently bought the 2kg powder extinguisher I linked to above. It not only worked when needed, but it put out the fire. I reckon it was a close call though. We’re counting our blessings and are so glad our son brought up the subject of getting an extinguisher a couple of months ago when I started this thread.

 

I was upstairs, my wife was cooking dinner, kids were in the lounge. Not sure exactly but dumplings browning in a frying pan caused the oil to spit which caught the flames of the hob, and caught the extraction hood. In the time it took my wife to grab a tea towel and try to wet to cover the hob the extraction ducting above the hood caught fire and seconds later when I ran downstairs there were flames coming across the ceiling, and melted bits of burning extraction fan were dripping onto the hob. Wife had thankfully turned off extractor and gas and had the fire extinguisher out already. She got the kids out and shut the doors while I blasted the hob and extraction. The fire was smothered and it went out. We called fire brigade just in case there was anything smouldering unseen.  I left the kitchen to get some fresh air, not knowing 100% if I’d managed to put it out because the kitchen was so full of powder. 

 

 

Things I have learned from the experience:

 

1. It escalated so, so quickly. Seconds.

2. Seeing your stuff in your house on fire is one of the most frightening things I’ve ever seen, something I’ll never forget, even though it was only about 3 seconds of my life.

3. The 2kg extinguisher was just about emptied putting it out. Smaller that 2kg is pointless.

4. I’ve dealt with a couple of small(ish) fires on laser cutters at work over the years so I instinctively fought it rather than run out, but 20-30 second later and I think I’d have been out of my depth. Also I was standing between the fire and the back door so my exit was clear and I knew the others were out.

5. The powder from the extinguisher filled the room immediately. I could hardly see the windows, the top half of the room was thick with it.

6. I stayed in the powder filled room too long but I didn’t want to leave if I saw flames still after the first blast.

7. It’s a difficult decision, leaving the room and not knowing if the fire is out. It was a hot day and the windows were open so and fire could have easily re-ignited.

8. I did a couple more blasts at the extraction to be certain and to empty the extinguisher before I left. I had a bit of a headache all the next day probably from powder inhalation. May have been stress/fear/adrenalin playing a part too though.

7. The mess from a powder extinguisher is incredible. It took us a whole day of cleaning to get the kitchen somewhere near normal. Things like the toaster and microwave are full of powder and are ruined. 

8. We had one extinguisher, in the cupboard under the stairs. We’re going to replace that and have one in the kitchen too. And one upstairs, and one in the loft too as we use it as a work space. And maybe one in the shed too.

9 We called the fire brigade just to be certain. They got here in about 5-10 minute and checked it all out, pulled out the extraction ducting, pulled down the low voltage lighting in the ceiling to check above and were happy all was OK. They were brilliant.

10. That 5-10 minutes waiting could easily have been 5-10 minutes watching our house burn. That’s truly frightening and makes me shudder now just thinking about it.

 

 

 

Conclusion.

I could say ‘you really, really should all go out and get a fire extinguisher RIGHT NOW’ but I wont. It’s up to you.

I will say that I’m confident that if we didn’t have that extinguisher handy we would have suffered significant fire damage to our house and belongings. 

 

Finally, thanks all so much for your recommendations and advice on this thread. Very grateful!

[dollywobbler]

Bloody hell! A 'recommend me' thread that actually worked!

 

More seriously, I'm very glad it did. Close one!

[Jim Bell]

Glad it was a safe ending and a great precautionary tale.

 

Sadly, I think the dumplings will be inedible now.

[oldcars]

well done, having that on hand saved the day i guess. Fair play, glad your all safe. Scary stuff.

[inconsistant]

It was this one:

 

2kg extinguisher with blanket, £16.99 + free delivery

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322006505947?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

 

Also on Amazon:

2kg powder extinguisher Â£15.99 + free delivery:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Powder-Extinguisher-OFFICE-Fully-Certified/dp/B008D3M0B8/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1487937448&sr=8-9&keywords=car+fire+extinguisher

[RobT]

Blimey that's a shocker, glad you're all OK.  I've just ordered a couple, which is something I've been meaning to do for months.

 

[danthecapriman]

Shit me! Glad nobody was hurt and the damage isn't too serious.

It's amazing how quick it escalates, when one of my old work vans caught fire it started as a smouldering, but within no time at all the whole front of the van was an inferno.

I've got an extinguisher similar to that in my Transit camper now. Worth every penny!

[somewhatfoolish]

Extinguishers can be a cheap way of saving your skin, home or autoshite from fiery immolation, so defo get some; as noted by others the minimum in your kitchen should be a fire blanket. Almost as important should be attending some kind of fire safety course where you get to use extinguishers to put out fires, as it demonstrates clearly what they can and can't do and also how to use them(and fire blankets) safely. It's a bonus if you can get your employer to pay for this but some fire brigades do run free ones.

[Longblackcoat]

Well done; fires are, as you say, really scary things and the speed is incredible. 

 

All I'd add is that although you put the fire out and minimised the damage, it could easily have gone wrong. That powder is non-toxic, but a mate of mine had real breathing difficulties when in a similar situation to you, and spent the night in hospital as a result. And you could have got stuck in there.

 

My policy is to get the hell out of there if at all possible. 

[sal]

Sorry to read that this happened to you. I'm glad that you are all safe and hopefully your house can be sorted out quickly.

 

Stay safe.

[trigger]

That sounds terrifying, we've got one in the kitchen next to the oven, i often thought it was a waste of money but reading this I'm glad I've got it now.

[dean36014]

Must be the day for it as I've had a lucky escape today too

[Mally]

We had a similar thing dropping pieces of washed chicken into a wok containing a little oil. Never wash chicken!

Splashed onto the flame. Managed to put it out with damp cloth, but ceiling was a little burnt.

Our Extinguishers are 6 kg. 

[Rod/b]

Why would you wash chicken?

 

I'm glad you all got out safe and without too much damage. Those powder extinguishers really do make a mess. I've only had to use one once - it was a fair bit more than 2kg, about the size of an oil barrel on wheels, in the pit lane at a race track. Chap at a track day managed to make his 458 Speciale go on fire and he thought the best way to deal with it was to come back to the pits and reverse into a garage....

[Slartibartfast]

Was it the silver spaceman arm stuff that caught fire? That seems extremely unsafe.

[Rod/b]

I've seen plastic ducting used for extractor hoods - like tumble drier duct.

[purplebargeken]

Never wash  chicken!!!

[Mally]

Why would you wash chicken?

 

 

 

You wouldn't.

But its a while since our fire and in the olden days when chickens weren't contaminated as they are now.

Or maybe they were but we didn't know about it?

People used to wash chickens, run water through them in fact.

Did at our house anyway.

[somewhatfoolish]

Was it the silver spaceman arm stuff that caught fire? That seems extremely unsafe.

The stuff in kitchen extractors etc. is usually not anything fancy, just aluminised mylar or some other polymer; all pretty much as fire resistant as a winceyette nightie.

[JayW]

I'm a nutty advocate of fire extinguishers. We have 2 in the house, 1 in the shed, 1 in each car and 3 in the workshop.

 

Haven't had to use one for years but the kids have both been shown how & when to use them and more importantly, when not to.

 

I favour foam extinguishers throughout, except for the workshop where there's foam, water and Co2.

[bunglebus]

I had one of the Lidl fire extinguishers in my car, a few months back I spotted a BMW with a small fire under the engine stopped on the hard shoulder. I stopped and ran back, managed to put out the burning undertray but not the wheel arch liner. Minutes later the car was completely ablaze. Now I have a 2KG extinguisher in my boot.

 

I have also had a house fire (step son closed the lounge curtains over a candle). Trust me you have SECONDS to react, I tried to put it out with an old Ford fire extinguisher that was in the kitchen when we moved in - it did nothing. My wife pulled the burning curtains down while I got everyone out and shut doors and windows, the garden hose finished the job! The neighbours saw the flames and called the fire brigade. Wife had minor burns and smoke inhalation. Hardly any damage was caused to the house by the fire, but the smoke and soot was on everything.

Get good extinguishers, and especially in a house fire, get out. The smoke will fill rooms and blind you in seconds.

[garethj]

 is one of the most frightening things I’ve ever seen, something I’ll never forget, even though it was only about 3 seconds of my life.

 

...If girlfriends could leave eBay-style feedback

 

Glad you're all ok, you did the right thing to get everyone out and make sure you had an escape path.  Looks like the damage is about as minimal as could be, which is still horribly messy.

 

I always knew that Autoshite advice could save your life, whereas Facebook advice just makes you more depressed.