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buy a 1kg dry powder but only tackle the fire if you have a quick way out, powder is messy but a burnt out van is a lot more messy

someone asked me "what steps should I take if me van catches fire" my response was blooming big ones,  get the car if petrol away and hit 999 as that is why the thing is insured

Hi Lyn

When you go to buy a fire extinguisher  be very carefull, cheapest is not always best, they ALL must have a sell by date on them, so make sure the one you are buying is up to date.

The date can be anywhere on the extinguisher depending on the make, some on the bottom, some on the top, some stamped into the neck, but it should be there somewhere.

Hope you never have to use it! 

Mike

Some vans come with a fire extinguisher (ours did) and some will not.

When buying an extinguisher, try to get one with a pressure dial on it as this is an easy way of telling if it is still up to pressure.

Check that pressure everytime you are going away and at least once a month when you are using your van.

In our (new to us) FC we have both a Fire Extinguisher and a Fire Blanket. Then again as an ex-firemen I am possibly a little paranoid about possible fire situations.

Not sure if they sell anything other than Powder for vans.  If they do, powder is best as you can use it on all kinds of fires.  As said above, it's the messiest, but the best all rounder.  Safe to use on electrical items etc.

Tony B

Vans go up in no time so an extinguisher is a good idea. Also a fire blanket.

We have one but never deep fry in the van. Good weather= BBQ!!!

and another thing with powder give the thing a good shake once a month to ensure the powder dont clog up inside

personally I wouldnt trust any bottle that is more than 10 years old even if the guage is in the green

looking at this its get out and stay out for us i think.

Lucky Escape

Quote: Originally posted by Big H on 04/3/2011

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Dry powder should never be used in an enclosed space It is designed to starve the fire of oxygen so it will also starve the user. If in doubt contact a reliable fire engineer.

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Dry Powder fights fire in 7 different ways including starving the fire of oxygen and it works best in an enclosed space.

It is the person holding the extinguisher that should not be in the enclosed space.

IE; Stand outside of your burning unit and put the fire extinguisher nozzle in the door or window.

BCF & CO2 are another two fire extinguishers that are good for potentially multi fuel fires (Electrical, gas and liquid fuel fires) and these are less messy than dry powder, but should be used the same way. IE; You outside, their nozzles inside.

Of all the types of fire extinguisher you can get, Dry Powder is the best but it is also the highest maintainence one.
It has to be taken apart and the contents stirred on a regular basis.

Personally I would prefer a CO2 extinguisher and a Fire Blanket. Both require a minimum of maintainence, they do not make a gawd awful mess when used and as long as you have been trained (or shown) how to use them in a real life situation, they will do the job adequately.

Your local fire station will train you in the use of any fire extinguisher.

lobey if BCF is halon then you will find it is banned in all but aviation uses, pity as it was blinking good for in built car systems. but it damages the enviroment  noways car systems are foam that would struggle to put out a lit fag

personally from experience I dont rate CO2 as the slightest breeze blows it away and renders it useless

i know at the track we are trained to hit the fire hard with powder then use foam to cool the area, drivers hate it as when the powder gets everywhere when washed in by the foam and usually needs a full rebuild of the area concerned, my attitude is that they were the ones that had a bbq with their cars and a car that needs rebuilt is better than a burnt out wreck

BCF = Bromochlorodiflouromethane. So there!!!!

Yes Alan, we used to have it in all our vehicles, cars and lorries alike. (MOD).

The CO2 and the Dry Powder extinguishers we used outside on Airfields and were use to knock out fires inside aircraft engines by piercing the metal casings with a sharp pointed hollow lance where the chemicals were then fired into the wings or fuselage. Then again both the CO2 and the Dry Powder were in 47Kg Cylinders and mounted 6 to a trailer.

Our Foam came either as Animal Blood or Chemical. The Chemical stuff being a tad less smelly than the other stuff!!!
This was generated directly from the water tank on the Pump.

We also had foam generators that could be used to fill a ships hold in about a minute.

One day while practising with the foam generator on an old house, we filled all 4 floors until the foam was spouting out through an attic window. The following day we went back to see what was what and found to our amazement that the foam had stripped the wallpaer off of every wall and it was all lying in little bundles along the skirting boards.

Anyways, a few months later a member of the crew noticed that a frustrated neighbour of his was struggling to remove his wall paper in his lounge and told him that he would "borrow" this fantastic stuff that he had in work and they would brush the offending paper with this magic paper remover.

Well all went according to plan, the paper was found the follwing morning on the floor as expected and the guy duly washed down the walls, repapered and went to bed pleased as Punch.

However he was not so pleased the next morning to find his new paper lying on the floor in little bundles.
Indeed eventually he had to seal his walls with paint before he eventually got some paper to stick to his walls. Some things are not as Magic as they first appear.

Someday I will tell you about a terrific wheeze that you can do with the chemicals of a foam extinguisher!!!

pmsl mate, that is brilliant about the wallpaper stripper

funny one I had was a escort cosworth that the driver pulled in beside the marshals post smoke billowing from it, as we had seen it coming we were ready pins pulled on the bottle as it looked big, my mate pulled the bonnet pins and with his back to it cracked open the bonnet, I was ready to squeeze the trigger expecting a ball of flame to erupt, what I saw was a massive lube oil leak on to the exhaust (hence the smoke) and a flame candle sized on the turbo, gave it a good squirt anyway