rlitman
Well-known member
I keep a 1A-10BC (2.5lb) in each of my vehicles and under my kitchen sink, and 3A-40BC (5lb) units around my shop plus one in my house.
I've seen 1/2A-5BC units, but personally think they're a worthless joke.
When my neighbor's deck went up in a blaze and started to consume their siding, I grabbed the 3A-40BC extinguisher in my house and ran over there while my wife was on the phone with 911. I was able to put out something like 20 square feet of burning surface, but by the time it was empty, there was some stuff still smoldering, though no open flames were visible. I ran back home and grabbed a second, which I used to put out the few small flames that managed to pop back up by the time I returned.
Here's what I can say from that experience.
Fires can spread quickly. That 1A-10BC unit that might have been handy had I been standing right next to it as it started would have been insufficient had I ran over there with it no more than 2 minutes from onset (my wife fortunately spotted the smoke across the street probably only seconds from initiation), but the larger 3A-40BC did the job. A 4A-60BC or larger might have been better, but those start to get pretty bulky.
Fires often have a mixture of A (solid burning) and B (liquid) characteristics. Water is about as good as it gets on fires burning solid materials, but in this case, the astroturf on the deck (and a melted plastic flower pot) turned into a pool of bubbling burning liquid where using water would have been a bad idea (think grease fire). The dry chemical did exactly what it was supposed to do, and smothered everything without spreading the flames unnecessarily.
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Since this is GARAGE journal, I'll point out here that a CO2 extinguisher will do a fantastic job on a liquid gasoline fire, without spreading any nasty chemicals, which may be great if you're dealing with an engine that caught, but if there's an ember burning your upholstery, NO amount of CO2 will put it out, which is why ALL CO2 extinguishers (of ANY arbitrary size) carry a ZERO A rating.
At the data center I work at, we have 13LB clean agent extinguishers that carry only a paltry 2A-10BC rating. That's the catch with clean agents. A HUGE clean agent extinguisher has a fraction of the extinguishing power of a far smaller dry chem unit. But at least there exist clean products that carry an A rating (unlike CO2).
I've seen 1/2A-5BC units, but personally think they're a worthless joke.
When my neighbor's deck went up in a blaze and started to consume their siding, I grabbed the 3A-40BC extinguisher in my house and ran over there while my wife was on the phone with 911. I was able to put out something like 20 square feet of burning surface, but by the time it was empty, there was some stuff still smoldering, though no open flames were visible. I ran back home and grabbed a second, which I used to put out the few small flames that managed to pop back up by the time I returned.
Here's what I can say from that experience.
Fires can spread quickly. That 1A-10BC unit that might have been handy had I been standing right next to it as it started would have been insufficient had I ran over there with it no more than 2 minutes from onset (my wife fortunately spotted the smoke across the street probably only seconds from initiation), but the larger 3A-40BC did the job. A 4A-60BC or larger might have been better, but those start to get pretty bulky.
Fires often have a mixture of A (solid burning) and B (liquid) characteristics. Water is about as good as it gets on fires burning solid materials, but in this case, the astroturf on the deck (and a melted plastic flower pot) turned into a pool of bubbling burning liquid where using water would have been a bad idea (think grease fire). The dry chemical did exactly what it was supposed to do, and smothered everything without spreading the flames unnecessarily.
-----
Since this is GARAGE journal, I'll point out here that a CO2 extinguisher will do a fantastic job on a liquid gasoline fire, without spreading any nasty chemicals, which may be great if you're dealing with an engine that caught, but if there's an ember burning your upholstery, NO amount of CO2 will put it out, which is why ALL CO2 extinguishers (of ANY arbitrary size) carry a ZERO A rating.
At the data center I work at, we have 13LB clean agent extinguishers that carry only a paltry 2A-10BC rating. That's the catch with clean agents. A HUGE clean agent extinguisher has a fraction of the extinguishing power of a far smaller dry chem unit. But at least there exist clean products that carry an A rating (unlike CO2).
