I want to remind everyone that 2.5 LB fire extinguishers are not good enough for your bug out vehicle. They are in fact a false sense of security. I had a few of them in the truck and they did almost no good in a real vehicle fire. SEE VIDEO of my buddy's Land Cruiser Burn to Nothing We all had 2.5 pound bottles and we could not stop it. Boy what a wake up call! I now say that you need at least two 5LB bottles. One for the driver and one for the passenger. More is better if you have room. 10 LB bottles are great too. I feel that 20 pound bottles are too heave to maneuver easily. More 5lb or 10lb bottles would be better. While we are at it. Make sure you look at the fuel system, especially the fuel lines. in older vehicles. Be careful out there!
Really depends on what type of fire Extinguisher, and what type of Fire..... If your using Dry Chem Extinguishers on a Petroleum Fire, of course your not going to get the fire out... Now if you have a good CO2 Extinguisher, and are on the Flame Front, You should be able top deal with it fairly quickly. Granted the CO2 Extinguishers are bigger, and heavier, but they are the correct piece of equipment for that type of fire..... ...... YMMV......
Shame to see a classic FJ like that, going up in flames! Something to keep in mind, too, is that if it's a gasoline related fire, you need to make certain that your fuel pump is NOT energized, and feeding the fire! A guy I served with, back in my Navy days, told me about the mistake he made with his old K5 Blazer 4x4, when he didn't secure his battery in the tray. Out in the middle of nowhere, he bounced it good a couple times, and the engine suddenly stalled. No amount of cranking would start it again.....and then he had smoke and flames coming out from under the hood! When he popped the hood, he had a pretty good sized fire going already, no fire extinguisher, and out in the middle of nowhere. He told me he was scooping up handfuls of dirt, and that was doing no good, when he finally realized what had happened, and quickly pulled the fuse for the fuel pump (which allowed him to put out the fire, finally). What happened? His battery had bounced out of the tray, flipped over, and landed, terminals down, on the stainless steel fuel line tubing.....which made contact across the terminals, heated up, melted the tubing (causing a gas leak), which then hit the hot manifold and ignited! Since the ignition was still on when it happened, the fuel pump was still doing its job, and pumping fuel directly to the fire!! He said the truck was saved, but the wiring and hoses under the hood were pretty much a complete loss. Helluva lesson!!
Quite a few whiles ago, I figured out that if I can't suppress a fire with a 5# dry chem extinguisher, it's already too late to call for help. I carry 5 pounders, and don't go offroading without like minded buddies and get home stuff. Every pound and cubic foot counts for a vehicle load out, and a (say) 100 lb CO2 bottle with (say) another 50 of that purple stuff won't fit well --- With all due respect to BTP, foam is the best for petroleum fires unless contained in a more or less closed space where CO2 will not get blown away. YMMV, uv cuss.
I do carry a small fire extinguisher, but will switch to a larger unit for my van. Sometimes though, thinking outside the box helps. My dad was frying chicken on the stove on his rear deck once, and after cooking and bringing the meat in the house, we all sat down to eat. I happened to notice a flickering through the back window..... "FIRE!" The big pot of oil was burning! He had forgotten to shut off the burner. I grabbed the kitchen extiguisher as Dad shut the gas off, and that made no dent. I used the extinguisher from the back hallway - still no good - just made a browning mess in the oil, still burning! Then recalling the three things a fire needs - fuel, oxygen, ignition source - I grabbed the water hose with spray head. I hit the fire with a fine mist, over the oil but not into it! Sprayed the pot, and kept the mist going to reduce the temp. Made sure to NOT hit the oil itself, or it would spread. After several minutes, as the temp cooled the fire was out. I was finally able to dump the hot oil onto the ground away from the house. (No apologies to the Mother Earth crowd, this was an emergency). We finally finished dinner. I had actually been taught this technique in the Navy, for battling oil fires. Water on oil - usually not a good mix. Done correctly, it WORKS!
All good points. I had an incident a few (quite a few really) years back. I was 18 and travelling with 2 other 18/19 year olds from MN to CA for som C.A.P. (Civil Air Patrol) camp. Somewhere in Montana (I think, memory is foggy), I was driving down the interstate in a part of the state where there was NOTHING around us. Any way, driving down the road I notice the alternator gauge shows 0, not low, but it looked like the engine was off, about then I smell something burning. Getting the other guys attention I hit the exit ramp that was coming up, as soon as my foot came off the gas the engine died. I got the van stopped, next to an 18 wheeler taking a break, and went to pull the hood release. Pulled it out a good 12" before the hood popped and when it did smoke came billowing out. FIRE in the engine compartment - one guy ran to the truck driver to get his FE, but he claimed he didn't have one, so we used the only thing we had, a cooler full of ice water. Got the hood up and dumped it. Alternator was on fire. It had seized up then disintegrated and caught fire, nearest town was several miles down the road and thankfully we made it on the battery charge. The shop we stopped at had to send some one back the way we came, an hour drive, to get a new alternator. From that point on I've always had an extinguisher in my vehicles. Based on this, I may bump the size of the extinguisher in my truck.
If you have a grease fire in the kit and it is contained to the pan.... If you have the lid for that pan put it on and it will smother the fire lack of oxygen.
