Fire Extinguishers

[jaudette3]

We've been doing a major expansion of our Safety Department for a while which has entailed a lot of research. I discovered a lot about fire extinguishers that I wish that I had known last year.

Last summer I went on a camping trip to the Oregon Coast pulling my vintage Airstream trailer. It was a great week there and I was packed up and ready to roll when I noticed smoke coming out of the back of the tow vehicle. I popped the rear hatch and there were flames in the rear corner where the taillight was housed (ironic huh?). There was a fire extinguisher mounted in the trailer just inside the door and I was able to grab it and put out the fire quickly. But what a mess, everything was covered in a fine, white powder. I had never given the extinguisher any thought as it had come with the trailer but it was an old fashioned one that sprayed a harmful and corrosive element. The car ended up being totaled.

What I discovered in my research is that there are "clean" fire extinguishers available that spray a clean agent gas that is non-conductive, non-corrosive, and leaves no residue. An example is the Halguard H3R which we decided to carry become an authorized dealer.

There's more....

There's another fire extinguisher that is revolutionary. Made in Italy, it's called the Element E-50 and it's very small. basically a 13" long stick. The Elements use safe and clean potassium nitrate which leaves no residue. It contains 4X more fire suppressant than a typical 5lb extinguisher. We use these in our AC14 Smugglers Box Road kits and everyone should have one in every one of their vehicles, whether cars, boats, airplanes, etc.

Whether you buy clean extinguishers from me or somewhere else, please buy them. Every vehicle should have one.
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[ejboyd5]

Please reconsider your suggestion about including a fire extinguisher in the AC14 Smugglers Box Road kit. To be effective, a fire extinguisher must be easily accessible and able to be instantly deployed. Placing an extinguisher inside a bag which is stored in the smuggler's box which itself may be covered by luggage and other paraphernalia defeats every concept of accessibility. Any fire extinguisher must be placed in the cabin within unfettered reach of the driver.

[jaudette3]

Thanks for the post. The fire extinguisher and the hammer are part of the kit but are not in the bag. The kit is sent with instructions to keep those two items inside the car where they can be immediately accessed. The fire extinguisher is small enough to fit in the glove box.

[dummkopf]

Interesting. I figured halon would be best. I carry a fire extinguisher in my old 911 just because... I need to check and see what it is.

And if you need another old Air Stream, I have a '68 Land Yacht that needs a restoration.. for cheap! LOL!