Car Fire Extinguishers
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Your Car’s On Fire!
There is nothing more terrifying to imagine than seeing any part of your beloved automobile on fire!
There are plenty of reasons why a fire could be taking place, but imagine your vehicle is on fire and now you have to stop immediately and get to safety. What options do you have to save your beloved car and remove the danger? The most obvious first step would be to call the fire brigade, but they would take quite a bit of time to get to your car and by then the flames would have probably engulfed your entire car.
While waiting for the fire brigade to arrive, wouldn’t it be great if you had some way of stopping the flames while they were still relatively small, so that they wouldn’t spread to the rest of the car?
Automobile Fire Extinguishers
This is where a fire extinguisher, even a small one that is commonly found in hardware stores, automobile accessory shops and even online, could be very useful to stop the flames while they’re small and minimize the danger.
Think of a car fire extinguisher as another form of insurance: you have to pay money for something you might never use, but if the day came when you needed it, you’ll be glad you did!
Not only are car fire extinguishers useful to protect your own vehicle, you could potentially use it to come to someone else’s aid during emergencies and collisions on the road as well. Using a fire extinguisher is easy, especially since the ones kept in cars are typically quite small in size.
Types of Fire Extinguishers
Automobile fire extinguishers are basically smaller versions of fire extinguishers that we often see in our homes, offices, and other buildings. This means that like regular fire extinguishers, there are different classes of extinguishers meant to deal with different types of fires.
Common automobile fire extinguishers cover three classes together: Class A, B, and C, which means that they can be used for ordinary combustibles, flammable liquids, and even fires involving live electrical equipment. When purchasing a fire extinguisher, be sure that you choose one that covers all three classes so that they’ll cover all possibilities!
While there are many options for where to keep the fire extinguisher, they are commonly installed in the boot of the car and mounted on a bracket of some kind to keep them from moving around.
How To Use Them
In the event that you notice smoke and fire come out from your car, if possible, ensure that you’ve turned off the engine. This ensures that no more fuel is flowing through the engine and also disables all power to the electronics in the vehicle.
One word of caution: If the fire is coming out from the engine compartment, do NOT open up the hood completely. This would only make the flames stronger as it has a bigger supply of oxygen. Instead, keep it open just enough that you can discharge the fire extinguisher under the hood.
One easy way to remember what you should do is the acronym PASS: Pull out the safety pin, aim the fire extinguisher at the source of the fire (not the flame itself!), squeeze the handle to discharge the contents of the extinguisher, and sweep the fire by spraying from side to side to ensure all parts of it are equally covered.
A Key Safety Feature
While it may seem insignificant to many, a small fire extinguisher isn’t too expensive to own. Finding them is easy, so check out your nearby hardware store or even your favourite car accessories shop, and keep one in your car for any possible emergencies!