DIYbanter - View Single Post - What is this old car, with rounded shell, inch thick wood interior?

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On Mon, 27 Mar 2017 16:14:34 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

John McCoy writes:

The invisible flames is the biggest safety issue with alcohol
fuels, but counterbalancing that, alcohol won't explode like
gasoline, and you can put it out with water whereas gas needs
a foam or CO2 extinquisher.

As I understand it, liquid gasoline itself won't explode,
but the vapor can.
So can alcohol vapour -. The BIG thing is dousing an alky fire with
water puts it out and doesn't spread it.
Using water effectively on a gasoline fire is an art as well as a
science. I've done it - effectively - twice. A fine mist of water to
cool down the material affected by the flames and to absorb heat from
the fire, while choking the oxygen with steam. Totally extinguisged
the one on a friend's fiat, and controlled an aerostar until the fire
truck arrived - protecting 2 houses next to the truck. limitting
damage to a couple strips of vinyl siding. If I could have convinced
someone to get close enough to the truck to remove the gas cap, I
would have extinguished it too, but everyone was afraid it was going
to "blow" even though the fire was nowhere near the tank at the time..
Without the water hose it would have gotten their pretty quick though.
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