Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from the
caravan - not in the caravan.

I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand but
it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it - I accidentally
licked my finger.

I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?

Our larger CO2 extinguisher was out of gas (it hasn't been serviced for
years so that's not surprising!) and the other one we have employs carbon
tetrachloride which wasn't suitable for the small conflagration we had. It
was in a confined space so the resultant phosgene could have been nasty.

Mary

Mary Fisher wrote:
Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from the
caravan - not in the caravan.

I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand but
it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it - I accidentally
licked my finger.


Bicarb. Used because it's cheap, has a high thermal capacity and
relatively low toxicity.



I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?

For extinguishers? Screwfix do a couple of nice 5 year ones (you replace
after 5 years).

--
Grunff

Fire Blankets are good for TV & PC monitor fires as well as chip pans!!

Extinguishers & Blankets he

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...ire/index.html

The message
from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

I'd like to know what the powder is -

From Wikipedia...

Dry Powder ("Dry Chemical" in the US)

For classes B and C, a dry powder is used. There are two main dry powder
chemistries in use:

* BC powder is either sodium bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate,
finely powdered and propelled by carbon dioxide or nitrogen. Similarly
to almost all extinguishing agents the powders acts as a thermal ballast
making the flames too cool for the chemical reactions to continue. Some
powders also provide a minor chemical inhibition, although this effect
is relatively weak. These powders thus provide rapid knockdown of flame
fronts, but may not keep the fire suppressed. Consequently, they are
often used in conjunction with foam for attacking large class B fires.
BC extinguishers are often kept in small vehicles since they provide
good knockdown of a rapidly flaring class B fire, from a small package.

BC Powder has a slight saponification effect on cooking oils & fats due
to its alkalinity & sometimes used to be specified for kitchens prior to
the invention of Wet Chemical extinguishers. Where an extremely fast
knockdown is required potassium bicarbonate (Purple K) extinguishers are
used. A particular blend also containing urea (Monnex) decrepitates upon
exposure to heat increasing the surface area of the powder particles and
providing very rapid knockdown.

* ABC powder is monoammonium phosphate and/or ammonium sulfate. As
well as suppressing the flame in the air, it also melts at a low
temperature to form a layer of slag which excludes the gas and heat
transfer at the fuel surface. For this reason it can also be effective
against class A fires. ABC powder is usually the best agent for fires
involving multiple classes. However it is less effective against
three-dimensional class A fires, or those with a complex or porous
structure. Foams or water are better in those cases.

Both types of powders can also be used on electrical fires, but provide
a significant cleanup and corrosion problem that is likely to make the
electrical equipment unsalvageable.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 21:57:27 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand but
it's also caustic

Ammonium phosphate (if it feels caustic). Be careful with this, it _is_
nasty on skin exposure. Eye exposure is casualty time.

Sodium bicarbonate used to be used, but it's only found in the very
smallest (and useless) extinguishers these days. Make sure you buy one
labelled as ABC - if it's just labelled BC then it's sodium bicarbonate.

Potassium bicarbonate is used for metal fires (class D) but it doesn't
work. It's sometimes reccomended for class B too (liquids), but if these
are likely, then get an AFFF (foam) extinguisher and do it properly.

I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?

The ubiquitous Lidl 2kg / £10, 6kg for £14 2kg is the minimum size
that's useful.

Our larger CO2 extinguisher was out of gas (it hasn't been serviced for
years so that's not surprising!) and the other one we have employs carbon
tetrachloride which wasn't suitable for the small conflagration we had. It
was in a confined space so the resultant phosgene could have been nasty.

Fire is safer than hot carbon tet in a confined space. Keep this useful
and hard-to-obtain solvent for better purposes (or give it to me for
ahem safe disposal)

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:26:59 GMT, wrote:

On 1 Mar,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


and the other one we have employs carbon tetrachloride which wasn't
suitable for the small conflagration we had. It was in a confined space so
the resultant phosgene could have been nasty.

You must have had that one since Noah was a lad.__

I've still got a Pyrene extincteur somewhere in the shed.

--
Frank Erskine
Sunderland

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...
Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from
the caravan - not in the caravan.
....
I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?...

If you buy dry powder again, make sure that you get one marked as containing
ABC powder. That will work on solids (class A), liquids (class B) and gasses
(Class C). However, as you discovered they are messy and they also have
limited powers of penetration into enclosed spaces. My preferrence these
days is for an AFFF (aqueous film forming foam) spray extinguisher. The
spray versions are particularly efficient and AFFF will handle both class A
and class B fires - few people need to tackle Class C fires in the home.

Colin Bignell

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:26:59 GMT, wrote:

|On 1 Mar,
| "Mary Fisher" wrote:
|
| Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from
| the caravan - not in the caravan.
|
| I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand but
| it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it - I
| accidentally licked my finger.
|
|I was under the impression it was sodium bicarbonate.

plus something to stop it getting damp and caking

| I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
| for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
| anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?
|
|The fire peeps allowed us to have one instead of a fireblanket when we were
|childmnding, but pointed out that they were extremely messy.

You can say that again! I used one on a *tiny* fire as an experiment to
see how well they worked. Worked fine, but it took days before we got the
powder cleared up, it went everywhere.
|
|
| Our larger CO2 extinguisher was out of gas (it hasn't been serviced for
| years so that's not surprising!)
|
|We used one on a burning TV set once, It put (blew) the fire out but it
|re-started as soon as the stuff cleared.
|
| and the other one we have employs carbon tetrachloride which wasn't
| suitable for the small conflagration we had. It was in a confined space so
| the resultant phosgene could have been nasty.

IIRC Carbon Tetrachloride ones are now banned.

|You must have had that one since Noah was a lad.__

No since Mary was a girl, which is almost as long ;-)
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
Freedom of Speech, Expression, Religion, and Democracy are
the keys to Civilization, together with legal acceptance of
Fundamental Human rights.

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:32:01 +0000, Grunff wrote:

|Mary Fisher wrote:
| Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from the
| caravan - not in the caravan.
|
| I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand but
| it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it - I accidentally
| licked my finger.
|
|
|Bicarb. Used because it's cheap, has a high thermal capacity and
|relatively low toxicity.
|
|
|
| I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
| for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
| anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?
|
|For extinguishers? Screwfix do a couple of nice 5 year ones (you replace
|after 5 years).

Lidl ones will last for 10 years.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
Freedom of Speech, Expression, Religion, and Democracy are
the keys to Civilization, together with legal acceptance of
Fundamental Human rights.

On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 12:24:45 +1300, Nick wrote:

|Grunff wrote:
|
| Mary Fisher wrote:
|
| Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher
| from the caravan - not in the caravan.
|
| I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine
| sand but it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it -
| I accidentally licked my finger.
|
| Bicarb. Used because it's cheap, has a high thermal capacity and
| relatively low toxicity.
|
|My cheapskate fire extinguisher (works fine when fat catches fire
|under a stove element):
|
|Buy a tin of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) from your
|supermarket. Drill about 30 holes in the lid. Put some aluminium
|foil over the top to keep it from getting greasy. Put the tin by
|your stove. If anything catches fire, rip off the foil and shake
|the bicarb on the fire. The heat decomposes the bicarb into solid
|sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide gas, and water. The carbon
|dioxide puts out the fire. Then clean up the mess. You needed to
|clean out all the fat under the element anyway!

Much easier to get a cheapy Lidl one
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
Freedom of Speech, Expression, Religion, and Democracy are
the keys to Civilization, together with legal acceptance of
Fundamental Human rights.

"nightjar .uk.com" nightjar@insert my surname here wrote in message
...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...
Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher
from the caravan - not in the caravan.
...
I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only
used it for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if
messily) but does anyone have any authoritative recommendations,
please?...

snip
My preferrence these days is for an AFFF (aqueous film forming foam)
spray extinguisher. The spray versions are particularly efficient and
AFFF will handle both class A and class B fires - few people need to
tackle Class C fires in the home.

I'd agree totally with Colin on the recommendation for AFFF. Dry Powder
extinguishers were withdrawn from use in a very large fleet of road
vehicles a few years ago because of problems with compaction of the
powder due to vibration, and replaced with one or two-litre AFFF units.
AFFF is, perhaps contrary to expectation given that the "A" stands for
aqueous, safe for use on normal electrical equipment.
Cartridge-operated (as distinct from stored-pressure) units are rather
easier for d-i-y periodic checking.


--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. )***
Car Transport by Tiltbed Trailer - based near Derby

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from the
caravan - not in the caravan.

I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand but
it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it - I accidentally
licked my finger.

The one thing it completely destroys is electronic printed circuit
boards. The failure is not instant, but happens a few days after
exposure. I've worked for a couple of large computer manufacturers,
and it's not uncommon to get systems back for repair which have
been nearby something on which a dry powder extinguisher was used.
Upon inspection, the PCB tracks have all corroded through.

--
Andrew Gabriel

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:50:40 +0000, Andy Dingley
wrote:

Make sure you buy one labelled as ABC..

I wondered what Martin Fry was doing these days. He obviously runs a
fire extinguisher factory..

sponix

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 21:57:27 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?

If you can find an old BCF extinguisher snafffle that - it is the
most useful general purpose extinguisher. However they have now been
banned from sale because of their ozone depleting potential.

By far and away the best alternative is Aqueous Film Forming Foam
(AFFF). It isn't particularly messy and can be used on any domestic
fire. AFFF is water based (usually between 93-99% water) with
temperature stable surfactant additives which promote wetting and
foaming. It is effective on most domestic/garage fires and if you
only want one extinguisher or type is the best to chose. Not only is
it effective at knocking down fires its film forming property helps
keep them out and delays or prevents burnback

Dry powder has a number of disadvantages - the first is that the
damage it causes is often greater than that caused by a very small
fire. It is positively dangerous on hot fat as it blows the burning
fat all over the place and on other fires, although it knocks them
down quickly, it doesn't prevent burnback so if the fire isn't
completely out it simply re-ignites straight away. CO2 also shares
that disadvantage and is of limited use in most domestic fires.



--
Peter Parry.
http://www.wpp.ltd.uk/

wrote in message ...
On 1 Mar,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:

Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from
the caravan - not in the caravan.

I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand
but
it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it - I
accidentally licked my finger.

I was under the impression it was sodium bicarbonate.

Ah - that's possible. I'll test it. I said 'caustic' because that's what
Spouse said when he got some in a cut in his finger. He said ouch or oh dear
or heckythump or some such. I didn't mean that it was a chemical base.


I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?

The fire peeps allowed us to have one instead of a fireblanket when we
were
childmnding, but pointed out that they were extremely messy.

They're right! We have blankets too but they were inappropriate. Water was
too.


Our larger CO2 extinguisher was out of gas (it hasn't been serviced for
years so that's not surprising!)

We used one on a burning TV set once, It put (blew) the fire out but it
re-started as soon as the stuff cleared.

LOL! It would have worked in the confined space of our fire.

and the other one we have employs carbon tetrachloride which wasn't
suitable for the small conflagration we had. It was in a confined space
so
the resultant phosgene could have been nasty.

You must have had that one since Noah was a lad.__

It was Spouse's father's, he was in the National Fire Service during the war
and was paranoid but I don't think the extinguisher came from those days!
There's a date on it but I've forgotten it.

Mary
--

"Grunff" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from
the caravan - not in the caravan.

I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand
but it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it - I
accidentally licked my finger.


Bicarb. Used because it's cheap, has a high thermal capacity and
relatively low toxicity.



I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?

For extinguishers? Screwfix do a couple of nice 5 year ones (you replace
after 5 years).

Thanks!

I'll have a look. He got a catalogue the other day. And last week. And last
month ...

Mary

--
Grunff

" On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 12:24:45 +1300, Nick wrote:

|Grunff wrote:
|
| Mary Fisher wrote:
|
| Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher
| from the caravan - not in the caravan.
|
| I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine
| sand but it's also caustic and obviously has some kind of salt in it -
| I accidentally licked my finger.
|
| Bicarb. Used because it's cheap, has a high thermal capacity and
| relatively low toxicity.
|
|My cheapskate fire extinguisher (works fine when fat catches fire
|under a stove element):
|
|Buy a tin of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) from your
|supermarket. Drill about 30 holes in the lid. Put some aluminium
|foil over the top to keep it from getting greasy. Put the tin by
|your stove.

You're making an assumption. Three in fact.

The fire wasn't in a stove, I keep our cooker clean (rarely use fat anyway)
and we don't have an electric hob.

Mary

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 21:57:27 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

I'd like to know what the powder is - it feels like extremely fine sand
but
it's also caustic

Ammonium phosphate (if it feels caustic). Be careful with this, it _is_
nasty on skin exposure. Eye exposure is casualty time.

Sodium bicarbonate used to be used, but it's only found in the very
smallest (and useless) extinguishers these days. Make sure you buy one
labelled as ABC

Just had a look - it's ABC.


Potassium bicarbonate is used for metal fires (class D) but it doesn't
work. It's sometimes reccomended for class B too (liquids), but if these
are likely, then get an AFFF (foam) extinguisher and do it properly.

When I set up my workroom I asked advice from the Fire Service, they
couldn't help, said they had no experience of wax fires. That really
surprised me. I knew not to use water of course and I have a smoke alarm but
I smelled over-heated wax before the smoke began to escape. In twenty years
it's the first and it was contained in my special, small, highly insulated
oven so it would have been suffocated eventually anyway and the outside
couldn't have become hot enough to char anything touching it. Only glassware
was touching it anyway. The smell of the smoke which DID escape was nasty!
The inside of the oven was very sooty so I spent last night cleaning it (the
stainless steel lining). It hasn't been as clean for years!

I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?

The ubiquitous Lidl 2kg / £10, 6kg for £14 2kg is the minimum size
that's useful.

I might have a look, we don't want anything bigger than 1Kg for the caravan
which is where the one we used is normally kept. I'm wondering if there's
anything less messy which might be better for the caravan,.

Our larger CO2 extinguisher was out of gas (it hasn't been serviced for
years so that's not surprising!) and the other one we have employs carbon
tetrachloride which wasn't suitable for the small conflagration we had. It
was in a confined space so the resultant phosgene could have been nasty.

Fire is safer than hot carbon tet in a confined space.

Quite.

Keep this useful
and hard-to-obtain solvent for better purposes (or give it to me for
ahem safe disposal)

No chance!

:-)

Thanks,

Mary

Mary Fisher wrote:

" On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 12:24:45 +1300, Nick wrote:

|My cheapskate fire extinguisher (works fine when fat catches fire
|under a stove element):
|
|Buy a tin of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) from your
|supermarket. Drill about 30 holes in the lid. Put some aluminium
|foil over the top to keep it from getting greasy. Put the tin by
|your stove.


You're making an assumption. Three in fact.

The fire wasn't in a stove, I keep our cooker clean (rarely use fat anyway)
and we don't have an electric hob.

I mentioned a stove because the cheapskate fire extinguisher
works very well if a fire is underneath a radiant element. A
blanket doesn't work very well in that case.
And a stove is not damaged by baking soda and the mess is easy to
clean up. I wouldn't use that method for fires elsewhere.
We don't cook in fat at all, but sometimes the cook isn't paying
attention to the cooking and something spills over and catches fire.

"nightjar .uk.com" nightjar@insert my surname here wrote in message
...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
t...
Today we had the need to use the small dry powder fire extinguisher from
the caravan - not in the caravan.
...
I know that we're going to have to replace it even though we only used it
for a two second burst (it did the job splendidly, if messily) but does
anyone have any authoritative recommendations, please?...

... My preferrence these days is for an AFFF (aqueous film forming foam)
spray extinguisher. The spray versions are particularly efficient and AFFF
will handle both class A and class B fires - few people need to tackle
Class C fires in the home.

It sounds as though that would be a better bet for the caravan - and tent
too.

We've never had a fire there (or in the house before) but I once witnessed a
caravan fire and it was a nightmare. Caused by someone changing a small gas
cartridge inside the 'van with a candle burning ... he'll never do that
again. Needless to say we never have or would.

Mary

Colin Bignell

"Autolycus" wrote in message
...



snip
My preferrence these days is for an AFFF (aqueous film forming foam)
spray extinguisher. The spray versions are particularly efficient and
AFFF will handle both class A and class B fires - few people need to
tackle Class C fires in the home.

I'd agree totally with Colin on the recommendation for AFFF. Dry Powder
extinguishers were withdrawn from use in a very large fleet of road
vehicles a few years ago because of problems with compaction of the powder
due to vibration, and replaced with one or two-litre AFFF units. AFFF is,
perhaps contrary to expectation given that the "A" stands for aqueous,
safe for use on normal electrical equipment. Cartridge-operated (as
distinct from stored-pressure) units are rather easier for d-i-y periodic
checking.

Thanks,

What do cartridge-operated and stored-pressure mean, please?

Mary

"Guy King" wrote in message
...

snip fascinating stuff

Both types of powders can also be used on electrical fires, but provide
a significant cleanup and corrosion problem that is likely to make the
electrical equipment unsalvageable.

Thanks for all that, it WAS an electrical fire which involved wax but
there's no damage to the electrics (except some plastic insulation which has
been replaced) and no saponification of the wax. I was half expecting that
but it didn't happen.

Mary

The message
from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

What do cartridge-operated and stored-pressure mean, please?

Cartidge Operated have a thing like a giant soda-syphon cartridge
inside. Much like a SodaStream thing. The propelling gas - usually CO2 -
is sealed up tight inside this and very unlikely to leak out[1].

Stored Pressure keeps the whole extinguisher under pressure.

[1] Many years ago some friends and I used to frequent a dump where
skips were emptied. To a bunch of mechanically minded teenagers it was a
treasure trove as many of the skips came from factories and had rejected
or obsolete stuff in 'em.
On one occasion we found a pile of fire extinguisher cartridges - about
10" long and perhaps 1 3/4" diameter. We found that they fitted nicely
down a scaffolding pole we found. There were two sorts - one with a
brass block on the end with a notch cut into it which could be snapped
off with a sharp blow. The other sort had a metal membrane which could
be pierced with a nail. We devised ways to do both methods and spent a
happy weekend (the dump was closed weekends) firing these things across
the site. With luck you could get them to go well over 100yds.

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

"Guy King" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

What do cartridge-operated and stored-pressure mean, please?

Cartidge Operated have a thing like a giant soda-syphon cartridge
inside. Much like a SodaStream thing. The propelling gas - usually
CO2 -
is sealed up tight inside this and very unlikely to leak out[1].

Stored Pressure keeps the whole extinguisher under pressure.

Yup. Quick way to tell is that stored-pressure ones usually have a
pressure gauge or similar indicator. "Servicing" cartridge-operated
ones is little more than unscrewing the top, making sure it's not rusty
inside, making sure it's full of magic water, and weighing the
cartridge.


--
Kevin Poole
**Use current month and year to reply (e.g. )***
Car Transport by Tiltbed Trailer - based near Derby

Mary Fisher wrote:

We've never had a fire there (or in the house before) but I once witnessed a
caravan fire and it was a nightmare. Caused by someone changing a small gas
cartridge inside the 'van with a candle burning ... he'll never do that
again. Needless to say we never have or would.

I once saw someone have a narrow escape, at an event where
barbecues were in use, though luckily some distance away. He was
changing a gas cartridge, but, having pierced the seal, he
dropped it. The entire contents were rapidly expelled, as a
liquid, and vaporised in seconds. At least I now know what can
happen.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

"Guy King" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

What do cartridge-operated and stored-pressure mean, please?

Cartidge Operated have a thing like a giant soda-syphon cartridge
inside. Much like a SodaStream thing. The propelling gas - usually CO2 -
is sealed up tight inside this and very unlikely to leak out[1].

Stored Pressure keeps the whole extinguisher under pressure.

Thanks.

[1] Many years ago some friends and I used to frequent a dump where
skips were emptied. To a bunch of mechanically minded teenagers it was a
treasure trove as many of the skips came from factories and had rejected
or obsolete stuff in 'em.
On one occasion we found a pile of fire extinguisher cartridges - about
10" long and perhaps 1 3/4" diameter. We found that they fitted nicely
down a scaffolding pole we found. There were two sorts - one with a
brass block on the end with a notch cut into it which could be snapped
off with a sharp blow. The other sort had a metal membrane which could
be pierced with a nail. We devised ways to do both methods and spent a
happy weekend (the dump was closed weekends) firing these things across
the site. With luck you could get them to go well over 100yds.

sigh it wouldn't be allowed now ... the dumping I mean. As a child I spent
many happy hours rummaging around in the waste of a local textile mill.
There were such beautiful fragments discarded ...

It was a different matter when two sons found a discarded car petrol tank,
one held it between his legs, the other stuffed some dry leaves in the spout
and put a match to it.

Several weeks in the burns unit and obsessive about fire safety was the
result. That was almost twenty five years ago.

One rang tonight, I told him about my little escapade tonight, he gave me a
lecture about different types of extinguisher. I needn't have started this
thread, he knows even more than the folks here!

Or thinks he does. But that's sons for you.

When the other (RAF) e-mailed I didn't bother telling him, he's been in
charge of a fire station during the strike so knows even more. HAHA!

Mary

--
Skipweasel
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
.. .
It sounds as though that would be a better bet for the caravan - and tent
too.

http://www.cheapfireextinguishers.co...nguisher&set=2

Not used them before but used similar companies. Don't go paying shed
prices
for tiny extinguishers when less money gets you the real McCoy. In my
house
I have a 9L AFFF, a 6kg ABC and a 2kg CO2. 1kg BC types like those that
you
get in B&Q are pretty lame.

Christian, that looks good, thank you.

We looked in Screwfix yesterday but Istr that it was over £60 for a 6l AFFF
which, in any case, we think would be unnecessarily large for the caravan.
There is an issue of storage space. For the workroom a bigger one wouldn't
be out of order, nor for the garage (his workshop).

I'll put it to him.

Mary
All experiences have a positive side, we've learned a lot aboutextinguishers
from this one!

On Fri, 3 Mar 2006 09:44:38 -0000, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

| It sounds as though that would be a better bet for the caravan - and tent
| too.
|
|http://www.cheapfireextinguishers.co...nguisher&set=2
|
|Not used them before but used similar companies. Don't go paying shed prices
|for tiny extinguishers when less money gets you the real McCoy. In my house
|I have a 9L AFFF, a 6kg ABC and a 2kg CO2. 1kg BC types like those that you
|get in B&Q are pretty lame.

Having lived in the same house for near 50 years, we have had one waste
basket on fire, a few bits of burned toast, and a couple of burned out
pans.

I live in a cul-de-sac of 16 houses, and non has even called the fire
brigade in that time.

At that level of risk, my 1kg powder A B C and a couple of smoke detectors
looks a bit OTT.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
Freedom of Speech, Expression, Religion, and Democracy are
the keys to Civilization, together with legal acceptance of
Fundamental Human rights.

wrote:
On 1 Mar,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:

We used one on a burning TV set once, It put (blew) the fire out but it
re-started as soon as the stuff cleared.

Heh. I work in IT support, and I had a phone call one day

"My monitor is on fire, what do I do" ?

Ye gods.

Paul.

wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
On 1 Mar,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:

We used one on a burning TV set once, It put (blew) the fire out but it
re-started as soon as the stuff cleared.

I didn't write that! Haven't got a telly.

Heh. I work in IT support, and I had a phone call one day

"My monitor is on fire, what do I do" ?

Ye gods.

:-)

Mary

Paul.

On Fri, 3 Mar 2006 12:27:27 -0000, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

Well, the fire extinguishers aren't anywhere near as important as the smoke
detectors.

That depends whether you're a smoker or a welder.

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 3 Mar 2006 12:27:27 -0000, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

Well, the fire extinguishers aren't anywhere near as important as the
smoke
detectors.

That depends whether you're a smoker or a welder.

My smoke detector was to see if my test candless moked.If so they were
improperly wick'd.

Same thing, really.

Mary