I am looking at upgrading what I have existing and am seeking real world input.
What are most of you folks using for fire supression in your 5er,trailor or r/v?
Where and why do you have the bottles?
How many?
What is the extinguishing agent used?
Any other ideas or suggestions?

 

I have 2, 5# CO2 extinguishers in my 5ver. I have never had an incident as of yet, BUUUUUT, experince has taught me that a CO2 leaves no mess behind and extinguishes abc fire very well.




I also have 2 of these in the house.


Tim

 

Thanks Tim,I have a 5lb. CO2 and 2.5lb dry chem.up near the front door,baking soda by the stove,and a 2.5 dry chem.at the engine access door in the back.My goal is to find an agent that is (1)not messy,(2) works in a confined space like bedroom,(3)all around use(4)did I say not messy like dry chem?Yes,my insurance is kept current but replacement value is nowhere near what I have in it.

 

CO2 is the only way to go, there's less mess to clean up after the fact and its NOT corrosive to electrical terminals. To my mind its the only one to have in a vehicle or RV

 

CO2 is not quite as effective as a dry chemical one in my experience. Basically, the same size CO2 runs out faster and does not put out quite as much fire as a dry chem. We practice putting out a small fire at work regularly, and CO2 works well but the bottle we have is probably 30 lbs, and it runs out in less than some 30-45 s of continuous use.
I would have a CO2 one for a small flame but if anything more serious was happening, I prefer a dry chem. Its mess is at least something to clean up. If it all burns to ashes there is no worry about that, right?..

 

I admit that a 300 LB bottle of Purple K puts out almost anything but its soooo corrosive especially to electrical connections, it just seems to eat any gold plating off the terminals. CO2 is way cleaner and if you get on the fire before it grows too much it works fine. I actually keep CO2 in my vehicles and a combo of CO2 and dry chem in the RV but if I was to have only one (like in my vehicles) then its CO2.

 

Pretty much true but the mechanics were VERY upset our engine crew used a dry chem instead of CO2 when they had an electrical short on their brandy new pumper. Made a huge mess. When CO2 is gone it's gone but dry chem has a smothering effect also.

 

be careful with the baking soda... neighbor tried to put out a grease fire with baking soda except it flashed... FD said it must have had moisture in it

 

Confined area and very close range you cannot beat a CO2.

Open area and longer range a CO2 extinguisher looses effectiveness and a bigger dry chem is your weapon of choice. Those little 2.5# dry units are pretty worthless. They don't have enough range or capacity. I am not getting burned to save my (replaceable) camper.

ABSOLUTELY no halon around diesel engines.

Store your extinguishers far away from possible ignition points. Above the range is not a good choice.

 

Why no halon around diesels?

 

A diesel engine will ingest halon and keep on running. It converts the halon into a toxic gas very similar to phosgene. Phosgene was known as mustard gas in WWI. I learned that in USCG boating safety.


What happened to your first reply? I went to reply to your reply and your reply wasn't there!

edit
Halon itself is not friendly to people. Halon is basically freon and displaces oxygen to suppress combustion. If you inhale it tends to settle in your lungs and not get exhaled easily, especially when you are hyper ventilating from the excitment of fighting a fire.

 

Good stuff.

Bad format on my first reply! Thought I could just start over before a reply. You're too quick.

 

Strange timing. I posted and went for a walk with my wife. Got back and plopped at the computer to check for an expected email and saw your reply.

The info is from sage advice of my father (40 year fire fighter) plus what I got from USCG class. Boat people tend to take fires VERY seriously as one cannot simply ...... walk away...

 

Thank you all for your input.What I think I'm going to do is(envelope please),Keep the 5lb.co2 up front,add a 5lb co2 for the bedroon/hall,and for the engine bay...a 5lb AFF foam unit.Again thanks all.

 

I thought Halon extinguishers were outlawed?