So...I'm in the kitchen, getting ready to whip up something for a Memorial Day shindig with some friends. I start simmering some stuff on top of the stove, and I turn on the oven to preheat things. I'm working over with the food processor, and start smelling something. It just smells like cooking, and I assume it's what's in the pot. Slowly, I start smelling some more, and I check the pot, and all is well, and it's just more a mystery than anything, but all is well. I go back to the food processor. I smell something more, this time it smells like something's burning. I look over at the stove and nothing's amiss, and assume it was just some random crud that was stuck on the bottom of the pan or maybe something had spilled on the burner--no big deal. A few minutes later, I smell something seriously burning, and now I'm getting a little concerned. I look at the stove, and see plumes of black smoke beginning to pour from the vent. Now, I'm genuinely alarmed. I go to the stove, and open the door, (which in hindsight, probably wasn't the smartest thing...). Anyway, I see a lot flames inside the oven, coming from down below in the broiler. Black smoke is now billowing out from the vent, and from the oven. I run over to the pantry, and grab the fire extinguisher, open the broiler and put out the fire. I tell you, if I hadn't had that fire extinguisher, I'm afraid to think what could have happened. :-\
That extinguisher has followed me for about six or seven years, and was a leftover type of thing from a former roommate. His dad gave it to him when we shared an apartment, and somehow, it ended up with me. I've had it along ever since, and never thought I would ever have to use it. Today, I felt like somebody was watching over me, and that it certainly wasn't a coincidence those many years back that Zack forgot to pack his fire extinguisher.
Now, I feel like I'm on a mission to tell everybody: GET A FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN THE KITCHEN! :-\ You never, ever know when an emergency is going to happen. There's no guarantee that a fire would have started in the kitchen because of this, but one thing I do know: because of that fire extinguisher, a fire was definitely prevented! Thank God!
That's a close call :o
I have an extinquisher in the kitchen, garage, and basement. You just never know.
A fire extinguisher is a good thing. If you don't have one, remember these things.
Oxygen is needed for grease to burn.
If you have a pan fire, put a lid on it. Cut off the oxygen.
Baking soda will smother flames. Keep several boxes handy.
It's also useful for cooking, cleaning, deodorizing and as an emergency heart-burn medicine.
Don't forget that you have water at the sink if paper catches fire.
If it begins to spread fast and you see that you can't control it,
Run to the phone, call the Fire department and get out of the house.
Very good points Tom...
I have a fire extinguisher in most every building around this place and two in the woodworking shop... I need to put more smoke detectors out there also!!!! some times you might hear it before you see or smell it...I don't have a sense of smell :(
Bout 25 years ago I drove the tractor up to the back door on the house. Walked into the kitchen for lunch and found the cabinets in flames. The cook had something on the stove and went to the laundry room...lacquer finish on cabinets burns really fast. Grabbed the extinguisher I had on the tractor and got the fire out on the cabinets, but I emptied it. The skillet was still on fire so found some baking soda in the fridge and got that fire out. Damage was several thousand but the extinguisher saved the house I'm sure, as we were out in the country.
When I built the new house the first appliance in the kitchen was this thing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10125/P5300002.JPG)
On the opposite wall from the stove and visible enough that it is easily found.
Got few more extinguishers scattered around...shop, basement, and the mill. Pretty cheap insurance in my opinion.
> GET A FIRE EXTINGUISHER IN THE KITCHEN!
Actually, the best place to have it is right outside the kitchen door. If a fire starts in the kitchen, you might not make it to the fire ext., plus, you may not want to risk entering the kitchen for it because of flame or smoke.
I keep mine outside the kitchen door leading to the living space, rated ABC, and one right outside the adult master bedroom. Having doors to close can delay a fire along with cutting off the juice to any stove fan.
The next most imprtant part of this is to keep track of the gauge. Also every couple of years you should replace them. I have seen the powder pack so hard in a dry chem. extinguisher it would not let the pressure out. :( Turnig them bottom side up and shaking them periodically can prevent this, but I would rather not rely on a 6 or 7 year old extinguisher. An extinguisher on a vehicle will pack the powder even worse.
Will
In addition to extingushers in the kitchen, and utility room we keep a big one on the dresser in our bedroom.
Excellent points folks. :)
Chet, da volunteer firefighter.
One next to the mill and one in the truck two in the work shop.
Some years ago, the last thing my father in law did before we drove away in the old motorhome he gave us was throw in 2 extinguishers..."Hope you never need 'em boy" 24 hours later I was sure grateful he had thrown them in. An oil sending line let go and we had an exciting engine fire...have you ever found the pin :D? A friend from work went camping one time and watched his new truck burn. He was back deep in the nat'l forest..no extinguisher, he was lucky the woods didn't catch.
We were talking about this at work last week, right down to my helper telling me to shake my oldies up. I keep 2 at the mill shed and wouldn't mind one on each corner. I think I know what my next few presents are 8).
I've thought they might be a good fundraiser for VFD's ?
Excellent points everyone!
I'm assuming this won't be read for a while as we are all at wal-mart replacing our old extinguishers????
8) 8)
I don't have one, but I do drink a lot of beer. ;D ::)
I really should be getting some extinguishers, though. One thing I'm gonna do in the new house is to put a water faucet upstairs in a closet with a 50' hose on it. It just might allow someone to escape if things get really bad. Probably put one downstairs, too. The time it takes to go out and find a hose, hook it up and drag it into the house could make a huge difference in damage from a small fire.
One in the kitchen one in the master bath
2 in the woodshop
one at the mill
one in each vehicle
Cousin has two in the shop
there must be 6 or 7 around the barn
and I know of at least 3 in his house
Quote from: DanG on May 30, 2005, 10:46:39 PM
I don't have one, but I do drink a lot of beer. ;D ::)
I really should be getting some extinguishers, though. One thing I'm gonna do in the new house is to put a water faucet upstairs in a closet with a 50' hose on it. It just might allow someone to escape if things get really bad. Probably put one downstairs, too. The time it takes to go out and find a hose, hook it up and drag it into the house could make a huge difference in damage from a small fire.
DanG,
an extinguisher will control a small fire a lot faster than a garden hose. Also a huge portion of home fires are either grease or electrical fires, either of which you would not want to use that water hose on.
Very true, Chet, but once a fire spreads from the source, it can be knocked down with the hose. They aren't intended to replace the extinguisher, but to enhance escape and minimize damage. Installation cost at construction should be less than $50 for both of them. Pretty cheap insurance. Also, you can kill the breaker on an electrical fire, then it is just a fire, right?
Thanks to this thread, I just added a fire ext. to my shopping list for tomorrow. Realized I am missing one in the shed.
Electrical fire:
I worked in a lab years back and had a big 'oven' drying wood specimens, that went berserk and didn't shut down when the max temp was reached. It overheated, started smoking, and turned the wood into hot coals, so we pulled the power.
In-house "firemen" came (non-professional IMO) to handle the lab fire, with a long line of training on chemical spills and a bit on fires. They proceeded to open the oven doors, which provided an onrush of 'good' air and a corresponding explosion of combustion into the room. My 'amateur' suggestion that they leave the oven closed until it cooled off, was met with a blank stare of 'what could you know'. (I did know not to open the door of the oven :) ). The next suggestion I had when they didn't know what to do, was to cool the outside of the oven off with a water spray, but not enough to flood the room and the labs below. Wow, that got a reaction "THIS IS AN ELECTRICAL FIRE AND YOU DON"T PUT WATER ON AN ELECTRICAL FIRE!!!!!!!". My explanation that it was no longer electrical as the cord was unplugged, was met with "IT WAS CAUSED BY AN ELECTRIC HEATER IN THE OVEN!!!".
So I backed off, so as not to be yelled at anymore. :) This crew rounded up some large 55 gal drums, and proceeded:
One would open the oven door and duck away from the blast of fire from the oxygen hitting the hot coals from the wood.
Another would then dive in the oven with a scoop shovel and bring out a shovel full of burning wood coals, and toss them in the 55 gal drum,
while a third would hose the burning wood down with water.
What a mess of smoke, steam, smell, and actually a bit dangerous. ::)
Simply leaving it alone would, over time, have let the wood cool down and then there would have been some great charcoal for a piggy roast or something. ;D
The nicest barn I ever saw, and no it isn't mine, had an extinguisher outside every single stall and a sprinkler system. A sawmill not far from me burned about a month ago. It was an Amish mill and they were using a gas powered chop saw to cut metal. It through a spark into a drum of oil/diesel mix. Lost the whole building and 5 work horses but no people were hurt. The only thing that scares me more than fire is lightening.
Dang, I am only saying this as a Level 1 certified firefighter. Please be careful if you think you must fight a fire with a garden hose. It does not take much fire to get ahead of a garden hose and then you can be up a creek. I have seen fires that got ahead of us with a hose moving close to 200 gallons per minute. :o First call 911.
Will
We live out in the boonies a bit, volunteer department with about a 45 minute response time...
We have many extinguishers throughout the house and garage... but I still hope to have more. I plan to put one on the tractor too. Only have on in the car at the moment.
The CO2 type fire extinguishers don't last forever. :( I work in maintenance at a K-12 school. We have fire extinguishers everywhere. We have found that after about 6 to 8 years they are not reliable. We rotate out the old ones regularly. Before disposing of the old ones we discharge them then open them up so it is just an empty can. About 50% of them have no CO2 left in them when we pull the handle. :( It seems that the CO2 cartridge tends to leak down over time. Now we know in the event of a real fire that the chances of fire extinguisher failure are very high. Fortunately we have fire hoses throughout our buildings as well. 8)
Jim
No extinguisher lasts forever. CO2 extinguishers can be checked by weighing them. There should be a weight stamped on them.
Will
Will, I fully understand that a garden hose is no replacement for either a good extinguisher or a firetruck. But, if it is all I got, I'm gonna use it for all it is worth. Believe me, my back would be to an open door and whatever help I can contact would be on the way.
I'm just saying that, for the price, a hose in the house is a great deal. :)
Years ago when I worked at Freds we had a box fire just outside the back of the building (long story). It was noticed really quick but there were a lot of boxes and a wind fanning the flames. We emptied every fire extinguisher in the building, all at a run. Didn't work It would slow down the flames while spraying, but would not put the fire out. The back of the building was a block wall building and kept the fire outside but we had a really large fire by the time the fire department arrived.
About 10 years ago my next door neighbors house trailer caught fire. It started somewhere in the living room and took it over quick. We held the fire to that living room with a water hose until the fire dept got there. . Spraying through the door, an windows. Didn't dare enter the house because of the smoke. The trailer was still a total loss but we did manage to save a lot of the contents with that hose. They were lucky that they woke up, and got out quick. They had no fire alarms in the trailer. As I said, they were lucky.
In 1977 I stopped on the side of the road with car trouble. The dang float stuck in the carb. I pulled over and beat on it a minute. When I hit the key it backfired through the carburetor and caught fire. A truck driver pulled up, and started running with a fire extinguisher. I stepped back. The dang thing was empty. I then grabbed my suitcase, emptied it and grabbed a wad of clothes and piled em on top of that motor. I burnt the hair off my arms, but put the fire out. The next day I replaced the plug and coil wires, and a few other wires, replaced the float in the carb, and was back on the road.
One time I was putting in a old gas stove. Everything was 'pretty much' hooked up. Turned on the gas and didn't notice the hiss 'until' just as I lit the match. The explosion blew me across the floor, or maybe I was rolling back in front of it. Burnt hair on my head, my beard, and hair on my arms. I turned off the gas quick, the explosion had blown out the fire, and was OK.
Working on my old chevy pickup one time. Close to 20 years ago. It backfired through the carb, and caught on fire. I screamed at my wife for baking soda, she brought flour. While it did put out the fire, it sure did make a mess of that carburetor. I didn't burn the hairs off of my arm though.
I went to empty the bag on a floor sander one time. On a small fire. I know any better. The dang thing exploded on me. Burnt the hair on my head, beard, and arms. Scorched it anyway. I was steadily rolling back away from it as it exploded. 'Almost' fast enough. Luckily no serious injuries.
Last week I finished the final plumbing of my house. I hooked up a water hydrant on each side of the house and hooked a water hose to each of em. Mostly to water trees and flowers but heck, DanG's got me to thinking and near about wanting to put one 'INSIDE the house.
I guess I'm just rambling, haven't done it in a while anyways. But my thoughts are water hoses and fire extinguishers are fine and good. But you need to get to the fire QUICK for them to be effective. I agree with what Pappy said early in this thread.
SMOKE ALARMS and CO2 ALARMS an Gas Alarms and make sure they stay working, along with the fire extinguishers, and water hose.
What I do with my older fire extinguishers is set a small fire in a safe spot outside and teach my older children (taught my neighbor's kid too) how to knock it down with a fire ext. Last time I dumped some alcohol into a fire ant hole and some burnable stuff and killed two birds with one stone. Working under pressure quickly with pulling the pin is good experience for a kid.
DanG and others,
Speaking as another veteran volunteer firefighter (there's quite a few of us here, eh?), ANYTHING you can do to get the jump on a fire is worth having - primarily smoke detectors, CO detectors, and fire extinguishers. Smoke detectors should be in your mechanical room, outside each bedroom, in the living areas, and in the attic if you have one. Fire extinguishers should be (at a minimum) in the kitchen, the mechanical room, and the garage. Ideally, they should be just *outside* each of those spaces - you may be forced out of the room and not be able to get to the extinguisher. Forget the foam extinguishers, they don't work worth a *DanG. I have one that's empty as a result of a car fire (not my car) and I would have had it out if it was a 10-lb ABC, but by the time the rest of the guys showed up with the pumper, the car was fully involved. I wouldn't have bothered anyway except that it was within 50 feet of a gas station pump.
I have six extinguishers - a small ABC near the kitchen, right on the wall near the doorway; a 5 lb ABC in my truck, a 5 lb ABC in the laundry/mech room, a 10 lb ABC and a 20 lb CO2 in the shop, and a 2.5 lb ABC in my shed. I keep 'em all checked and charged, and the kids all know how to use 'em too.
As for the water hose. Nice thought, but an extinguisher works *much* better on fires that YOU can control. Once the extinguisher can't handle the size of the fire, your garden hose won't do a thing. An example - I had a medium-small burn pile of brush going in my yard two years ago. It was about five feet high and eight feet in diameter. When it was going good, I trained the hose on it full bore. IT HAD NO EFFECT. :o That fire was absorbing eight gallons a minute (2-20 is a reasonable range) and converting it to steam as fast as I could pour it on. That's why the deck guns on our pumper throw 1000-1200 gallons per minute. I put 2000 gallons of water from a deck gun on a burning RV last year, and it briefly slowed down the fire, long enough to hit it with a foam nozzle.
Yes
you also need practice putting out fires get a refillable fire extingusher , start a fire in a pan full of oil (not gas) in a gravel parking lot so nothing bad will catch fire then practice putting it out (contact the fd first)
james