Fire safety and reefer containers

bushhog920 · November 05, 2020, 10:30:12 PM

Had a close call working on my kiln. I got 40' reefer only 2yr old because it got hit and taken out of service. While welding on the damaged area the expanding foam caught on fire and let me tell you that stuff burns fast. Grabbed a fire extinguisher from the welding cart and I guess after 15 yr sitting in the shop it lost its charge (very bad time to find out). I have $12k invested in this and that is the point it hit me I could loose everything. Lucky I had a 100' garden hose near by and moved it to the shop were it would reach and got it out before any damage was done. Only the stuff I'm cutting out burned. Being a firefighter and industrial maintenance guy where hot work permits are required I should have known better but just bought a new welder and couldn't wait to try it out. Be careful out there guys fires get away quick know your plan b.

YellowHammer · November 05, 2020, 11:17:52 PM

That could have been bad.

mike_belben · November 05, 2020, 11:56:54 PM

Growing up we always had rainwater barrels to catch the gutter water off the garage and they saved our butts many a time, since welding was almost daily. A practice i still continue today.

The neighbor has lit his place on fire twice and a kiddie pool full of green water for the garden has kept it from burning my place up each time. Thank the Lord.

I get a little anxious when weve had a dry spell. I keep an ibc tote with a garden hose in a trailer now. Theres always a bucket full here and there. 30 mins minimum for fire engine out here. They just show up to contain the blaze and let stuff burn out fully.

mike_belben · November 05, 2020, 11:58:10 PM

Oh and fyi.. Car seats only need one welder spark to burn your 69 barracuda to ashes. Yep... Seen that one up close.

Old Greenhorn · November 06, 2020, 05:21:23 AM

Man, you got lucky, good on ya!
Many years ago my Dad had brought home a few PW (pressurized water) extinguishers that were surplused from his job, some needed a little work (new o-rings, etc) to be functional again, but we fixed them and had fun with them filling water balloons at scouting events, teaching kids how to use extinguishers, etc. I also used them for formal extinguisher training at my job when I ran it. As time went on I developed the habit of charging them in the spring and setting them 'around'. One at the mill, one near the firepit, one in my Mule, a couple in the shop, and two just outside the shop garage door so anybody could see and grab them. I collected a number of them over the years so I could swap parts, maybe I have 6 or so now. The gages usually go first, but as long as they hold most of the pressure, they work fine and are easy to check, top off, and use on a whim because the re-charge in minutes at no cost. On very rare occasions, I will give one to somebody who could really use it and appreciate it, but I can't find them any more now that I am retired.
As a firefighter, you know the first tool off the truck is almost always 'the can'. I have stopped house fires with them. I love my PW extinguishers.
Glad you made your 'stop' in time. I bet your heart was going pretty good.
BTW, here's a tip for other readers in case it is not known. Those little 1,2,and 5 pound Dry chem extinguishers you can buy everywhere are only good for a year or so. Next time you buy one, look at the fine print, they expire in no time at all. Extinguishers are tools also and have to be maintained. Those little ones cannot be recharged they just go in the waste stream. Often I have pulled up on car fire jobs and found 4 or 5 of them laying on the ground, most just gave a spurt and quit. All the owners were shocked. They thought that 1.5# extinguisher would save their world.

Btw, nice welding, glad you will get to use it. ;D

firefighter ontheside · November 06, 2020, 07:45:43 AM

Whoops. Yeah, that foam likes to burn. At least you saved it before any real damage was done.
Dry Chem extinguishers are great, but as OG said they expire. The powder settles too much and can't be propelled thru the pick up tube. The better kind to have for long life is a CO2 extinguisher or a "water can" as OG mentioned. As long as their is pressure, it will work. The water cans just have a regular valve stem to put compressed air in.

mike_belben · November 06, 2020, 09:49:25 AM

You guys just gave me a great idea.

Years ago i made a "sucker tank" by welding a 100lb propane bottle to a big wheel hand truck and welding in valves. Basically a mini septic truck for collecting vegetable oil that i ran diesels on. Youd use a quick coupler to connect a vacuum pump and then draw grease in the big hose while the tank was vertical. The cart it to wherever and lay it down, using either gravity or air pressure to empty it out.

Well im not collecting oil for now and have better means these days so that tank is just sitting around in my junkyard. Im gonna put a smaller hose on and rinse it out then refill with soapy water.. Charge it up to 130 and park it near the welding. 30ish gallon rolling fire bottle.

trimguy · November 06, 2020, 10:46:47 AM

@mike_belben I like that idea. What did you do to purge all the propane from the bottle before you went to cutting and welding ?

mike_belben · November 06, 2020, 11:56:06 AM

just hook up a burner until it quits a few times then drill a small hole or unscrew/saw off the neck valve. The sulphur stinks. Dawn and a garden hose helps.

Old Greenhorn · November 06, 2020, 01:21:00 PM

Neat Idea Mike. Use some dawn dish soap in there, works good as an emulsifier. We would dump a bottle in our 1,500 gallon tankers when fighting brush fires, it did help when you don't have foam. (Probably a LOT safer than the chemicals they put in foam these days.)
My big backup when the stuffing hits the fan is my 330 gallon water tank with a 150 GPM gas pump. That should hold most stuff until my FD shows up. I could hit my local firehouse with a .22 from my yard, BUT you have to drive around the hill to get there (or here from there). It's a 90 second drive by ATV or 5 minutes by the road, so I like to have a little buffer working. It also takes 15 minutes to get a full structure fire compliment on site here.

farmfromkansas · December 29, 2020, 06:30:26 PM

Glad it is working out for you. Could you explain how you are going to repair that roof? Seems a flat metal roof would be hard to seal after making your repairs. I have an enclosed trailer, that just insisted on leaking, finally put some rafters on it and put tin on top. Real hillbilly looking trailer.

Southside · December 29, 2020, 07:44:53 PM

@mike_belben Your super sized silver fire extinguisher there would also make for an amazing de-greasing machine. I have a couple of the normal silver water fire extinguishers and learned that if I mix some of the purple de-greaser into the water in them the resulting foam that comes out works at removing gunk many times better than if you just apply the stuff straight. No idea why, but what comes out of the nozzle is quite impressive.