We had a car catch fire at the track last summer and no less than ten extinguishers did not work. I am proud to say mine did. All of the ten were certified but unless you shake them a bit or turn them upside down the retardant solidifies. I expect that extinguishers in cars or in the pits move in one direction often enough that the retardant packs down over time.
When I flagged (1973-2010) it was standard procedure every morning to agitate the dry chemical extinguisher on station. I was told to do it by the F&C chief that first day at Bridgehampton with EMRA. I only put out one fire in all those years, but the first extinguisher worked.
In reply to Dr. Hess :
We have extinguisher ‘s in all the school buses. New buses have it right in the Aisle by the driver and all of the buses have the pin pre-pulled.
One went off and blinded the driver who had to still stop the bus pull off the road and help the kids evacuate the bus.
I don’t know what she breathed but she doesn’t sound good.
Hope she does OK, frenchyd. And glad you guys are getting your stuff from Kiddie.
My next car (that I get around to finishing, I suppose, having 3 Lotus in the shop) will have an aqueous foam system. On fire? Pull the cable grip thingie. Maybe mount it up like an ejection seat handle. Grab, twist, pull? Something like that. And I want enough capacity to foam the whole car so that even if the fiberglass has caught, it will be smothered. Foam generators are what we had on all the oil tankers I sailed on. Straight water was just for washing the deck down and repelling pirates.
reply to frenchyd :
What kind of buses do you run? The new buses we have the extinguisher on the floor beside the driver except for the SPED buses which have a hand held above the windshield and an onboard system that is activated by the driver. The older buses have the extinguisher on the fire wall.
I am curious about the pins being pre-pulled. Ours have pins in them.
In reply to 68TR250 :
We use brand new 2019 IH in fact out of the 220 busses now in the fleet our oldest is 5 years old. Last year we tried Thomas. I liked a lot of features they have, but they aren’t as reliable as the IH
I was shocked that out of the three buses ( including mine) that I checked the pins were just hanging loose. Right after that incident the mechanics put the pin in all of them and put the light plastic tie wrap to hold them in place.
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