A recent survey has shown that the MINIMUM required 1-A:5-BC fire extinquisher is very hard to find. However, the 1-A:10-BC is readily available at Wal-Mart, Lowes, Target, Sears, K-Mart and Home Deport. The lowest price found at the time was a Kidde brand that was less than $10.00! Highest price was a First Alert at $20.99. In any case they were all reasonable and cheap insurance.

Maybe I'm the exception, but I carry one of these small disposeable units in all my cars. Cheap insurance I have actually used once. They don't go far, but they made a difference for me.

Come on, $21 to potentially save your car? Cheaper than a tank of gas, why not?

Amen. Having seen an antique car catch fire, it back-fired through the air cleaner, after a show I know that it can and does happen. Luckily we had a fire extinguisher in our RV and were able to put the fire out for the owner. He was trying to beat the fire out with his jacket. He forgot his fire extinguisher at home.

Years ago a car pulled into our shop and the guy jumped out and ran inside yellling my cars on fire. He grabed an extinguster off the wall and started spraying under his dash.In a matter of min. he stoped responding and I actualy grabed his ankles and pulled him out of the car. He had stoped breathing. The boss started c.p.r. I ran to call the fire co.After the fire was out the car was towed and the guy was breathing, I ask him to pay or replace the extingusher.He got realy upsit told me I was supposed to have the ext. for emerginse but wrote me check. Yep, it bounced.

No good deed goes unpunished.

I carry one in all my vehicles. Fortunely I had one in my '95 dually as I had a selniod misfunction casing the wiring harness to catch fire and making the diesel engine impossible to shut down. Used the extin. to put the fire out and had enough left to suffocate the engine.

During the 2005 Goodguys Southeastern Nationals in Charlotte, a beautiful blue '57 Chevy caught on fire as it sat idling waiting for its turn to go around the track. It was a gasoline fire and thank goodness everyone around the guy, including myself had fire extinguishers. His engine bay was disturbed, but the rest of his car was a-okay!

The culprit was one of those see-through, aftermarket, glass fuel filters. It had broken allowing raw fuel to spill onto the hot, idling, engine.

I have looked around the Forum and can not locate the new Fire Extinguisher Rule. Can the new rule be posted on the forum for all to have available ? I have looked for the info in the Antique Automobile Mag but can not find. It must be in the one issue I can not locate. Thanks in advance.

The answer can be found in the first post. 1-A:10-BC is the easiest to find.

Anybody have experience with a Halon? I hear they are unequaled for extinguishing an underhood gasoline-fed blaze because you can spray through the radiator without opening the hood, and, being a gas, doesn't have to hit the fire directly to put it out. Further, there is no white-powder mess.

I don't own one but would like to hear from someone that does and has used it.

I also hear they're ghastly expensive compared to the powder types, but still a low price to pay for saving your car with minimal clean-up.

Please tell me I've purchased the right extinguishers! Maybe I'm dumb, but I've checked at Lowe's, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart, and I haven't seen any units marked 1-A:10-BC. Some of the units are marked with a very tiny A, B, and C, but I've seen none with the numbers 5 or 10 on them. Some are marked with just B and C, so I did not consider those. I bought 2 (since I sometimes show 2 vehics) that were marked with "A"(for trash,wood&paper),"B"(liquids), and "C"(electrical equipment). These we bought at Wal-Mart, gray in color with the pointer "dial" at the top, made by Kidde. SO DID I BUY THE RIGHT KIND?

I own two but have never had to use them. I bought them after seeing a demo and was very impressed. The nice thing about them is they don't do the damage the powder does on engine fires. I have one in my shop along with a large powder type. The game plan is if there is time to reach the Halon, I'll use that, if not or it isn't enough grab the powder extinguisher. The second one rides in my truck most of the time.

The demo that made me get out the check book was at a trade show. The sales man got in a phone booth size enclosure set a fairly large fire with him in it, he set off a small Halon canister off and the fire was out instantly and he only had to come his hair. He also showed a video of a mockup office with an automatic sensor, they tossed a gas filled bottle with a lite rag sticking out of it. Before it could completely explode it was out. A second video show a boat bilge fire put out before a fellow standing in the bilge was burnt. They are used in large computer rooms where other fire extinguishing methods can cause as much or more damage than a fire.

My 56 Ford backfired and started my oilbath aircleaner on fire as I was leaving the field at Hershey several years ago. One quick shot from the Halon fire extinguisher put it out. It barely moved the gauge. However I had to crank the engine quite a bit before it would start. I think the halon had to clear the cylinders. Can halon extinguishers still be bought? I thought cloroflourocarbons have been taken off the market.

According to the company that services the fire extinguishers for my company,
Halon and Halotron (Halon's replacement) can no longer be sold because they damage the atmosphere.
If you have a Halon/Halatron extinguisher once you use it you cannot get it recharged.

I have to ask this company the name of the replacement for Halon. IIRC, it is not CHEAP.

I thought I heard that Halon had been restricted or outlawed but kept seeing them available, not cheap but available. Did a Google search and they seem to be out there for aircraft and racing, didn't see any restrictions.

I guess this is what the company that services my company's fire extinguishers is talking about.

http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/waac/wn/wn15/wn15-2/wn15-208.html

Lots of interesting reading here about Halon : http://www.epa.gov/Ozone/snap/fire/qa.html