PSA : Please carry a fire extinguisher...

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

Don't bother with a fire extinguisher with a Tesla though.

Safety experts say the only way to extinguish a lithium-ion battery inside a car is with thousands of gallons of water, much more than what it takes to stop a fire in a typical gasoline engine. The other option is to just let it burn itself out

HA HA, Yea a old high school friend/co-worker that finally got on the local fire department has stories to tell. One was a brand new Porsche 911 back when they first started making the engine block out of Magnesium. He had just gone through training on it when they got called out to the state highway for a brand new one on fire, by the time they got there the magnesium case was already going and all they could do was wet down the shoulder as it was fall and dry to keep the fire from spreading to the surrounding woods. The owner of the car was furious that they weren't putting water on the car and it was a total burnt out shell when it finally stopped burning. I could see the burnt hole in the breakdown lane for months afterwards before they got around to repaving the shoulder.
This was the same fireman that got called to the Chief's office for a 10 grand bill for the hood of this one of a kind former movie star owned Rolls Royce that had a underdash wiring fire that had got into the engine bay and/or they needed to get the hood open to cut the battery cables. The rich guy that owned the car was always drunk and didn't remember/know where the hood release was so chop chop chop with the fireman's axe to the hood. LOL
Funny part was this said alcky had drunkenly pulled out and cut off my fireman friend on the state highway just down the road from station one months before as he was leaving at shift end. This rich guy was well known around town.

And we won't mention the fireworks incident this co-worker soon to be fireman did during a slow summer week where we were all counter leaning shooting the **** with the boss and he thought it would be hilarious to sneak over from his loading dock and toss a pack of Black Cats into our empty shop. Trouble is I had just spilt some gas on the floor with a dribble line back to the gas storage shelves... Naaa we won't mention that LOL

 

[Turboomni]

Just to show the power density of Lipo batteries. The guy is using a hobby grade /cheap small lipo to start his car. If you look it has an advertised discharge rate of 30 to 40C . More expensive lipos can have 100C so in theory a smaller pack than this will get it done also even though it has less capacity.

 

[Turboomni]

This is a smaller lipo battery than above. It is 2 3/4 inches long , 1 1/4 wide and 7/8ths inches thick. In other words puny. I use them often.

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[bnz84]

When I got my 1969 car from the PO it came with a shiny chrome fire extinguisher in the front seat AND a 1970 dash pad and pieces. Yup, it was blowed up by a far. I like the 70 dash better anyway.

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

This is a smaller lipo battery than above. It is 2 3/4 inches long , 1 1/4 wide and 7/8ths inches thick. In other words puny. I use them often.

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Give it to BigClivedotcom... He'll blow it up or set it on fire!

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[TxDon]

In 2019 I finally stopped kidding myself with very old dry chemical extinguishers and upgraded. I now have a 5 lb. Halotron in the house. 1 1/2 lb. Halotrons in all three cars, and a 5 lb. CO2 in the garage. Don't buy anything with plastic parts in it either.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Basically what they said. What is QED anyways?

Qua Erat Demonstrandum => What Was Demonstrated. Latin USED TO BE a REQUIRED COURSE in elementary schools in order to create properly literate citizens. Of course, tyrants DON'T WANT LITERATE SUBJECTS, ERGO, Latin no more.

 

[LocuMob]

I was at a gas station and saw a Fire Extinguisher rep checking their extinguishers, so I asked if he had any expired ones. He checked as I pumped my gas. Came out and he had two for me! I took the larger one, 1.5' tall or so, and gave the smaller one to my roommate, also a motorhead. That was well over a decade ago. Kept it with whatever car I was driving, and never needed it til two years ago. Spilled fuel out of the carb as I was tinkering with it,started the car, and flame! Nothing severe, burned a plug wire that got some gas in it to but the extinguisher did it's job. I replaced it with a small one for now, cheap, I'm sure it's powder, but I hope I get to wait a long time to use it, if ever.

When I bought my house in June, I found two larger extinguishers in the garage, I have them kitty corner now so one is close by at all times.

 

[68PK21 440.6bbl]

Don't bother with a fire extinguisher with a Tesla though.

Safety experts say the only way to extinguish a lithium-ion battery inside a car is with thousands of gallons of water, much more than what it takes to stop a fire in a typical gasoline engine. The other option is to just let it burn itself out

Interesting way they come up with putting out a Li-on battery fire now.
Dumping water on it for hours after hours just generates tons of hazardous waste.




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[Turboomni]

At 1:42 while pulling the car out of the garage while the still burning the car's left front was trying to go back into the garage.

 

[Big_John]

As much as I would love a Halon extinguisher for my cars, the dry chemical versions are hard to beat. I can buy 10 dry chemical extinguishers for the price of one Halon.

Yes, it leaves a mess, but it also stays in place. Halon, being a gas, isn't recommended for use in windy conditions. Since you can't chose the weather, it just makes sense to me to use one that will work in any condition.

Then there's the price.... Being cheap, the price works better for me so I can have more extinguishers.... And one other thing. Let's say you're at a show and a car in the next row catches fire. You have your $25 extinguisher real handy and you dump it on that car without hesitation. Would you be as quick to do that with a $250 version? While most of us would be happy to reach into our wallet and pay for the refill, I know of a few guys, and their cars would be the ones that catch fire, that wouldn't even pay for that $25 extinguisher.

Like the video above, I've been seeing a push for places like parking garages to buy giant fire blankets, especially for electric car fires. If it works well on an electric car is debatable, but thinking about it, I keep fire blankets in my kitchen and in my garage. I think a small blanket could be used on some small under hood fires.... No mess, no refill etc. Makes me wonder if carrying one in the car would be good in conjunction with an extinguisher. Any firemen out there that could comment on that?