Fire Extinguisher

I had one in my 458 and it was a nightmare for the passenger. I got it removed by my dealer...
I did not go for it for my 458SA nor will I for my upcoming pista spider
Also it is regular powder and definitely not halon so you are right : you don’t want to spray that anywhere in your car....

 

I Had one in my 458 and specified one on my 488. The look is cool, but my wife has mentioned it kinda in the way...if I ordered another Ferrari I'd get it again...

 

I installed one (fia approved) myself for a quarter of the ferrari asked price; i put it on the side of the central tunnel on the passenger side so it's less disturbing than along the door as Ferrari does. The installation uses existing lugs so it can be reverted . Fire extinguishers are now required on some track days.
I expect to do the same on the F8.

 

For those unfamiliar with a new type of extinguisher, check out the Element. Looks like a road flare, smothers with a gas and no residue left behind. They fit perfectly in my door cubbies in my F430; can also be mounted. Brilliant! Image Unavailable, Please Login


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Here’s a vid from Jay Leno’s garage on the Element:


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This is what I have in all my cars. I never had to use them (fortunately !) so I can’t say how efficient they are !

 

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Nice to read …. have you ever tried to make out a car which is on fire ?

99% of the time you will not succeed to stop a petrol fire … and what is left has to go to a scrapyard imo …

I have no fire extinguisher as you understand …. and I also no think a extinguisher NOT a cosmetic item …

 

I have put out an engine fire with a portable fire extinguisher. Fortunately not my car and not a sportscar either. You have to catch it in the beginning though. An extinguisher is vital and far from a cosmetic item!!!

 

I had it on mine.
My wife asked me to remove it cause it makes her space too tight and could scratch her shoes (that would be really exensive ).
So i ask the dealer to remove it, changed carpets and bought a Element

 

I had two similar experiences and in both occasions, without a fire extinguisher available I guess the cars would have been totally destroyed by fire. Definitely far from cosmetic items but the one using powder should be banned and replaced by element units or FIA approved foam/gaz units.


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It 's not that simple. Every extinguisher has its use, depending on the fire type. Dry powder extinguishers are suitable for most types of fire.

 

Pls take only halon If you can get one .
You destroy your car with powder and you cant clean it .

 

https://surreyfire.co.uk/types-of-fire-extinguisher/

 

Halotron
http://halotron.com/halotron1.php

 

Many years ago, I purchased a Halon fire extinguisher from a traveling salesman that used to sell them via the local machine shop. I kept it in my Datsun, but never needed it.

Some years later, I was in a very bad head-on collision, where I hit a truck which turned into my lane; I hit it going about 75 MPH and was nearly killed. My passenger went through the windshield and required reconstructive surgery (due to not wearing their seat belt). I only had a lap belt on and was knocked unconscious when my head hit the steering wheel. I'm surprised I lived frankly. No air bags, nothing. The only thing that helped save me was the car absorbed some of the impact; I measured it after the crash and it was 18 inches shorter. I also went back and could see where the impact moved the vehicle I hit - a full size Ford Bronco, loaded with 6 GI's - over a foot laterally (based on the tire tread marks left on the road).

So, anyway, there wasn't much left of my car. I was just happy to still be alive and above ground frankly. After I got out of the hospital, I had the car towed to the house I was renting. Since I didn't have insurance on the car, I decided to part it out. I sold the motor, transmission, wheels, hood, doors, everything. It had a nice race motor, which I had built, so that helped.

After parting it out, I asked my sister's boyfriend if he could haul it away for me. He ran a small hauling company, but he said a car was too big for him to handle. He jokingly said I'd need to cut it up... to which I said, "I could cut it up with my welder". So he told me if I cut it up small enough, he'd toss the pieces into his truck and haul it away. So that's what I decided to do.

I got my welder out (a gas torch) and got ready to start cutting. Even though I figured I wouldn't need it, I put the Halon extinguisher down on the ground, over near where I was getting ready to work. I was, after all, renting the house and wanted to be safe. So the car had no wheels and was sitting up on egg crates. I put on all my welding gear and started cutting. The first cut I made was down the roof. The doors had been sold, so the next cut was along the floor boards from the driver's side to the shift lever hole. Then I moved over and started to cut from the passenger side to the center of the car. As I cut, the loss of structural integrity let the car break in half. The front half tipped backwards and the rear half tipped forwards, leaving the car in sort of a V shape.

So I kept working away making cuts with the torch and suddenly I heard an odd "whoosh" noise... at first I thought one of the lines to my torch let go, but when I stopped to look at them, they looked okay. I had on my green lens gas welding goggles, so I couldn't really see much, but my torch was operating fine, so I went back to cutting. A few seconds later, I felt a tremendous heat on my shins. Naturally, when welding, things get hot, but this seemed a little off base. I stepped back a bit and removed my goggles and that's when I realized I was standing in a pool of gasoline that was about 6 feet in diameter under the car - and growing - and completely engulfed in flames.

What had happened was I had accidentally cut through the fuel supply line in the middle of the car with my torch. That wasn't good, but what made things really serious, really fast, was that when the car broke and tipped forward, all the gas in the fuel tank suddenly started pouring out of the cut line onto the ground below the car - and there was no way to stop it. The "whoosh" I heard was the fuel igniting and once the pool of gas expanded towards my feet, then I felt the heat.

When I stepped backwards and away from the car - and removed my welding glasses - that's when the magnitude of everything hit - the flaming pool of fuel was quickly expanding towards the wooden structure of the rental house and there was no way to shut down the flow of gas pouring out of the cut line. The car had no wheels and could not be moved out of the fames and it had a gas tank that was 3/4 full of fuel and there was a fire brewing directly under it. From A-Z, it was just all bad.

I grabbed the little Halon extinguisher, which I had set near the car; pointed it under the car, pulled the trigger and swept from right to left... I have never seen a gas fire go out more quickly in my entire life. It was absolutely shocking how quickly it went out. It was like someone snapped their fingers and the flames vanished. This was a pool of fire the size of my living room rug - poof, out.

Once the flames were out, I bent the fuel line back on itself and used a garden hose to wash the gas off the driveway.

If not for that little Halon extinguisher, this story would have probably had a much different outcome - and I think our landlord would have been minus a rental property.

I'm not sure if you can still buy or re-fill the older Halon fire extinguishers, but they are absolutely worth their weight in gold when it comes to automotive or electrical fires.

Ray

 

What a story... scary and good that you ended up safely... I only experienced fire with motor vehicle twice and it was not that bad. However I am very cautious about fire and have elements units in all my cars plus FIA approved fire extinguishers in my sports cars (including an automatic one in my F40)
Fire is a very special hasard...

 

Dear Ray,

Consider yourself very lucky and unlucky at the same time. Firstly you were nearly killed in the crash and then you almost got burnt alive. Ouch!!!
The torch thing on a fueled car was less than ingenious though... Youthful silliness I reckon. Sometimes I think of all the silly things I had done in my youth and I am astonished that I am still around!!!

Regards,
Alex

 

The automatic systems in the F40 are really nice. I looked into purchasing an LM F40 some years ago (in the UK as I remember, but it might have been some other location) and it had a super nice on board fire system.

Ray

 

You definitely do a lot more foolish things at 23, as opposed to 53

Ray