A friend of mine was checking out my car the other day and noticed the fire extinguisher in the back. He said that he hoped I never had to use “that” fire extinguisher, and I told him “yeh, me too.” What he told me next surprised me.

He told me that my ABC dry powder extinguisher could be the worst part of the fire. Maybe you guys already knew this, but the typical extinguisher’s chemical powder melts and attaches itself to every surface that is warm or hot (that’s how it smoothers the fire). My buddy told me that if I extinguished a fire in the engine compartment, the clean up and damage to “finished” parts could be worse than the fire damage.

There was a recent thread where fire extinguishers were discussed... the one where Pro70Z28 tried to burn his shop down http://www.clubhotrod.com/t4801.html Streets mentioned that Halon extinguishers had been “outlawed” (ozone holes ). There’s a new product called Halotron that’s “environmentally friendly” and legal. This product is liquid and leaves no residue (just like Halon), and does not damage paint or chrome like the corrosive powder types do.

I priced Halotron extinguishers and a 2-1/2 LB unit is about $75 (compared to $10 for the powder type). But, I figure that the extra $65 wouldn’t come close to covering the labor it would take to clean up or repair damaged finishes

Dan J