Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: Yet another lucky escape...
Badger_McLetcher

posted on 28/8/15 at 10:16 PM Reply With Quote
Yet another lucky escape...

I was out in the workshop welding up my harness mounts when I stopped to inspect it. Luckily something caught my eye - a stray spark had managed to ignite the padding on one of my seats, which was blazing merrily away. A brief attempt to beat it out (wearing my welding gloves) proved completely futile, so out with the extinguisher - powder everywhere but the bloody fire was out.

I was lucky - it was a small fire and I caught it before it spread, but I guess I'm posting this up to remind people to have a fire extinguisher handy when working, especially if you're doing hot work like welding or grinding. It's really easy to think it won't happen - this is the first major fire I've had in about ten years of working on cars - but I'm bloody glad I had it, no real damage done.

Preach over, I'm off for a beer





If disfunction is a function, then I must be some kind of genius.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
SJ

posted on 29/8/15 at 06:33 AM Reply With Quote
I did a similar thing ages ago. I was welding my Alfasud when a spark went into some Waxoyle on the front of the car and set it on fire.

I didn't have an extinguisher, and the house door was locked but after running about madly looking for my keys I wet some towels and put it out. Very scary though.

A worse one was on another Alfa, welding close to the petrol tank. We had the filler pipe disconnected and my brother was supposed to be keeping all covered with damp cloths to stop any sparks getting in. I stopped welding and took away my mask to find my brother chatting to the neighbour and flames coming out of the fuel filler.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
INDY BIRD

posted on 29/8/15 at 07:55 AM Reply With Quote
a fire blanket is even better no mess and will kill it quickly, if you have ever trained as a fire marshall, they say use this for the small fires you had, wrap it around so to cover your hands and roll it onto the fire away from you, dont through it onto it etc, but im sure you guys can google how to etc,

glad it didnt get out of control and good advice etc above

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Oddified

posted on 29/8/15 at 08:32 AM Reply With Quote
I always have an extinguisher to hand when welding, all to easy to get a bit of trim/carpet/underseal to ignite. I have a few of the old Halon extinguishers, not legal to buy new any more as they're not Polar bear friendly but they put any fire out very very well and don't leave any residue at all.

Ian

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
blakep82

posted on 29/8/15 at 08:59 AM Reply With Quote
bucket or watering can full of water first for me, then extinguisher
bucket or watering can full of water will usually do less damage than powder everywhere. extinguisher stays in its bracket on the wall so i know exactly where it is, and is kept as an emergency last resort





________________________

IVA manual link http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081997083

don't write OT on a new thread title, you're creating the topic, everything you write is very much ON topic!

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
owelly

posted on 29/8/15 at 09:19 AM Reply With Quote
I have a bucket of water with a couple of rags in. Perfect for quenching hot things (including body parts!) and a wet rag will cure most little fires. I have a pair of powder extinguishers attached to the welding trolley, a water and a powder wall mounted in the garage. A pair of powders and a water in the house and a powder in each car.......it just so happened that it was cheaper to buy new extinguishers at work then have them hydro-tested and/or serviced.....and to save having to pay to have the 'outgoing' extinguishers disposed of, some may have fallen into the back of my car.





http://www.ppcmag.co.uk

View User's Profile E-Mail User Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
lsdweb

posted on 29/8/15 at 11:08 AM Reply With Quote
Sound advice from everybody! I spent thirty years working in a profession where you were allowed to burn your mistakes and get praised by the media :-)

Most fires can be caught early with a little common sense. I'd also suggest not walking away from 'hot work' when you've finished but hanging around to make sure nothing flares up on you when you're in the house having your supper!

I remember the first garage fire I went to - I was a young 'sprog' and went in to a commercial garage on fire with an 'experienced' old hand. The mechanic had gone through the fuel line whilst cutting / welding. The old hand ran out and started shouting for an all out foam attack. One of the proper old hands told me to go into the garage's toilet, get a bar of soap (remember those?!) and stuff it onto the end of the fuel pipe to stop the leak. Worked a treat and I dealt with the small running fuel fire in seconds.

Wyn



quote:
Originally posted by owelly
I have a bucket of water with a couple of rags in. Perfect for quenching hot things (including body parts!) and a wet rag will cure most little fires. I have a pair of powder extinguishers attached to the welding trolley, a water and a powder wall mounted in the garage. A pair of powders and a water in the house and a powder in each car.......it just so happened that it was cheaper to buy new extinguishers at work then have them hydro-tested and/or serviced.....and to save having to pay to have the 'outgoing' extinguishers disposed of, some may have fallen into the back of my car.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.