We've talked about them for home and now it's time to make sure you have one in your car that is RATED for use one electrical, and fuel fires.

These type of Fire Extinguishers are more $$ but can be useful to stop a blaze from overtaking your entire car if you get to them fast. If not, then just step away.

I suggest getting one that is rated for your car, but also can be used on a brush fire too. Only get 2 if you can tell the apart in an emergency.

My Pops always told me that the fire extinguishers in the car/boat were not to put out your own car/boat fire, they were for the other guy's.

I mean, cars can be engulfed really fast and I doubt I'm going to be digging around for the exinguisher as much as getting myself and my 3 yo unbelted and the heck out of there.

I agree though that having them is a good idea, just for different reasons.

Interesting.

I totally disagree.. maybe that's because I've seen several small electrical fires ranging from under the dash in boats and cars to small engine/hose fires on boats.

Usually you can tell if it's small, or rapidly taking over the vehicle use your own judgment to put it out or get away as soon as possible.

In a boat, your worst enemy is fire. Jumping into the water is not always an advisable alternative. Fighting the fire, even if you are left with a burnt out floating hulk, can be preferable to hopping in the drink. Hypothermia, drowning and marine life can all cause problems.
In a car, I would think it is a good idea, but more so for the other guy. If I have evacuated my vehicle and its occupants are safe, I say let it burn. That's why I pay insurance. I would rather wait for the settlement check at home than in the burn ward undergoing skin grafts.

Normally I say let 'er burn too. But from the What If Dept, over the weekend 2 off duty firefighters rescued a 4 year old from a burning SUV. From the video it seems clear that a fire extinguisher on its own wouldn't have knocked down the flames entirely. A fire extinguisher *might* have provided some supplemental fire suppression and prevented the child from being burned as badly, then again the real struggle was to get him and the others out of the vehicle. In other words - if I were there, I might have directed my auto fire extinguisher to suppress flames, then again if there was room to help haul the kid out quickly I might also have dropped the extinguisher to help out. No quibbles from me with what they did to rescue - split second decisions to effect rescue literally from the flames. There is full video of the incident and an interview of the firefighters up on MSNBC. Pretty intense stuff. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32006584/.

I saw the video earlier today on TV. Kudos to the off-duty firefighters for their heroic, lifesaving action.

That's very true about boats I hadn't thought of that side of things (critters in there).

-Todd

I do believe somebody did have an extinguisher but I think they were using it while they were extracting the little boy, plus some garden hose.

If somebody had a reasonable size extinguisher, they could have either knocked down the flames right away before it got that large or at least bought them a few more seconds. While watching the video I was hoping that they weren't going to try spraying the gasoline fire with it because that wouldn't have done much good.

2 off-duty firefighters without a knife between them! Oops!
One fellow mentioned that he normally carries one but didn't for some reason that day. His brother got a knife out from his vehicle to cut the seat belt.

I'm going to have to remind my nephew of this - he's a smoke jumper in northern Alberta - always carry a knife! Even off-duty.

Just one of those days... sometimes I forget the knife when I`m in a hurry and frankly I feel naked with out It's become a habit of checking for my knife when I check for my wallet (patting).

I keep halon (or whatever the replacement is to halon) extinguishers in each car within reach of driver belted in the seat. I've seen too many incidents working at race tracks over the years to do otherwise. I like the halon as it avoids the caustic powder mess if you are only dealing with a small fire.

Whatever you do, if you carry an extinguisher in a car, use a mounting bracket. One designed for mobile applications, not a cheap plastic wall hanger. A fire extinguisher becomes a lethal missile in a collision.

Craig.