I'm trying to find some good safety flares to keep in the car. My research found a couple users who mention that they are also useful as a firestarter.

My priority is high-visibility for a road emergency, but if they are also good as a firestarter that's a bonus.

Anyone have a recommendation for a particular flare or outlet?

I checked out Gall's, whom I trust, but they sell them by the case and I don't need that many.

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Incidentally, hiked with a friend today who lives in a DC 'burb and who bought a new vehicle in the last year but neglected to transfer over what gear she had into the new SUV (Lexus).

So we were talking about it, I mentioned what I keep in my Element and she wants to be more strategic, assembling a BOB (we didn't use that terminology)in a daypack in addition to road emergency gear (for herself, her passengers and others if she happens upon an accident).

I'm sending her a list of stuff I keep in the car. She's going to be surprised....

If using flares as designed, please remember the ARE very good fire starters of the unintended kind also.

I have seen numerous well intentioned folks place said flares and really make the accident easy to see due to the grass fire just adjacent to it.

Tis also a good way to find fuel leaks....

You can pick up highway flares priced individually at your local Pep-Boys. I carry both the low-tech pyrotechnic version and the new Power Flare.

Craig.

Well, maybe I'll stick with the battery-powered strobe.


:-)

Road flares are a bit old tech in this day and age. And, as already stated they are a hazard in their own right.

I can highly recommend Eflare Safety Beacon.... http://www.eflarecorp.com/

But road flares are cheap enough that I don't mind laying a few down even if I will be leaving the scene. I doubt that I would want to do that with electronic devices.

Tractor Supply and many truck stops sell flares and the triangular markers.

Having one triangle marker is nice, even if to put on your vehicle to signal which one needs repair or attention.

Flares are every bit as dangerous as the person using them.

I've never heard of one going off by itself. If you're the kind of person who tosses lit cigarettes out of cars in summer, sets off illegal fireworks in your neighbor's dry field (upwind of his house), and likes to set wastebaskets of tissues on fire, then NO, you shouldn't use them.

Well, I've never had those arsonist yearnings.

But I do kind of get a kick out of lighting my charcoal chimney starter and watching the briquettes take off.

Seriously, I'm interested in these battery-powered devices. Just wondering if they're really as visible as the traditional flares.

Can't recall seeing anything in use that's brighter than a flare.