Fire Extinguisher in my Garage Exploded

rampside

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A guy that lives down the road from me, had had an explosion in his garage too. This happened last weekend at around 2 AM. It was not a fire extinguisher, unfortunately!

The car you see in the foreground, is what's left of an absolutely beautiful, early seventies Duster street machine.

90efa2e3-3570-403a-8638-0e6d8228a004_zpsbnwcxxbr.jpg


The building was a totally enclosed shop and loaded with tools and equipment. I can't imagine how extreme the heat was.

I have a '74 Duster, so every time I'd pass by his place, I'd admire that car.

Thank goodness nobody was in there at the time.
 

steve488

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We can now expect a comparative aging review of fire extinguishers.

Absolutely true. The company I work for tested some several years back to confirm the pressure release when the valve went. WE had a fixture failure and the canister bounced around the test area hitting several pieces of equipment and one technician and nearly punched through a wall. The tech spent 6 months healing from an impact to his heel (steel toes are required but heel protection is not so common). The canister is essentially just like a missile or rocket as long as there is still pressure in the vessel.
 

Walter Broes

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Wow Gad, you have security cameras in your garage? I'd hate to know what the bad part of New Jersey is like then! :)
 

GAD

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Wow Gad, you have security cameras in your garage? I'd hate to know what the bad part of New Jersey is like then! :)

LOL. It's my testing setup. The one that caught the eruption is actually just sitting on a server - it's just temporary! Pure dumb luck that it caught the event.

If I lived in the bad part I'd set up a ring of explosives like Will Smith in I am Legend.
 

dreadnut

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My good friend owns a fire extinguisher service company, there is a good reason why they are required to be tested and certified at least annually (so they will actually work when needed.) I'll have to ask him about spontaneous discharge; I've never seen that before, usually they go bad slowly.


Came upon a car fire on the freeway one day, as I approached I could see burning stuff dripping down onto the pavement. Old gal was still sitting behind the wheel, I actually don't think she knew it was burning - from the driver's seat she probably just thought the car was overheated. I helped her out of the car, then a truck driver stopped and came running over with his fire extinguisher. He opened the car hood just as I was saying "Don't open the..." and of course the fire was happy to get all that extra oxygen. Big flames now. Her: "My purse is still in the car!" Me: "Gee that's too bad."


The truck driver pulled the pin on the extinguisher, aimed it at the engine compartment, pulled the trigger and nothing happened. A little bit of stuff dribbled out of the nozzle, that's it.

By the time the FD got there, her Caddy was a total loss. "I just picked it up from the repair shop," she says.
 

walrus

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Got my new ones yesterday.

Thanks for the PSA, GAD!

walrus
 

fronobulax

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"I just picked it up from the repair shop," she says.

My, so far, only car fire occurred the day after I had the oil changed. I always believed that the shop failed to tighten the filter completely and so oil dripped on to hot engine components and eventually ignited. No one was hurt so....
 

bluesypicky

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My, so far, only car fire occurred the day after I had the oil changed. I always believed that the shop failed to tighten the filter completely and so oil dripped on to hot engine components and eventually ignited. No one was hurt so....

One more reason why I will never, ever, let anyone change the oil in any of my vehicles, as long as I can hold a wrench on my own.
And GAD's experience kinda encourages me to keep my house "extinguisher-free", as it has always been..... lol
 

Cabarone

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This should be a PSA on local TV stations...wow...how many of us are living w/the same potential? We buy extinguishers to help keep us safe, then forget all about them until they're needed.

Looks like an excuse to make a Lowe's run for me!!!

Glad no one was hurt and no significant loss, right?
 

taabru45

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That powder will eventually corode and bdestroy electronics. You should claim all electronics if there is an insurance claim. This applies to the ABC extinguishers with the yellow powder. ABC means good for electric, paper and oil fires. If it's onwhite and only for paper fires you are 'OK that's only baking soda. Most people don't know this but the insurance people do but they won't mention it to you if you claim. I'd enquire to the mfg about why it exploded...should never have happened..unless there was rust on the canister..wear good dust masks for cleanup.
 

GAD

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That powder will eventually corode and bdestroy electronics. You should claim all electronics if there is an insurance claim. This applies to the ABC extinguishers with the yellow powder. ABC means good for electric, paper and oil fires. If it's onwhite and only for paper fires you are 'OK that's only baking soda. Most people don't know this but the insurance people do but they won't mention it to you if you claim. I'd enquire to the mfg about why it exploded...should never have happened..unless there was rust on the canister..wear good dust masks for cleanup.

Little bit of electronics in the garage.

Are you saying all this stuff is toast? What do I need to do to make it survive?

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taabru45

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Circuit boards..and places where the powder gets trapped..you might ask.fire specialists..if it can be effectively and completely cleaned. The yellow stuff is the problem...might take a couple of years for the damage...I think. So even if it's working now...claim if you can...too late down the road.
 

GAD

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Circuit boards..and places where the powder gets trapped..you might ask.fire specialists..if it can be effectively and completely cleaned. The yellow stuff is the problem...might take a couple of years for the damage...I think. So even if it's working now...claim if you can...too late down the road.

I doubt any of that would be covered.

I can take all the electronics apart and blow it off or clean it.
 

taabru45

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Clean best you can then maybe wipe it down with a damp cloth. It's not a problem if it's not there. Lol.
 

fronobulax

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Little bit of electronics in the garage.

Are you saying all this stuff is toast?

Might be. I suspect you may recall Ye Olden Days when computers lived in glass walled temples attended to by acolytes in lab coats? The fire suppression system was Halon and the acolytes were required to attend a safety briefing before admittance into the inner sanctum. The key points were that a) Halon was the most effective (and perhaps only) way to extinguish a fire without damaging the electrical equipment and b) breathing in a room full of Halon was bad for an acolytes health and long term survival.

Note that Halon is no longer the fire-suppressant of choice for areas with lots of electronic equipment - banned because of something about a negative impact on the ozone layer :)
 
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