The fire extinguisher in my garage is almost 20 years old now and the pressure gauge is right at the edge of the red zone. That means it’s time to order a new one!
Decided to get two because it seems like a good idea to have one out by the grill (and they’re a better deal that way) 👍
Very excited because this means I get to play teach the kids how to properly use a fire extinguisher with the old one! Been a while since we used the fire pit out back…
I’ve always imagined that if I need to deploy my car’s fire extinguisher, it is in aid of a fire somewhere along the road. I’ve personally never been in a car on fire, but I’ve seen three car fires on the highway and maybe a half dozen brush fires.
Here in flammable California, the best approach to fire is to not start them, and the next best is to put them out in their nascent stages. If me having a fire extinguisher at the right time and place means preventing untold destruction and misery, then there’s little reason not to. Do I really expect to be that lone hero that stops the next catastrophic blaze? Definitely not, and I hope not to be. But it’s an ounce of prevention and I’ll do my part.
Oh hey, I’ve been that fire on the road! Luckily a good Samaritan came along with a fire extinguisher!
If it is a fire that you can see from the side of the road? It is probably big enough that one can isn’t gonna do it (and also understand that fire extinguishers have a lot of chemicals that may not be good for the environment. And that not all forest fires are bad and many actually are healing the forest so that there aren’t massive ones). Like, there is a reason that even the “My daddy and his daddy before him were fire fighters” guys are scared shitless of wildfires. They get REAL big REAL fast and they have a tendency to cut people off. Just call the fire department.
And if you somehow spot it while it is still tiny? Just use a jug of water in the back of your car which is a much better thing to carry around anyway.
Prevention is not roleplaying being a hero. Prevention is understanding what you can and can’t do and making sure those who can get the information ASAP. And deciding you are whichever Baldwin was in Backdraft and rushing in with a degraded fire extinguisher that will mostly just drip toxic chemicals in the forest ain’t it.