The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Some thoughts and questions about ... fire extinguishers for your truck

I had my truck idling to warm up and I could smell fuel. When I popped the hood, I could see that the fuel was leaking around the in-line fuel filter. The clamps on the rubber hose had loosened up somehow. That reminded me how dumb I am for not having an easy to access fire extinguisher inside the cab. What kind of fire extinguisher do you guys have and where do you have it mounted?

THIS is a very good question.

Excellent question!

The one in my '49 1-ton is an ABCD fire bottle (good for use on petroleum fires and electrical fires) and it's mounted where the fresh air heater would go if my truck had one. I just used the screw holes for baffle plate (that blanks out the opening for the fresh air heater) so I didn't have to drill any additional holes in my cab.

If you have a heater there then obviously you won't be able to put your fire bottle there.


John

Mike,
Glad you are thinking about this before it's too late. My Halon in a similar location as to John's.

Thanks for the replies and for running this wonderful site. That’s a good place for it, but I do have the fresh air heater. Horizontally mounted in the center of the seat apron would be convenient if it’s acceptable to have it mounted horizontal.

Hagarty had an article on a stick fire extinguisher, see elementfire.com.

Compelling device when u read up on it, I have one clipped in the center of the 46 seat riser

Chuck

Chuck, can you snap us a picture of the stick fire extinguisher and post it? Is THIS the Hagarty article you were referring to?

I checked out that Fire stickfire stick and it sure does look like it would be perfect. It’s small enough to mount anywhere.

Taken from their website:

WORLD'S SMALLEST & LONGEST LASTING FIRE EXTINGUISHERS

The advanced science of Element only needs a small package that is 10.75" tall, 1.2" in diameter and weighs less than 0.5 lbs. You can store Element anywhere and it will provide 50 seconds of discharge that will extinguish all major classes of fire (ABCK) without leaving a mess or causing additional damage.

Incredible. Has anyone tried one of them? Just curious.

Sounds like something I might look into, to replace the old Halon

I put mine on the front of the seat riser under the driver. I don't have room in the middle due to the T5 shifter. My feet are pretty much always stretched out toward the pedals, and the floor space on the passenger side is still open for stuff or people with stuff. Only thing is, I inadvertently mounted it so it's pinching the mat, so if I need to pull the mat up for some reason, I have to take the extinguisher out of the mount.

Picture

Speaking from experience, unless you have a BIG fire extinguisher, the kitchen sized units are useless in an actual emergency. They have about 10 seconds of spray and then they're done.

Keep one in your car by all means. I have one in every vehicle I own but a total loss fire 3 years ago in one of my vehicles showed me how pointless they really are.

You will be better served by carrying a FIRE BLANKET in every vehicles. If I had one of those instead of the fire extinguisher, I could have smothered the fire before the entire vehicle went up in flames.

The reason I started carrying extinguishers in the first place is because of a fire under the hood of my 68 Camaro in college. Luckily I was at home when I saw the smoke. I ran into the barn and grabbed a quilt that we used to lay on while changing oil or whatever.

I put out the fire immediately and only had to replace plug wires and other rubber stuff. The wiper motor had caught fire.

I found out many years later after the advent of the internet that Chevrolet wiper motors in 1968 had a known flaw and caught fire for no reason.

Anyway, fast forward to 2021 where I discovered that in a real emergency with an underhood electrical fire, the extinguisher ran out before the fire was out and the entire car went up in flames. A blanket would have smothered it in a few seconds when it was just getting started.

Late getting back on this, here is the link to the Hagarty article on the fire stick with pix, the device puts out a 50 seconds continuous stream of fire stop with little or no residue.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/maint...ors-vintage-corvette-from-death-by-fire/

Chuck, Maybe you can post a picture of your Element fire stick please? I and other I'm sure may be interested to see how the included mounting clip works and how its mounted. Thanks for sharing this important safety information.

Per request from Gdads/Dan
The bracket is marginal/flops a bit but in the year+ I have had it installed is adequate.(2 be better).
The device works kind of like a flare, just steals the air where you aim for 50 seconds, and does not age out.

Chuck

Chuck, having the measuring tape in the images is a huge help. (Plus your comments.) So many times I need a reference of some sort. Thanks.

So it doesn't expire? If not that would make it extremely worthwhile!

Thanks for the response and detail Chuck. I would have to agree that 2 clips would be a much safer mounting plan. I personally would be worried about it getting knocked out of the little clip and go rolling under foot while driving.

looking on their website

https://elementfire.com/collections/element-accessories

Seems they have multiple ie: better mount/bracket choices now (including a magnetic option which could be interesting)

Claim is “no service or upkeep” “no effective expiration”

Great info and thanks for the link Chuck!

If you web search "broom handle clip", you will find many at your local hardware store, which many made of steel can be bendable to fit many different diameter items.

Will a fire extinguisher take the heat inside a truck in the hot summer?

I believe most extinguishers as mentioned above are manually activated, not automatically. Besides, how hot does it get in your cab, in the summer? Does it sit in a full hot sun?

I just watched a YouTube video of a guy testing out the Element Fire Extinguisher and it failed to put out a burn barrel fire and a small brush pile fire...not real sure how they would work for an engine fire when you really can't get to the bottom of the fire???

Mike B

Like I said before - fire blanket.

For these fire sticks, I've seen similar up here too. My buddy, a fire prevention officer I talked to, his first reaction was what certification does it have - not sure if any of these newer types have been checked for efficiency or longevity by any certification laboratories in the United States or Canada. They hadn't been when I checked pre-covid.
Just some food for thought.
Personally I have a dry chemical on the passenger side also. I've got the GM heater but no fresh air panel.
I've also got a few extras on the outside, all functional, but they go with decor.

On their web site, Fire Safety Stick has the certifications for all 5 types. 50 second and 100 second run models. I can discretely hide it in the truck and not ruin the look of originality.
I found and old 'Pyrene' extinguisher ( minus the toxic liquid ) with mount for $25 + shipping that fits the passenger kick panel and decor nicely.

My bad, they hadn't been when I checked. Sounds like they’ve gone thru the process now. That's great, thanks for the clarification Chip O!

Here is the Elements extinguisher in my truck. It came with both the screw attached mount clip and the magnetic clip.

I had an engine fire in another vehicle this last fall, and luckily had quick access to a fire extinguisher (only because it happened while pulling out of the shop). Needless to say I now have many more including in all our older vehicles. I found a nice small one for our 53. Second photo shows the aftermath of a small flare up. Just a few seconds and thousands in damage.

I keep a white marine style one right in the cab corner on drivers side. Better than nothing.

For about $1K you can put a full racing system in for the engine compartment and the cab.

I myself have put out three different vehicle fires over the years using small fire extinguishers that I carry in all my cars and trucks.
Just by luck, none of those fires have been on any my vehicles.

The down side is, I never got reimbursed for the spent extinguishers from the people that owned the cars.
But it did give me a good feeling to save the day.

Don

I've gone with the E100 Element. 100 seconds vs 50 seconds with the E50. Luckily never needed to use it.

Dennis

I'll throw a rock in the bush. Once my truck is together, I plan on putting a 15 gallon milk can filled with water on the bed. I have an Indian hand pump sprayer used for brush fires to connect and long enough hose. Is water a good idea or am I just dreaming?

Water on a gasoline fire is not recommended. Unless you have a fire pumper truck delivering the water at full mist. I doubt you hand pump sprayer would do the trick.

Get a fire blanket. It's a lot better than an extinguisher if you have a real fire that already going strong.