What's the stuff in fire extinguisher made of...
 

A neighbor of mine carried a small fire extinguisher in the back seat of his truck. It went off accidentally while he was taking a sharp curve and before he could stop it, it emptied itself out covering the whole inside of his vehicle with thick white powder and making him look like a Snow White in no time... it's kind of funny but could have ended in a disaster - glad he was not hurt.

Since he was covered head to toe, makes me wonder if there are any health concerns he should be aware of....?!

James

We do fire training at work and there's usually clouds of the fire retardant powder hanging in the air.

I'm pretty sure that I don't want to be breathing it for extended periods but I don't think it's actually toxic...

the safety pin must have been pulled off or something since FE's are not meant to expell the retardent unless neccessary

Most fire extinguishers have Ammonium phosphate in them at least the ABC type of extinguishers. B and C type have Sodium Bicarbonate in them.

Handy if you have really bad stomach ache

if it was made in china its somebodys aunt -- jz

I have a Halon fire extinguisher in the car. Thoughts about covering the interior or the engine compartment with the powder didn't seem to good. Halon is expensive. A CO2 extinguisher would be a good choice but they are big and heavy.

Its dehydrated water.

to fight a fire, toss the powder in and just add water !

So the real question is, was it an ABC type or just a BC? BC would be the better choice. of course, if it was an old VW bug, he should have had an ABCD type. D is for flameable metals. many years ago was on the fire department and had training on using different fire extinguishers. They basically told us if it is a class D fire in a VW, if no class D is available, just get out a shovel and start heaping DIRT on it!

Interesting...I forgot that the magnesium engine case would be flammable! :eek: