scard

scard

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I'm preparing to setup my hangar and figure that the most appropriate first "tool" should be a big expensive fire extinguisher. I've searched the archives and most of the conversation is about small units in the plane. I'm interested in recommendations as to size, type, and availability (source) of fire extinguishers to keep in the hangar. I understand Halon is probably best to keep from doing more damage with the extinguisher than a very small fire.
 
scard said:
I'm preparing to setup my hangar and figure that the most appropriate first "tool" should be a big expensive fire extinguisher. I've searched the archives and most of the conversation is about small units in the plane. I'm interested in recommendations as to size, type, and availability (source) of fire extinguishers to keep in the hangar. I understand Halon is probably best to keep from doing more damage with the extinguisher than a very small fire.
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Well, we've got 5 in the hangar - counting the two Halon in the planes. The ones that stay in the hangar are one 20-lb CO2 on a little wheeled cart and two 5-lb dry chem (BC) types. If there's a problem, I'm going for the CO2 first. That dry chem makes a horrible mess. But it satisfies the landlord (City of Houston).
 
CO2

Scott,

I agree 100% that the best thing to have in the airplane is Halon, but it can be a bit pricey in larger sizes. For a hangar environment, I agree with Bryan that CO2 is the way to go - much more readily available for refill, and it does a good job of extinguishment and cooling. Also as mentioned, stay away from dry chem - yeah, it'll put out the fire - then you can just walk away from the whole mess and start over!

As a firefighter, for small fires in vehicles, I always grab a CO2 first. If I don't get it done with that, I'm probably going for hose - and I hope everyone else is headed for the door!

Paul
 
I've got two 10 lb. CO2 and one 20lb. CO2 in my hangar. Dry chem- scary around aircraft or people. You may be sorry if something starts on fire and you just have one 5 pounder on the wall.
 
I was just down at Sears yesterday planning on picking up a CO2 extinguisher. They only had a couple of small units, and nowhere on the packaging did it say the type. I assumed they were dry chem and moved on. Does Lowes/HD have CO2 extinguishers? First engine start will be soon, and I want to be prepared.
 
Davepar said:
I was just down at Sears yesterday planning on picking up a CO2 extinguisher. They only had a couple of small units, and nowhere on the packaging did it say the type. I assumed they were dry chem and moved on. Does Lowes/HD have CO2 extinguishers? First engine start will be soon, and I want to be prepared.
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I've got two. One was a second-hand but servicable unit from an industrial fire extinguisher shop. Second, sitting in my garage, was give away from a swap-out at a petrochem plant where I was once employed. I know of no Lowes/HD/Ace that will sell the larger CO2. Grainger has them. But beware of shipping problems. If you don't pick it up, they may have to ship it by a super-whammy hazardous materials delivery service. Had that problem with one of the dry chems I bought from them.
 
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I just got done calling around here in Austin and found an industrial fire extinguisher shop and got the following quotes (available for pickup):
CO2
- 10# is $195
- 15# is $238
- 20# is $265

They didn't sound like they wanted to sell Halon (phased out in '97), but gave me a couple of quotes on small Halotron (whatever that is):
2.5# is $108
5# is $304
 
Purple K

I see lots of people recommending CO2 fire extinguishers. I had a pilot freind that is the local fire department Captain recommend Purple K for use in the hangar.

Google 'Purple K fire extinguisher' I came up with:
http://www.illinoisfire.com/commercial.shtml

I use to have a hangar at another airport and the guy next to me had a Cessna C140. He once had the cowl open in flight and told the tower that he was coming back because of it. The tower rolled the airport fire truck. When my friend stopped the airplane, the fire department hit the engine with the CO2 fire extinguisher and cracked the heads.
 
Yes Gary, Purple K does the job - but that is the standard dry-chem extinguishant. It will certainly save you from the fire, but is quite corrosive and almost impossible to get cleaned up. As a firefighter, I always try and think beyond the fire itself - life preservation is always first, but if I can accomplish that AND save the property for future use, I'll try and do that.

And yup, if you hit a hot engine too directly with CO2, you can cool it to fast - but you don't have to get that close to use it properly. You want a blanket of gas cutting off the O2 to the fire - some folks get a little to enthusiastic and try to freeze the fire!

Paul
 
scard said:
I just got done calling around here in Austin and found an industrial fire extinguisher shop and got the following quotes (available for pickup):
CO2
- 10# is $195
- 15# is $238
- 20# is $265

They didn't sound like they wanted to sell Halon (phased out in '97), but gave me a couple of quotes on small Halotron (whatever that is):
2.5# is $108
5# is $304
Click to expand...

Halotron is what I have in my plane. It is the enviromently friendly replacement gas for Halon....you and I would never know the difference, but ole Mother nature knows !

Interestingly you can still get Halon extinguishers filled....until the supply runs out that is.....and the cost is a lot more.
 
Another Firefighter chiming in. In my view I would say a lot depends on what class of fire you are dealing with, Dry chem extinguishers will handle all classes of fire but if you use that on your aircraft you will wish it had burned by the time your finished cleaning up the mess. If I was concerned with only the aircraft I would use halon, no residue and effective. For class A or B fires I'd rather use a stored pressure water/foam extinguisher . The foam mixture with the water will prevent flash back of a fuel fire and also acts as a wetting agent for ordinary combustables and has a good reach of stream , the down side is , it is not very friendly toward electrical equipment. Extiguishers are kind of like aircraft , no one will do it all so you sort of have to decide what mission you have for it and select on that basis. You get a little spoiled in the fire service as you have a choice of all of them at any time.
 
Wanting an update on this old thread.
Thinking of appropriate fire extinguisher for a small hangar, with one or possibly two aircraft in it.
Is Halotron the way to go, or is CO2 preferable? Or is their another reasonable option?
Can someone give pros and cons?
What size would the experts here recommend?
 
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Excellent timing. I was just thinking the other day that I needed to revisit this to outfit the new shop, and while I'm at it, I'll have the hangar units serviced.
 
I'll chime in with an additional request for input... For those of us with unheated hangars located in climates where below-freezing temperatures are a given, what would be the logical choice for an extinguisher? What additional maintenance or precautions should be taken with extinguishers that spend half their life in below freezing temperatures?
 
Actual Hangar Fire

I have a 60 x 72 hangar with typically 6 or 7 aircraft stored. A tenant was calibrating his RV-7A in the typical method of draining a few gallons then pushing the Dynon button.

Tenant and friend had a large funnel on top of a gas can under the wing. The fuel draining out of the wing tank drain into the funnel flashed off (caught fire) . In the haste to put it out with a ten pounder FE the funnel was tipped over. Fuel and fire spread and destroyed the RV by mostly melting and deforming all metal. They soon used up the ten pounder and grabbed one of my large wheeled fire extinguishers. The fire was finally extinguished as the large unit was running out.

Learnings?
So, how many and what size? As many and much as you can afford!

Never allow refueling , defueling, inside a hangar!

Dry low humidity conditions are ideal for a full static flash!

Get your extinguishers inspected annually!

Get ground wires for aircraft and fuel containers. Use them

Use the buddy system when doing things like this. You will need help!
 
Want to see something really scary a long long time ago....... in a galaxy, well, Marine Corps anyway, I was an aircraft refueler TT operator, we hauled the M970, 5,000 gallon JP5 tanker, we would sometimes bring the 2 1/2" hose around and hook it up to the recirculation point mid tank to filter the fuel, one day while doing this, I crawled up on top and open the man hole cover and saw a lightning storm of static electricity in there......:eek: So yes, ground and bond while playing with liquid fire.
 
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