Element Fire Extinquishers

[howson]

TucsonJim ,
I know you've done safety seminars at GD rallies and you're an advocate for having fire extinguishers handy. Got an email advertisement from Stage 3 Motorsports today regarding the Element Fire Extinguisher ( https://elementfire.com/ ). I'd never heard of them before. Do you have an opinion on them? I really like the small form factor and mount options.

If any member has first-hand experience or is a professional first-responder, I'd like to read your feedback on this product.

Howard

Element Fire Extinguishers - Jay Leno's Garage

[RJAPCOK]

TucsonJim ,
I know you've done safety seminars at GD rallies and you're an advocate for having fire extinguishers handy. Got an email advertisement from Stage 3 Motorsports today regarding the Element Fire Extinguisher ( https://elementfire.com/ ). I'd never heard of them before. Do you have an opinion on them? I really like the small form factor and mount options.

If any member has first-hand experience or is a professional first-responder, I'd like to read your feedback on this product.

Howard

Element Fire Extinguishers - Jay Leno's Garage

I DO NOT have first hand experience with this product. In fact, this is the first I have seen of it. I DO have many years of experience with fire extinguishers and fires in both my employment and as a volunteer firefighter.

I am intrigued by this product. I read the technical information provided on their web site, and the unit uses the potassium ion to interrupt the oxidation reaction. If you are familiar with Purple-K fire extinguishers, they also use the potassium ion to interrupt the reaction. Purple-K fire extinguishers are highly effective on flammable liquids (fuels, oil, grease) but not so much on class A fires (wood, paper, etc.) For that reason they only carry a B:C rating. The reason they are less effective on class A fires is that the class A material burns with a deep seated ember. Once the fire is knocked down, it will reignite due to the deep seated ember. This is even true with water as an extinguishing agent if you don't have enough of it to cool the deep seated ember. Class A rated fire extinguishers work by coating the ember and excluding the oxygen until it cools down.

Having said all that, I think this thing may work well on small oil and grease fires and even small early stage class A fires that have not have not had time to develop an ember.

However... I would CAUTION anyone who might want to try one of these, that it should only supplement their normal compliment of UL Listed fire extinguishers. This product has not been tested by UL and is not UL Listed. . Refer to the FAQs on the product web site for more information on the listing.

https://elementfire.com/pages/faq

I hope this is helpful...

Bob

[Crespro]

Last night about 11:30 pm there was a bright blue flashing light outside our unit. It was the local fire chief. The Class A Rv two spots away was on fire. Fortunately, within two minutes the night campground person was there with a fire extinguisher. He broke the LR windows and sprayed the inside. The Buelton fire department was there within another five minutes and put out the fire. There was major damage to the living area, but they saved the RV and the occupant.. Unfortunately, the individual inside suffered burns and was evacuated.

It appears the fire was in the living room area. No known cause. The fire inspectors were doing an inspection inside and outside this morning.

We were camping with our three grandchildren and there was no effect on us, except I rechecked our three fire extinguishers today.

Thanks for posting on fire extinguishers. I have been camping since 1990 and this is the first close fire -- it gets your attention.

Crespro