PSA announcement

[DtwSailor]

If you haven't done so recently, do me a favor and go check that you have a dry chemical fire extinguisher in your shop and in your home.

A quick scare this afternoon when we connected a trickle charger to our jet boat, and there was a short, and the next thing you know we had rubber and melting wire burning right next to 18 gallons of gas!

The extinguisher in my garage was not charged, but my son was able to grab the one from our kitchen in 10 seconds or less and now we have a mess to clean up instead of an insurance claim!

you never know!
226M

[Mrs blueskyracer]

Very good advice and a message worth passing along.

Also change the batteries in your smoke detectors. We like to do ours everytime we change the clocks to Spring Ahead or Fall back. (You guys in the areas that don't do daylight savings time need to pick a couple other dates!)

[Bill Huson]

And - one should take a rubber mallet with some weight and whap the base of your fire extinguisher every few months at the minimum to keep all that powder loose.

Bill
Mobile fueler & fuel farm inspector, Coastal Carolina Regional Airport

[krazy karl]

And - one should take a rubber mallet with some weight and whap the base of your fire extinguisher every few months at the minimum to keep all that powder loose.

Bill
Mobile fueler & fuel farm inspector, Coastal Carolina Regional Airport

Good idea about the hammer. I usually pick them up from time to time and turn them upside down and shake. Probably not enough. I'll get out the rubber mallet.
kk

[Phil Fronce]

Hang them on the horizontal.

[mark5pa]

I have road raced motorcycles and open wheel cars, where extinguishers are required. You would think I would have remembered them when I started racing boats, but no, until I went to Thompson, they put the requirement in their sanction. Good idea.

[krazy karl]

I have road raced motorcycles and open wheel cars, where extinguishers are required. You would think I would have remembered them when I started racing boats, but no, until I went to Thompson, they put the requirement in their sanction. Good idea.

I think it is in the rulebook but maybe not. Anyway it is a requirement in Region 11. I always have one in my RV and another in my race trailer.
kk

[Mark 72@E]

Periodically Check Your Fire Extinguishers

Agreeing that you should periodically check your home fire extinguishers, I remember an episode of "What do you want to tell your parents?" in which radio listeners were asked to call in with stories describing something they did that their parents never knew but they are now willing to confess. Then the DJ's would then call the parents on the air and let the whole thing play out for the listening audience.

One man started his story by referencing the fire that destroyed the kitchen and nearly burned down his family's home decades before. And he remembered that when the fire started his father went to get the sole fire extinguisher in the house and found that it was empty.

"Do you remember my friend Johnny? Well, one day me and Johnny were playing around after school and we took the fire extinguisher to the back yard and started squirting it at each other until it didn't squirt no more. Then we put it back where we found it and never toldt nobody."

Ever since I heard that story I check the levels periodically just to be sure.