E28 - Where do you have your Fire Extinguishers mounted?

sailingjazz · Jan 14, 2013

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Thanks
Kevin

E28
Santana

Fparry · Jan 14, 2013

Besides the halon system which is permanently mounted in the engine compartment I have two which are mounted on the engine compartment cover adjacent to the companionway ladder. One on the port side and the other on the starboard. I am thinking about mounting a 4th somewhere in the cockpit. Perhaps in the rear locker.

Loren Beach · Jan 14, 2013

I know several owners that keep a cockpit-accessable extinguisher mounted under the lid of a seat hatch in the cockpit.
As for the interior, the advice I always liked was to have several of them. Our size boat only "requires" two...

but if you've ever used one you know how quickly they empty. :0

Most logical approach is to consider where a fire is statistically more likely to occur. Galley or Engine, and galley more likely in the case of a diesel engine.
So place them where they will not be in the direct vicinity of a possible fire.
(Yes, sometimes I have seen one beside or behind the stove top! Yikes!)

Low is better than high, for general mounting. (Flames and heat will go upwards.)

Next, you want to be able to "fight your way out" safely from either end of the boat if there's heat and smoke by the companionway steps.

I have a 5# in the forepeak and another one in our aft cabin. There's a small 2.5# in the head compartment, since our interior layout has an aft head across from the galley.

I usually have another small one under a cockpit seat hatch, but am presently remounting it.
Unless the bbq majorly catches fire it would normaly never be useful, tho.

In the general catch-all list of "prevention", we also have an Origo galley range, so there's no pressure or hoses or remote tankage/seapage or leakage to worry about.

Since buying our boat in the 90's, I have replaced All of the diesel engine fuel supply/return system and hose - and the tank - as well.

Apropos of whatever, our little yacht club was able to fairly easily schedule a training session one Sat. morning at the local airport fire fighting facility. We got to take a great class on fighting all sorts of fires and all of us (!) got hands-on time with standard dry powder fire bottles putting out practice fires. I would recommend that everyone try to set up something like this with their local fire dept.
It helps, of course, that we are located less than a mile from PDX, and they are backup responders for river emergencies in our area too.

Stay safe,

Loren

Glyn Judson · Jan 14, 2013

Fire extinguishers.

Kevin, As usual, Loren is spot on with his observations and is certainly right when it comes to how quickly a dry powder extinguisher can empty itself. We have a 5# dry powder extinguisher located at the foot of the compression post and easily accessible from the galley or elsewhere. Two more, both 5# are located in the hanging locker, vertically mounted, one over the other for space considerations. Additionally there is a 2.5# automatic discharge Halon extinguisher adjacent to the engine. Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey, CA

mherrcat · Jan 14, 2013

The Halon extinguisher that was mounted inside my engine compartment, just in front of the engine and below the sink, is no more; ever since I caught my sleeve on it one day and set it off...

Interestingly, I thought the way Halon worked was by displacing oxygen to suppress the fire. Apparently that is a common misconception. It actually works by interrupting the chemical reaction that is fire. So, according to the article I just read, there only needs to be an 8% concentration by volume to be effective.

My handheld extinguishers are located:

On the starboard bulkhead just inside the companionway.
On the bulkhead below the sink.
Inside the port lazarette in the cockpit.

toddster · Jan 14, 2013

Maybe worth re-posting this little gadget that I recently learned about. Especially for those with gasoline engines, retrofitting a fire port into the engine cover seems like a good idea. I never heard of one before I saw it in another thread. Only ten dollars.

sailingjazz · Jan 15, 2013

Where do you have your Fire Extinguisher

Thanks for the great feedback. I really want to have mine mounted where the most likely fire points (engine and galley) will not be between me and crew. So, I would like at least one in the cabin (lots of places there to mount) and the cockpit (not so clear where to mount there). In the cockpit the lazerette under the helm seat seems like the most likely place to mount where it is out of the way, accessible, and not where there are likely to be flames from the engine. If anyone has an extinguisher mounted in the cockpit, I would like to see pictures. I will also look into a halogen unit for the engine room, hadn't considered that before.

Thanks
Kevin

E28 - Where do you have your Fire Extinguishers mounted?

sailingjazz

Member II

Fparry

Member II

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR

Glyn Judson

Moderator

mherrcat

Contributing Partner

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts

sailingjazz

Member II