Gas Extinguisher

[JGallagher]

I heard some thing on the radio today about a old piece of equipment. It was a gas type of extinguisher.

[WFD999]

OK you've peaked my interest. AND?

[firecbo]

May be they mean CO2

[Michael13]

Could be C02 or Halo. Halo is discontinued now, I believe it's illegal.

[bfrd22]

There used to be Fire Globe, A liquid encased in a decoritive glass globe in an e-longated tear drop shape for throwing. Mounted on nice wood wall plaques.

the liquid quick coverted to a gas when exposed to air and smuthered the small fires. Unfortuantly it was also found that the gas was highly toxic also. Knocking one off

Another type was I believe a bicarbinate type system in which as water filled vessel had a glass tube in side contaning soda powder. by smacking the head of the metal extinqisher on a hard surface a pin would break the glass releasing the soda and producing a gas that would presurize the system. I heard some where that these may have been mounted on some older fire appartus. (horse drawn type stuff). But I have never seen one.

It's not old but the mighty Halon units were popular back in the 80's till they realized that the explode when heated and when releasing the gas it can kill the user. Other than that I'm stumped

[bfrd22]

Originally posted by Michael13
Could be C02 or Halo. Halo is discontinued now, I believe it's illegal.
Not discontinued or illegal. Still used in engine bays of race cars and in computer labs.

[bfrd22]

Found some more on the Fire Gernades, or Fire globes,

They used CTC "Carbon Tetrachloride"

HAZARD SUMMARY
* Carbon Tetrachloride can affect you when breathed in and
by passing through your skin.
* Carbon Tetrachloride should be handled as a
CARCINOGEN--WITH EXTREME CAUTION.
* Carbon Tetrachloride can irritate the skin and eyes with
possible loss of vision.
* Exposure can cause headache, dizziness and lightheadedness
leading rapidly to unconsciousness and death. It can make
the heart beat irregularly or stop.
* Carbon Tetrachloride can cause severe liver and kidney
damage.

WORKPLACE EXPOSURE LIMITS
OSHA: The legal airborne permissible exposure limit
(PEL) is 10 ppm averaged over an 8-hour
workshift; 25 ppm, not to be exceeded during any
15-minute work period; and 200 ppm as an
acceptable maximum peak level for 5-minutes in
any 4-hours.
NIOSH: The recommended airborne exposure limit is
2 ppm which should not be exceeded during any
1-hour period.
ACGIH: The recommended airborne exposure limit is
5 ppm averaged over an 8-hour workshift and
10 ppm as a STEL (short term exposure limit).
* Carbon Tetrachloride may be a CARCINOGEN in
humans. There may be no safe level of exposure to a
carcinogen, so all contact should be reduced to the lowest
possible level.
* The above exposure limits are for air levels only. When
skin contact also occurs, you may be overexposed, even
though air levels are less than the limits listed above.

[JGallagher]

Originally posted by bfrd22
Not discontinued or illegal. Still used in engine bays of race cars and in computer labs.

They are highly used on board ships in the engine rooms. The engine department has seconds to get out before they are killed by suffication.

[BillyBlazes]

Halon

It is no longer allowed to be sold or installed as an extinguishing agent. If you have it stored in cylinders as an extinguishing agent in your computer room or other location you can keep until it is used, then it cannot not be replaced.

Halon was to be eliminated according to the "Montreal Protocol". Many countries signed this to eliminate the effects to the ozone from Halon.

Several companies have been working on replacements. Our old communications division was protected by a Halon dumping system. We had 20 seconds to hit an abort button on the wall to stop the dumping of the system.

Even if the system did dump we could stay in the room and work because the Halon was not a problem unless it was heated in an actual fire situation.

[JGallagher]

But if it is already in exsisting ships and that it is allowed to stay under the STCW rules. It is expensive to take a ship out of service for any day.