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Fire Extinguishers & Electronics

O

OdinsDream

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 7, 2001
Messages
1,576
I figured this would be the most reasonable of the forums to post to, since it has to deal with heating & cooling. Maybe i'm mistaken, though. Feel free to reposition!

I had a small fire in my room the other day, with candles. I ended up putting it out with my shirt, because I couldn't find my fire extinguisher (it was behind some pillows)...

Now, though, I'm thinking more about it, and if I had used the extinguisher, I wonder if it would have damaged any of my equipment. The fire was on my desk above my computer, next to my laptop, and mouse. There was a pool of wax surrounding my mouse, and covering the floor afterwards, and almost all of the computer equipment had wax splashes on it, but that was easy enough to remove.

Does anyone know what kind of fire extinguishers are best for use near/on electronics?
 
Sodium carbonate type BC fire extinguisher (typical home FE).

Vacuum it up, and you should be ok. Now here is a bit of info taken from http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/nov2000/974329262.Ch.r.html

There are four types of fires:
Paper/trash/wood and other more-or-less organic solids. "Ordinary combustibles."
Inflammable liquids such as gasoline or paint thinner.
Electrical fires, with electricity still flowing to the burning equipment.
Burning reactive metals, such as sodium, magnesium, titanium, and so forth. Such metals not only burn at high temperatures but can chemically extract oxygen from water and even carbon dioxide. Pyrophoric materials such as organoboron, organolithium and organomagnesium (Grignard) compounds are also in Class D because they react violently with water and carbon dioxide.

There are six common types of fire extinguishers:

Type A

This is a pressurized-water extinguisher and works by removing heat. The fire's heat goes into heating and evaporating the water, which has a very high heat capacity, and soaking the burning materials with enough water will cool them to below the combustion point. However, all burning materials have to be soaked down or the fire will restart. These extinguishers cannot be used for Type B fires because burning organic liquids will float on water while continuing to burn. They should not be used for Type C fires because of the risk of electrical shock, nor for Type D fires because water will support the combustion of Type D materials. Type A extinguishers are normally silver.

CO2

The high-pressure CO2 extinguisher removes oxygen and, to a certain extent, heat. The expanding CO2 cools, sometimes enough to produce dry ice snow, but the main effect is to blanket the burning material with a heavy gas that cannot support combustion. CO2 extinguishers leave no residue and so are especially suitable for extinguishing Type C fires, which often involve delicate equipment. CO2 extinguishers are not suitable for use on Type A fires because the extinguished materials usually retain enough heat to re-ignite when the CO2 dissipates; nor for Type D fires because CO2 will support the combustion of Type D materials. CO2 extinguishers are normally red and have large nozzles.

Halon (ABC)

Halon extinguishers normally contain bromochlorodifluoromethane, a very heavy gas (much heavier than CO2). This not only displaces oxygen from around the fire but chemically reacts in a way that shuts down combustion. (It decomposes into chlorine and bromine radicals, which scavenge hydrogen radicals essential for keeping combustion going.) Halon extinguishers, like CO2 extinguishers, are especially suitable for Type C fires and delicate equipment, but because they chemically shut down combustion they are also good for Type A fires. They are being phased out because of the damage chlorofluorocarbons do to the ozone layer.

Type BC

The BC dry-chemical extinguisher is filled with sodium or potassium carbonate. It isolates the burning material from oxygen, but enough heat can convert the solid carbonate into CO2 gas and so this type of extinguisher should NOT be used for Type A or Type D fires. Dry-chemical extinguishers are normally red, with small nozzles (and sometimes hoses).

Type ABC

The ABC dry-chemical extinguisher is filled with ammonium phosphate. It isolates the burning material from oxygen, but burning Class D materials can liberate oxygen from the phosphate ion and so this type of extinguisher should NOT be used for Type D fires. Dry-chemical extinguishers are normally red, with small nozzles (and sometimes hozes).

Type D

The cheap version of this is a bucket of sand, which isolates the Type D combustible from oxygen. Sand is silicon dioxide, which is too stable to liberate oxygen. Commercial Type D extinguishers are filled with materials which are even more stable than sand.
Click to expand...
 
Mine is the ABC dry chemical kind. At college, someone had discharged an extinguisher that made the floor uninhabitable for a few days, and also required the school to replace everyone's clothes and computers. Were they just overreacting?

Does anyone know if the small home extinguishers can be discharged in bursts, or is it all at once?
 
For electrical fire use a CO2 fire extinguisher. ABC's dry chemical powder can harm computer products. Also the powder is hard to clean up after a discharge.

Yes you can discharge a fire extinguisher in small to large bursts.

Really the best is Halon type for electrical, but there is a large cost for these types of fire extinguishers
 
I have a Halotron extinguisher in my computer lab. Small one but worth every penny.
 
Umm... halon fire extinguisher? I sure wouldn't want to use one of those. Halon puts out a fire by eating all the oxygen in the room. If you use a halon fire extinguisher, you had better put out the fire pretty quickly then get the fuck out of the room. I know a lot of server rooms have halon systems because it doesn't affect the equipment like water or other chemicals would.
 
I have over $15,000 worth of computer equipment in this room and Halon is the best choice. As long as you know how to use it properly (I am a Firefighter) I don’t see a problem with it. Just need to remember to egress ASAP from the area.

As long as the liquid is recycled properly it is a perfectly safe chemical, but it does release a lot of CFCs into the air when used.
 
Halon puts out a fire by eating all the oxygen in the room. If you use a halon fire extinguisher, you had better put out the fire pretty quickly then get the fuck out of the room.
Click to expand...

AGREED! unless your special and dont need to breath. Places that use them also have SCBA's(mask+air tank) on the wall.
 
Originally posted by Monkey34
AGREED! unless your special and dont need to breath. Places that use them also have SCBA's(mask+air tank) on the wall.
Click to expand...

What most people don’t understand is a 5lb halon is not going to displace all the oxygen in a room all at once. (Unless you live in a closet with out any ventilation). Yes a halon system in closed-door cool room will have enough of concentration to displace most if not all the oxygen in the room. Halon type of fire extinguishers will handle flammable liquids, electrical, and even some paper fires. Also you gain a distance average (5-10 feet) with a 5lb halon over CO2 and ABC. What I mean is with a halon fire extinguisher you don’t have to get as close to the fire as you would with other types.
 
in an event of a fire in your room, i think thered be more important things to worry about than if the extinguisher might hurt a component.
 
in the event of a fire in your room, use the right equipment to help decrease the cost of damage.
 
We have a Halon system in our server/rack room. There is over 100k worth in there. We have an SCBA on the wall, and 2 of the smaller emergency diver's tubes. A company comes out and checks them at regular safety intervals.
 
Originally posted by OdinsDream

Does anyone know what kind of fire extinguishers are best for use near/on electronics?
Click to expand...
If you had a co2 fire extinguisher(a bigger one) refilled with co2 only(no chemical powder) that would work for smaller fires.
the chemical powder ruines electronics on contact, on the other
hand smoke can normaly be cleaned off most things in a computer
(hd is on borowed time after heavy smoke exposure).
 
CO2's are not dry chem. There is no residue to worry about. I would be more worried about ice forming on the computer. CO2 long ago were used in cool rooms, until halon came around. People saw the cost of halon was less than CO2. Also a smaller amount of halon was needed to preform the same task of a CO2 system. Then people found out that halon effects the ozone, and started to go back to CO2 base fire systems.
 
Originally posted by kronchev
in an event of a fire in your room, i think thered be more important things to worry about than if the extinguisher might hurt a component.
Click to expand...

Handling situations in a calm, appropriate manner always gives best results, emergencies being no exception. Now, in my case, it was only slightly dangerous. Having half of my desk covered in liquid flame is unnerving, to say the least, but it wasn't spreading. This wasn't like my house was on fire. If it were, you can bet I'd be out the door without a single possession, and cats in my arms. Life is always more important. However, if the situation is under control, and control can be maintaned, then damage should be minimized.

I've always kept a fire extinguisher in my room, but I've never actually had a fire until recently. It made me consider whether the extinguisher I have is the best for my environment. If I even half expect the extinguisher to work, then I sure want to have something useable left that I protected. What's the sense in buying a fire extinguisher system that destroys everything the fire would have?
 
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