Hitchcocks Forum

This is not the only place I have posted this ...
Yesterday, for the first time, a bike I was working on caught fire when it spat back through the carb when I tried to start it. I tried to quickly put my hand over the intake, to snuff it out, but in doing so, knocked the petrol pipe off the open fuel tap and it quickly turned into an inferno. I tried to get the bike out of the workshop, but in my haste the bike got caught on the workshop door and I went sprawling outside, now on fire myself and flames billowing from the bike and engulfing the fuel tank. I really thought this might be the end and my Brother and Father were inside the workshop, behind the burning bike.
Luckily, there were fire extinguishers to hand and Ian and Dad used them and put the fire out before the burning bike's fuel tank, which was full, exploded.
I was very surprised at how quickly things went from 'normal' to 'very frightening' and possibly deadly - it was totally unexpected, but we all had a lucky escape.
Please, if you don't already have an extinguisher for your shed / garage / workshop, get one, I am pretty sure what we had could have saved our lives, as well as the bikes and workshop. Regards, Paul.

Due past incidents, I have a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket in the kitchen, and I always have a fire extinguisher close to hand in the garage. I also always take one when we go to motorcycle rallies, and leave it so those camping close by can access it quickly if necessary. (I also wear a belt and braces.)

When we moved to our current house our insurance company insisted on a fire extinguisher on every floor. I got a multiple deal and put one in the garage too. I haven't used it but I did have to beat a carb fire out on the Interceptor before the carb settings were properly dialled in. I think the idea of a fire blanket is a really good one and I will be getting one next. Thanks Paul for the timely reminder, glad you're safe! Be safe folks!

REgards, Mark

Very good post & a very valid point I always keep A 9 litre AFFF & 5 KG CO2 in the shed / workshop as well. Like you the flat I live in has a fire blanket & dry Powder extinguisher in the kitchen as well as smoke detectors. Please anyone reading this if you have not done so get some smoke detectors and minimum fire fighting equipment for a small cost it may save your life.

I have first aid kits in the workshop but never thought about a fire extinguisher.

That will be remedied this coming week!

A fire extinguisher usually gets a discount on insurance premiums. A full petrol tank is not likely to explode, a empty one would be more likely because of the fumes. An old trick to frighten a young apprentice would be to drop a lighted cigarette into a bucket of petrol which extinguished it like it was in water.

Leon, this full petrol tank was emptying via a pretty inaccessible fuel tap, which was open and feeding the flames [nasty Chinese bike] - the fuel pipe having been knocked off the tap by my trying to put my hand over the back of the carb to smother it. I really didn't want to stay close to it for too long, even if the tank may have been a little less likely to explode than if it were nearly empty. I am sure it could have exploded at some point and I am glad I didn't have to find out just when that might have been. Regards, Paul.

This situation made me think of Rudyard Kipling`s poem: If you can keep your head when all about you. Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, etc, etc.

If that is meant to be making some sort of joke out of it, fine if that's your thing. Back to my original point - fire extinguishers saved the day, us and lots of other stuff as well.

In a cackhanded sort of way that I kind of understood perhaps Leon was trying to make comment on the level headed way with which you and yours coped with a very scary,potentially lethal, situation.
BTW it is not just petrol, I had a milder situation with brake cleaner, stuff that I often use as a cleaning/degreasing agent, when I found out the hard way how flammable it is