this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Keep in mind that fire extinguishers have a safe storage temperature. It varies from type to type but is generally at the 120-130 F range. Ironic.
So your extinguisher in your car is potentially regularly reaching that if you live in a hot climate and park outdoors. Which means you potentially have degraded performance and could even see a pressure/leakage issue if it continues too much.
So probably not a catastrophic failure (I mean... it is a fire extinguisher) but nowhere near as safe as you think. External motorbike one is probably fine though.
I have one that I keep with my camping gear as "just in case" but don't see much of a reason to keep it in my car's emergency bag. I figure if my car catches on fire I am fucked anyway.
I have a fire extinguisher in the car I got for autocross (it's mounted to the roll bar), but not my other cars.
I've always imagined that if I need to deploy my car's fire extinguisher, it is in aid of a fire somewhere along the road. I've personally never been in a car on fire, but I've seen three car fires on the highway and maybe a half dozen brush fires.
Here in flammable California, the best approach to fire is to not start them, and the next best is to put them out in their nascent stages. If me having a fire extinguisher at the right time and place means preventing untold destruction and misery, then there's little reason not to. Do I really expect to be that lone hero that stops the next catastrophic blaze? Definitely not, and I hope not to be. But it's an ounce of prevention and I'll do my part.
Oh hey, I've been that fire on the road! Luckily a good Samaritan came along with a fire extinguisher!
If it is a fire that you can see from the side of the road? It is probably big enough that one can isn't gonna do it (and also understand that fire extinguishers have a lot of chemicals that may not be good for the environment. And that not all forest fires are bad and many actually are healing the forest so that there aren't massive ones). Like, there is a reason that even the "My daddy and his daddy before him were fire fighters" guys are scared shitless of wildfires. They get REAL big REAL fast and they have a tendency to cut people off. Just call the fire department.
And if you somehow spot it while it is still tiny? Just use a jug of water in the back of your car which is a much better thing to carry around anyway.
Prevention is not roleplaying being a hero. Prevention is understanding what you can and can't do and making sure those who can get the information ASAP. And deciding you are whichever Baldwin was in Backdraft and rushing in with a degraded fire extinguisher that will mostly just drip toxic chemicals in the forest ain't it.