Best Class A fire extinguisher

The title of the thread is a bit confusing, although I think I know what you are asking? Are you asking about the best extinguisher for class A fires? (wood, ordinary combustibles, etc) If that's the question, then the answer is a pressurized water extinguisher. Nothing puts out class A fire better than water with a little bit of foam to break up surface tension and penetrate the fuel.

But I think you're asking about the best extinguisher for a class A motorhome? Nothing special about class A motorhome fires, they are pretty much a house fire and a car fire all rolled into one, with a propane tank for extra fun and games. If I had a fire in an RV (motorhome type doesn't matter), attack the fire with an ABC extinguisher, as up close and personal as you safely can. With any portable extinguisher, getting close to the fire is key. Randomly spraying from a distance is totally ineffective. 2A10BC is a good compromise of cost, size and effectiveness. The bigger the number, the more fire it will put out. After you attack the fire (hopefully someone has called the FD) if you safely can turn off the battery master switch and turn off the propane. If I'm first in on an RV fire, while my guys are stretching a hoseline my first move is to find the propane and shut if off. If all this fails, stand back and call your insurance company. These things really burn.

Here's their update video. They highly recommend multiple fire extinguishers, but unless you want to carry it around with you at all times inside the RV, once a fire starts, there's very little time to do anything other the GTHO of the RV!

stripit wrote:
I carry 4 fire extinguishers of various types, but recently had the PROTENG supression system installed in my 40 ft Tiffin Bus. The install was very well done and it is costly, but should give us time to exit the rig should or if we have a fire.

I am glad you said it that way !

Gaseous fire suppression systems MAY not be capable of completely putting out some types of fires. Great on oil/grease. Good on electrical assuming the breaker trips. Not good on propane until the valve is turned off. Wood could potentially re-ignite once the gas disperses.

I carry 4 fire extinguishers of various types, but recently had the PROTENG supression system installed in my 40 ft Tiffin Bus. The install was very well done and it is costly, but should give us time to exit the rig should or if we have a fire. At least that is the plan. You can watch the videos and see how it operates Here

I have the Kidde fire extinguishers with 3.2 lbs of 'stuff' and the dial showing if it is still good. While pulling into a gas station towing my boat with my Class B I saw a car pull into the lot, not near the pumps, with smoke coming our from the engine. The guy and girl hopped out and opened the hood and flames were building. I got one of my extinguishers and ran over and put out the fire using the whole thing. I told him to go talk to the station attendants in case it restarted as they may have bigger extinguishers.

I have 2 extinguishers in my small RV, 1 on the boat and i in my kitchen. I've also given them as gifts to my siblings.

Frankly I am not sure I'd worry about it that much.

I did have a couple of aresoul can size Foam extinguishers (Still do) from Mac the Fire Guy (Well they are different ones now) Rated for all fires A B C type

But given that you will not burn to death in an RV fire (You will be dead long before you burn from the toxic smoke) if you have a fire. You have seconds to get outta dodge.. No time for the extinguisher less it's a very small fire.

That said I also carried 25 pounds of powder.

JCat wrote:
OK, here is my takeaway:

Don't bother with the extinguisher, get the hell out of the RV !

Did I miss anything ? :)

Yeah. Put the fire out while your buddy calls 911.

Other than that though…

If he'd had an automatic AFF extinguisher mounted in the generator compartment it may have smothered the fire or at least made it real obvious there was a problem. Any extinguisher is far better than no extinguisher.

OK, here is my takeaway:

Don't bother with the extinguisher, get the hell out of the RV !

Did I miss anything ? :)

A fire extinguisher is a feel good item. Unless you have one at hand when the fire starts it is worthless. The fumes from a fire will get you before the flames will. Modern materiels used in RV construction burn amaingly fast and put out fumes that will kill you faster.