fire ports for hoods?

[tom91ita]

Recently I saw a port with extinguisher symbols on the engine cover for a pay loader at work.

You can see the style at; Fire Port (www.marineeast.com)

Having had a fire under the hood of my car and seeing the difficulty of pulling hood pins of a hot hood, having one or two ports on our hoods seems like a reasonable rule.

 

[dickita15]

interesting idea although i am not sure necessary. i spent a lot of years working corners and never had a problem with hoods with pins. now i have seen problems with cars that still run stock remote releases. kind of a pain to crawl around inside a car with a cage to find a interior release.

 

[Chip42]

I came in expecting "ports" to be the big holes as required in most demo derby cars. and I was going to say somethgin about "possibly a good idea but oh, the intorturation and unintended uses!!! (airbox feed, vent, etc...)" but this... this actually looks like a good idea. I wouldnt be trying to make it mandatory but certainly am interested in trying it, especially since my car's hood pins and hood are a bit of a bear to deal with for those who do not know how it works (there are no hinges, the cage interrupts the hood at low lift angles on the MR2 so we have it slip into hooks) and is hard to handle when hot, much less on fire.

 

[Matt93SE]

In addition to Dick's comments, I always keep a pair of nomex gloves in my corner worker kit, and most (if not all) experienced workers will have some sort of heat resistant glove on the corner. If someone rolls up to my station with a car on fire, I'm not running out there bare-handed unless the cockpit itself is on fire and there's no time to grab gloves and put them on while running-- if I'm not wearing them already.

That said, remember that the main goal of a fire suppression system is to keep the fire down enough to give the driver time to exit the car. Once the driver is out, I don't care if the car burns to the ground. If it's a small enough fire that can be put out by a fire bottle, then great. but the task of the corner crews (and the EV crews for that matter) is to ensure the safety of the drivers first, then to attempt to put out the fire second.
As a driver, I know we all have a huge investment in our cars- both financial and emotional. I'll save the thing if I can, but first I'm dragging your ass out of the car and then I'll think about putting out the fire.

In the 3 REAL fires I've seen causing a car to stop on course, the corner crews used every fire bottle on station before the EV arrived, and then the EV blew their load onto the fire, and the damn thing was still burning. Every one of those cars burned to the ground.. I don't think a port like this would have helped those situations, BUT they certainly wouldn't have hurt it...

 

[tom91ita]

I don't know if necessary either. I was just struck that it was a device used in other applications that might have a race application.

The good is that just insert and pull pin on extinguiser. The bad is that you will not see the flames directly. But also keeps the barrier between the worker and the fire.

Might be able to intortuate and install as safety equipment.....

Just thought I'd post it up for discussion.

 

[Matt93SE]

I don't see any reason NOT to install them, but I can't imagine it changing the results of an engine fire a whole lot.

For boats, it's a bit of a different beast. the cowls for those things are usually huge and hard to remove while on the water. The engine bays are also quote enclosed so there's no ground beneath to feed air to the fire. If you have a fire on a boat, it's often a life-or-death situation, so being able to put the fire out quickly is a huge advantage.

All that said, it certainly can't hurt to have one and I wouldn't have any sort of gripe if I saw them on a competitors car, unless there were a dozen dimpling the hood like golf balls.