The 'Maverick' Classic Porsche Forum and Classic Porsche Club for Porsche 356, Aircooled Porsche 911, Porsche 912, Porsche 914 & Porsche Replicas. 'We join for the cars but stay for the people'
I was trying to start my rotavator which had been sitting in the shed for a few years unused. I had removed the spark plug as I thought that it may be flooded, was holding a rag over the plug hole and pulled it over to see if there was much fuel in the cylinder. Petrol came gushing out all over me and the machine and BOOM flames everywhere. I had just drained the old fuel and refilled so the tank was full too. Even though I was covered in petrol luckily I didn't appear to be on fire. I tried to kick the petrol soaked rag away but after getting stuck to my shoe it ended up on fire under my pick up truck.
Luckily for me a friend had been clearing out a disused office only a few months ago and had aquired a truckload of large CO2 fire extinguishers and I had one of these in the garage - it quickly put the fire out on the rotavator and the burning rag under my truck.
I dread to think what could have happened if I hadn't had the fire extinguisher to hand - truck and 911 in the garage?
And to think I only had the extinguisher as it was given to me a couple of months ago!
I have subsequently got the rotavator running fine.
I am now going to get another co2 extinguisher for my other garage which is attached to my house as I currently only have a small domestic dry powder unit there.
I need to get one for the garage, this is a timely reminder! I've got one in every car we have and feel uneasy travelling in a vehicle without one nowadays. I've had call to use them a couple of times in my life and the consequences could've been much worse without.
