On board fire control

[f1steveuk]

I've just been flicking through a pile of K7 pictures, mainly the roll out at Burrell Road, and in nearly every shot there's a Pyrene van. Which got me thinking, I don't recall seeing any notes regarding on board fire control. Is there any evidence that there was anything fitted in case of fire?

[Mike Bull]

Somebody wasn't paying attention to Pic Of The Day a short while back...

fire.jpg

[Renegadenemo]

There's a pair of extinguishers mounted under the tail cover on the left-hand side.

[f1steveuk]

I was a bit vague wasn't I? Sorry. What I meant is actual fire control, e.g, on an F1 car there are extinghuishers, but they have mutiple outlets, usually where trouble might be expected. Were K7's powder, gas, or chemical, and did they just go off or were they plumbed into a craftwide system of outlets?

[Renegadenemo]

Hi Steve,

There's a pair of bottles that I've always assumed contained some sort of foaming agent as they're not large capacity, probably about 4L each. They coule be fired manually from the cockpit or automatically by the 'fire-wire' draped through the engine compartment. If you look at a pic of K7 with her engine cover removed, look at the left-hand side and forward of the start bottles you'll see a half inch diameter pipe emerging vertically then turning through 45 degrees and ending over the inlet trunk with what looks like an aluminium flower on the end. That's the outlet for the suppressant and that pipe - ordinary copper pipe from the plumbers merchant - caused havoc all the way down the left side as it formed a 12ft long bloody battery between itself and any other metal near it and fizzed gently for 34 years. Oh yes, that tuppence-ha'penny bit of domestic plumbing is in mint condition but every frame tube, outrigger panel and bulkhead along its route had to be patched. I'll upload a pic when I can find one.

[f1steveuk]

I'm now just getting a mental picture of DC in the cockpit, "noddy" hat on, a tiny spark, and foam slowly growing out from under the bodywork like a giant Play-Doh machine!

[Renegadenemo]

I can only assume that the suppressant was intended to flood the whole engine bay and suffocate a fire because where the nozzle was pointing couldn't be much further away from the potential source of any fire.

[mtskull]

There's a pair of bottles that I've always assumed contained some sort of foaming agent

More likely that the extinguishing agent would be BCF if it was based on an aircraft system.

Getting hold of some of that these days will be a challenge, mind.

[Renegadenemo]

Getting hold of some of that these days will be a challenge, mind.

As it happens... whilst crawling about the innermost recesses of the Vulcan a few weeks back in search of rapid start valves...