James Carlisle was riding his motorcycle to work when he saw flames erupt beneath the car in front of him.
The car pulled over to the side of the road, and James pulled his bike over about a hundred feet ahead.
He grabbed the fire extinguisher mounted on the back of his motorcycle and started toward the car.
“Don’t rush. Be careful,” he thought to himself. “If you get hurt trying to help, you’re no use to the emergency.”
When he reached the car, the driver was still inside, talking to her husband on the phone. All she knew was that her car had lost power.
“I was trying to tell her there was a fire under the car,” James recalls.
Flames from an oil fire licked along the bottom of the engine, spreading fast.
James has the calm, steady manner of someone you can rely on in an emergency. A retired Army veteran with 26 years of service and a former schoolteacher, he’s now a mechanic and part-owner of a BMW motorcycle dealership.
He’s logged more than 90,000 miles on his BMW touring bike (which happens to be a police model), and he’s carried a fire extinguisher for as long as he can remember.
“Car fires are not uncommon, no matter what the media would have you believe,” he says. “I’ve seen plenty of them on the side of the road.”
Vehicle fires are estimated to have caused more civilian deaths than nonresidential structure fires and residential apartment fires, according to the NFPA.
Between daily drivers and classic vehicles, James owns five vehicles, and he keeps five fire extinguishers.
“It used to be more common for people to carry extinguishers in their cars, especially collector cars,” he says. “I just think it’s the right thing to do.”
His dedication to being prepared made all the difference that day.
The driver heeded James’s warning and got out of the burning car. Seconds later, James had the fire completely out.
“The extinguisher was excellent,” James says. “The fire was out within about a third of the bottle. I kept going just for good measure.”
A few minutes later, her husband arrived, and police were on scene roughly six minutes after that.
By then, the situation was safe. But without an extinguisher, it could have turned catastrophic.
“We caught it early,” he says. “If we hadn’t been there, and the oil kept leaking out of the engine, the fire would have engulfed the entire car.”
James keeps an H3R MaxOut dry chemical extinguisher mounted beside his motorcycle’s license plate.
“I wanted something rugged that could live in the weather,” he explains. “Something that could be inspected and recharged if necessary.”
That refillability came in handy. Later that same day, the fire inspector who services James’s dealership paid a visit.
“I asked him if he could refill the fire extinguisher, and he said he could do it on-site. Thirty bucks, done,” James says. “I gave him a nice tip.”
Thanks to James’s calm response and preparation, a roadside fire that could have destroyed a vehicle was stopped in seconds.
For him, carrying a fire extinguisher isn’t about heroics. It’s about being ready when it matters.
“Get the best quality extinguisher you can find and put one wherever you might need it, whether it’s in your home, your garage, or your vehicle. It’s cheap insurance.”
— James Carlisle
Be Ready When It Matters
When every second counts, you need an extinguisher designed to perform. On the road, in the garage, and everywhere it counts.
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