Subject: Mt. Washington weekend

[Douglas Frank]

Frederick Smith wrote:
> 
> The rules are going to prohibit it's
> use next year due to the fact that the standard fire extinguishers and the
> workers are not equipped to deal with the methanol in the event
> of a fire. When methanol burns it's very hard to see the flames, if
> you look carefully you might see the heat waves that are produced by
> the "invisible" flame.

There were three meth. cars this year: Choiniere's, a sprint car, and one of
the vintages (the Buick, no. 130).

And there was indeed some confusion as to whether the fire bottles they give
us were any good on an alcohol fire.  Early on, the word was only plain water
would do any good.  By Sunday, consultation with the local firefighters (from
Gorham, I guess) cleared it up: ABC extinguishers *are* effective, but... not
all our bottles are labeled ABC.

I've never seen an alcohol car burn, but I expect there are lots of clues
besides the invisible flames.  One is, I kid you not... if the driver is
dancing with a dervish inside there....

--
Douglas Frank Compaq Computer Corp.
ZKO           110 Spit Brook Rd.       The older I get,
603-884-0501  Nashua, NH USA 03062       the better I was.