Yes! I did a fire training course back in the old days when it involved a real fire extinguisher rather than just PowerPoint and it was interesting how many of us failed to put out a small fire in a cardboard box. You really do have to get close enough to aim at the base of the fire if you hope to achieve anything.
Also, if you fail to extinguish a fire with the first fire extinguisher, it's usually game over. It'll be much worse by the time you get back with another one.
Also a lot of people dramatically overestimate the abilities of a fire extinguisher.
A regular extinguisher will put out a bit of burning paper or your cats tail on fire, but when a set of curtains is on fire you should probably just evacuate.
The local fire department did training at a previous place I worked where we each put out a fire with a refillable fire extengishable that squirted water instead of chemicals. I'm sure it wasn't a perfect simulation, but that strikes me as a reasonable middle ground for training non-firefighters.
The best thing is that a fire estinguisher costs like 10€, one of the small ones. You can just go light a fire where it's allowed and put it out. And maybe do it multiple times for every family member.
Still cheaper than going to the movies and more fun for the kids =)
Your local boy scouts almost certainly have a working relationship with their local fire department that results in the FD taking them to wherever they train once every couple years and going through all those motions and more.
A 5lb dry extinguisher in the right hands can put out one of those oval stock tanks full of burning diesel, twice.
We had (optional) safety training when I worked at Square, which included CPR training, going over office evacuation procedures, etc. One of the most fun parts was they had a virtual fire extinguisher training, which involved basically a video game fire extinguisher controller to put out a fire on a tv. It’s definitely not as exciting as using a real fire extinguisher training, but can also be done in an office meeting room.
"ALSO EVERY AIRPORT SHOULD HAVE MOCK EMERGENCY AIRPLANE DOORS FOR PEOPLE TO TRY OUT."
I would pay money for this in the safety amusement park, but in real life way more people would get hurt operating the fake one at the airport than we'd help in real emergencies. Plane crashes where the emergency exit gets operated are so rare they effectively don't happen.
I had the opportunity to deploy (and use!) a slide at a Lufthansa event, super cool experience but given that just the slide deployment probably cost them over $30k I can’t really see it being a common thing.
Of course just opening an exit door replica you could do for ~free
I think the mock exit door would only be interesting with the corresponding emergency slide. The only problem is that in almost all cases where the emergency slide has been deployed and used, at least some passengers have been injured beyond a minor scrape - think severe sprains and tears, a broken bone, etc.
The purpose of the slide is to 1) empty the plane _very_ quickly 2) without causing a life threatening injury. Most people are not going to be injured using it, but some will and it's not really worth the small chance your leg gets fucked up forever from being ejected the wrong way.
Ah, you have intrusive thoughts as well. I mention it only to say that someone at my local grocery does not, based on the fact they thought to type up, print and post a sign saying PLEASE DO NOT POKE THE WATERMELONS thinking that would lead to a decrease in watermelon finger strikes.
Sounds like they're having issues with people thinking you can poke, prod, or drum on watermelons to check "ripeness" but it got lost in translation to "non-confromtstional."
Safety mechanisms are often inherently unsafe, because they are safer than the alternative, so you don't want people playing with them.
e.g. You cat cut yourself on the glass of a fire alarm, or break an ankle on an emergency exit slide.
Safety mechanisms are not inherently unsafe. A very small minority that leverage fast-deploying mechanics are, however the majority of safety is neutral. Life vests, eye protection, fall harness, emergency brake, electrical gloves, etc don't actively harm the person.
This is an obvious and simple idea and definitely should be driven by the FAA. Also, make sure the door goes somewhere cold like a freezer. Too many passengers dress for their destination airport and not their destination climate.
> I've never broke / pulled a fire alarm, I'm sure I can, but let me.
Man. I did as a kid in school.
I did some stupid "I am not touching it" games on the glass front and that button sucked itself in like I was opening a hatch on ISS. "Push hard" my ass.
Firefighters popped up, I was so embarrassed to apologize to teachers, firefighters, school principal and even colleagues who complained for some reason about the unscheduled break. It wasn't even cold outside then!
My dad knew the right people and somehow bailed me out, but I still feel awkward passing by their main station where I also had to show up to explain myself. That was effing 35y ago, roughly!
I mean, I am mostly over it. But I wouldn't call it a win :)
The article glides over the fact that FMVSS 226 is a performance standard, not a materials mandate. Manufacturers can stick with tempered glass if they beef up the side curtain airbags enough to prevent ejection, which is exactly what happens on a lot of base models and rear windows to keep BOM costs down. The list of brands using laminated glass is accurate, but it applies mostly to their premium trims or front rows only.
There is also the issue of fleet turnover. With the average age of US vehicles pushing 13 years, the install base is still overwhelmingly tempered glass. Writing off the tool entirely because new luxury cars have moved on ignores the reality of what people are actually driving. You are statistically much more likely to be trapped in a 2012 Civic than a 2025 S-Class.
The smartest thing to do would be to check your car’s windows for any indication (the AAA report, page 19, cited in the article has examples) of whether they’re laminated or tempered. AFAICT, whether my new-ish Subaru Ascent’s windows are laminated depends on location (front or rear) and installation differs between the Ascent trims. Best to check for your specific car and where you’re likeliest to be sitting.
If you can afford an 2025 S-class you can afford to fly for medium distance travel, you probably aren't slogging out a long commute because you live in one of those rich inner suburbs. You leave the house at reasonable hours and get home at reasonable hours, etc, etc.
There's all sorts of stuff that's just a proxy for generalized correlation with wealth and wealthy lifestyles.
> The article glides over the fact that FMVSS 226 is a performance standard, not a materials mandate.
Nope. The article states the following just after the table:
> It's true that not all automakers have switched over to laminated glass for the side windows; the FMVSS 226 law stipulates that you can get around it if you install elaborate side airbags that also prevent ejection.
As the grandparent points out, although the article says that, the actual regulation does not. The regulation says you have to prevent side ejections, it doesn’t say how. You can read it yourself:
> Ejection mitigation countermeasure means a device or devices, except seat belts, integrated into the vehicle that reduce the likelihood of occupant ejection through a side window opening, and that requires no action by the occupant for activation.
Lamination and side airbags seem to be the way it’s usually done today, but nothing prevents a better way.
Disclosure: I work for a car company, not on this.
If you want to be prepared for automotive incidents:
1. Check your mood and intoxication level before and while driving. Mood is more important than everything besides drugs and alcohol.
2. Left turns (or across traffic as applicable) are dangerous. Take extra care while turning left (or across traffic).
3. Using screens at night is bad for everyone, but especially above the age of 40, both focus and iris (light balance) response take longer. Using a screen changes your focus and blows out your night vision.
4. If your car has pushbutton electronic door openers, PRACTICE opening the door without battery power.
It's not a bad feature. My fancy car has them, and it can watch for traffic and stop/slow you opening the door if there's a car coming up that maybe you didn't see (or look for).
And on mine, the same handle that you push to open with electricity will also open manually if you pull it twice. Which is handy, because the 12v battery failed in the first year. Feels like 12v batteries are a lot less reliable lately.
Getting in from the outside with the manual handle isn't so obvious, it's kind of hidden at the back of the handle.
>3. Using screens at night is bad for everyone, but especially above the age of 40, both focus and iris (light balance) response take longer. Using a screen changes your focus and blows out your night vision.
On that note, if anyone with Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, et al. would like to revisit the way their apps handle ride assignment - specifically, the way platforms generally refuse to assign orders when the car is stationary, but then inundate contractors with notifications that must be responded to immediately when the car is in motion - it'd be much appreciated.
One of my pet peeves about screen UIs is that they're worse than they need to be for night use. Modern dark themes are blue-heavy, which negatively impacts both pupil response and bleaching more than colors of the same luminance with more green and red.
There should be two dark modes: a simple dark mode, like most dark themes today, to work in dimmed lighting, and an actual night mode, designed to be legible but not mess with adaptation in total darkness. I don't know the research on this (and I'm sure military and aviation have lots of data here), but intuitively it should use mostly thin red and green lines.
Funnily enough the first comment in the article is "oh yeah, if you're in Tesla good fucking luck, their doors fail and the releases are incredibly hard to find in emergency"
I didn't find them hard to find (in the front seat). When I first got my car it kept complaining because I instinctively reached for that lever instead of the button. The computer claimed I could break the window if I kept using the manual lever, and I had to figure out where the button was.
Not saying the car is great, just that I found the door lever easily. I'd still rather have real controls (and a real sensor) for the wipers and the reliance on software and software updates makes me very nervous. You can't even open the glove box without a voice command or touch screen (as far as I can tell).
Regarding screens: also make sure to configure the brightness correctly! I was recently driving with a relative in their new car at night, and the screen for navigation etc. was bright enough that I could see noticeably less than I'm used to. Turns out the screen does have separate brightness settings for day & night, but the night setting was at 4/10 per default (compared to 6/10 for the day setting). After lowering it to 1/10 the screen is still easily readable, and suddenly it's easy to see dark stuff again!
Any mood intense enough is extremely distracting and dangerous for driving, whether anger, infatuation, mourning, etc.
Because of this some countries have psychological testing to check your emotional stability when you get your license renewed, but realistically your emotions will be compromised for short durations much more often than that.
The test is a long term ( 15-30 minutes ) strict focus test. You don't have time to fully check everything you do on it, so you do your best and the psychologist verifies both that you have a sufficient ability to focus as a % of tasks reasonably responded to, and that you don't have large "emotional gaps" in your responses where your mind wandered to your bonnie for 45 seconds and you didn't interact with the tasks much or at all.
None of these glass breakers are any good at what they're supposed to do anyways, I'd wager all of their websites delinate that they are for tempered glass only. What you want is porcelain or ceramic.
Unfortunately, afaik, porclean/cermaic glass breakers are illegal in most states. They are "Burglary Tools".
Nothing wrong with keeping a box of spark plugs in your center console though
A ceramic glass breaker isn't going to be any better than the metal tools on laminated glass, breaking the glass is only half the battle, you've still got to get through the intact glass pane held in place by the plastic laminate.
>Nothing wrong with keeping a box of spark plugs in your center console though
But then you've got to keep a tool to break the spark plug to give you a sharp ceramic shard to get through the glass.
That old spark plug thing was from when cars had tempered side windows, wasn't it? I don't see how those would be particularly effective at dealing with lamination.
I fail to see how any of your suggestions are going to do any better on laminated glass. Breaking the glass isn’t the problem here, it’s the lamination.
I bought a fire extinguisher recently but I’ve never used one. I have a faint idea of how it works and what kind of result I’d get based on what I’ve seen on TV. But if a serious fire ever breaks out I don’t even know if I’d even remember to grab and use it.
In a "serious" fire you should ignore the fire extinguisher get everyone out of the building.
Fire extinguishers are for small fires! If a little oil in your frying pan catches on fire and you don't have a lid readily available to smother it, use a fire extinguisher. But if your smoke alarm wakes you up and you discover your whole kitchen on fire, get out. The fire extinguisher will not help in that situation, and it may cause you to waste time. (Tip: If and only if the fire extinguisher is easily available, carry it with you as you exit. You might need it to use it clear a path to get out.)
A fire extinguisher is to clear a safe path to the exit if the fire blocks it. never put them by the exit door as I see so many people do (in their garrage)
they can also be used on small fires but only if there is a safe escape route. (This is probably the most common use but not the primary use)
If you have an old one that you want to get rid of, it's a good idea to set up a controlled fire and try out your extinguisher on it. That way you can get some experience.
Really though, it mostly is just pull pin -> aim low (at the base and source of the fire) -> squeeze until extinguished. Sweep the nozzle from side to side to get proper coverage.
They're intended to be used by anyone with no training, so there's not much to go wrong (assuming you haven't bought the wrong type and use it on an oil fire, although most of the ones I see for sale for consumers are the powder kind, which work on anything. The water ones are the worst, and I've never seen one).
As someone who has found themselves in a situation out in the wild with a fire and a fire extinguisher (neither of which were mine), with no direct extinguisher experience, you can take some solace in that they work very easily. They're not some wild hose that going to send you around the room. There's very little force. And you can simply fire it in bursts. It takes no time to get a feel for it and use it with precision.
If you find yourself with a fire and an extinguisher, do not hesitate to pull the pin, and go to it. You'll figure it out. In the end, you can't really make the situation worse.
If you're in the U.S., you might check if your local fire department has a CERT[0] training course. (I did it many years ago in San Francisco; they call it NERT for some reason.)
It'll give you a chance to practice putting out an actual fire, refresh first aid skills, learn the incident command system, learn basic search and rescue, and other preparedness skills to help yourself, your family, and neighbors in an emergency (in that order).
If you are looking to practice, the MythBusters said a fire extinguisher was an excellent way to quickly cool a case of beer. So, you can make it a $30 party trick and a teaching moment.
Water extinguishers are almost completely useless.
I once had a go at putting out a fire in a waste paper bin with a water extinguisher, as part of a fire safety course. The burning paper just floated on the water as the bin filled up.
CO2 extinguishers are more effective. But I believe you have to be careful where you hold it or your skin may freeze onto it.
The time you want water is when something that water can soak into is on fire. Sofas, curtains, bedding, bookshelves, carpets, filing cabinets full of paper, etc.
The water soaks in and prevents the fire re-igniting. 30 years ago, workplaces contained a lot more filing cabinets and bookshelves, and smoking was more common.
CO2 is non-conductive, and less messy. It's also great at flowing around things, making it good for spraying through vents into electrical cabinets and car engines. Downside is the CO2 dissipates within a few seconds, so if the material is prone to re-igniting it's not such a good choice.
Dry powder is in between - the powder stays around, but doesn't soak in. It's a good choice if you're only going to get one extinguisher.
Water extinguishers are incredibly useful for putting out small incidental fires that can result from hot work without making a big mess. The kind of stuff you'd just move outside or let burn out rather than discharge a powder extinguisher over.
Nobody is whipping out a dry-chem extinguisher because the leaves under the workbench caught on fire from welding sparks.
A couple years ago somebody parked a stolen car in front of our building, stuffed a rag in the fuel filler, and lit it. I must have pulled up just a couple minutes after they had left. Grabbed the fire extinguisher I kept under the seat and put it out. I had that extinguisher around for about 5 years. You never know when you'll need it.
My son picked up and used one effectively having about the same level of experience you do (none, but he knew the basic idea and had read the label). Can’t remember if he was 7 or 8 at the time, but either way I’m pretty sure you’ll be ok.
I mean, still doesn’t hurt to get more familiar, but…
I've used one (in training). Works great, nice clean cuts, but still a little slow. Quicker to just use an axe which, if you're a firefighter, you have handy. (Carefully chop around the perimeter of the windshield or side window. Use gentle blows to minimize dispersion of broken glass within the cabin.)
Similar experience with a 2010 Honda Odyssey, drove it for 10 years and never saw a crack even though I'm sure it took a beating.
Then we got a 2022 Passport and I swear every single trip has a new crack or chip. I was surprisingly fortunate to be talked into the windshield warranty as the sales guy has been through this exact thing and replacing these windshields with assistive tech is expensive. That warranty has already paid for itself and more including once full windshield replacement.
Huh, odd. I have a car with assistive controls and they also tried to talk me into this warranty but I declined. They mentioned replacement would require extra money.
I did end up getting a windshield replacement shortly after purchase (like 6 months into ownership a rock came out of a truck and hit my windshield). I got it replaced for the normal $100-$200 not from the dealership and the vision system has had no issues.
The table from the report shows that the tools do crack the window but don't break it. Which is probably the main difference between old glass and the newer layered glass? If you crack an outer layer it is no longer usable, but you can't escape through it.
Laminated glass does not prevent routine stone chip events – if a tiny fragment of the stone becomes wedged in the outer ply or at the laminate interface at a tension point and, coupled with the temperature difference (inside the cabin vs ambient), cabin pressure and body flex that often place higher tensile stress lower on the windscreen, the crack can start propagating very quickly.
That was my experience earlier in the year: I was driving alongside a large fuel tanker on a city road when a tiny stone chip, probably thrown up from under the tanker’s tyres, struck the front windscreen. It took about an 1 ½ hour for the initially invisible crack to spread into an irreparable 30 cm one – effectively right in front of my eyes – and the windscreen had to be replaced. Lesson learned: do not drive anywhere near large trucks or fuel tankers or maintain a larger distance.
But the laminated glass will prevent the structural collapse of the windshield and will also prevent the occupants from being showered with glass shards. It is also more likely that the windshield will withstand an impact from a large stone, leaving a localised and static crack that can be repaired with resin.
> ...and will also prevent the occupants from being showered with glass shards.
Hasn't it been the case for a long time now that glass in automobiles is coated so that it breaks into small, generally-square fragments, rather than shards?
I've never smashed a window myself, but every couple of months, I see the remains of a window smashing on the sidewalk... it's always a pile of small, generally-square fragments.
My memory tells me that this design was mandated long ago because folks would get shards embedded in them effectively forever. One of my parents related a story that one of the parents up the tree would irregularly have to extract migrating glass shards breaking through the skin of his face that had been embedded during an automobile accident many years prior. But, perhaps that story is bullshit and completely fabricated, IDK.
Usually the glass companies force you to pay it. For “safety”. It’s just a “you have a nice car so we’re gonna charge you more” fee.
I’ll probably be doing my own windshield on my Tesla to avoid this. Safelight has decent prices but whacks you with a huge fee for pressing “calibrate” in the service menu, which is user accessible.
Readit News
I've never broke / pulled a fire alarm, I'm sure I can, but let me.
ALSO EVERY AIRPORT SHOULD HAVE MOCK EMERGENCY AIRPLANE DOORS FOR PEOPLE TO TRY OUT.
Also, if you fail to extinguish a fire with the first fire extinguisher, it's usually game over. It'll be much worse by the time you get back with another one.
A regular extinguisher will put out a bit of burning paper or your cats tail on fire, but when a set of curtains is on fire you should probably just evacuate.
Still cheaper than going to the movies and more fun for the kids =)
-How to put out a cooker fire with a fire blanket.
-How to use a fire extinguisher.
-How to cut a seat belt.
-How to break a window.
etc
Could be quite a fun day out. I would definitely pay for something like that for me and my family.
A 5lb dry extinguisher in the right hands can put out one of those oval stock tanks full of burning diesel, twice.
I would pay money for this in the safety amusement park, but in real life way more people would get hurt operating the fake one at the airport than we'd help in real emergencies. Plane crashes where the emergency exit gets operated are so rare they effectively don't happen.
Of course just opening an exit door replica you could do for ~free
https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/dishing-out-anti-s...
The purpose of the slide is to 1) empty the plane _very_ quickly 2) without causing a life threatening injury. Most people are not going to be injured using it, but some will and it's not really worth the small chance your leg gets fucked up forever from being ejected the wrong way.
Man. I did as a kid in school. I did some stupid "I am not touching it" games on the glass front and that button sucked itself in like I was opening a hatch on ISS. "Push hard" my ass. Firefighters popped up, I was so embarrassed to apologize to teachers, firefighters, school principal and even colleagues who complained for some reason about the unscheduled break. It wasn't even cold outside then!
My dad knew the right people and somehow bailed me out, but I still feel awkward passing by their main station where I also had to show up to explain myself. That was effing 35y ago, roughly!
I mean, I am mostly over it. But I wouldn't call it a win :)
There is also the issue of fleet turnover. With the average age of US vehicles pushing 13 years, the install base is still overwhelmingly tempered glass. Writing off the tool entirely because new luxury cars have moved on ignores the reality of what people are actually driving. You are statistically much more likely to be trapped in a 2012 Civic than a 2025 S-Class.
This is probably also very much true on a per mile basis.
There's all sorts of stuff that's just a proxy for generalized correlation with wealth and wealthy lifestyles.
Nope. The article states the following just after the table:
> It's true that not all automakers have switched over to laminated glass for the side windows; the FMVSS 226 law stipulates that you can get around it if you install elaborate side airbags that also prevent ejection.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.226
> Ejection mitigation countermeasure means a device or devices, except seat belts, integrated into the vehicle that reduce the likelihood of occupant ejection through a side window opening, and that requires no action by the occupant for activation.
Lamination and side airbags seem to be the way it’s usually done today, but nothing prevents a better way.
If you want to be prepared for automotive incidents:
1. Check your mood and intoxication level before and while driving. Mood is more important than everything besides drugs and alcohol.
2. Left turns (or across traffic as applicable) are dangerous. Take extra care while turning left (or across traffic).
3. Using screens at night is bad for everyone, but especially above the age of 40, both focus and iris (light balance) response take longer. Using a screen changes your focus and blows out your night vision.
4. If your car has pushbutton electronic door openers, PRACTICE opening the door without battery power.
Please stop building cars with this "feature." We honestly should make them illegal.
And on mine, the same handle that you push to open with electricity will also open manually if you pull it twice. Which is handy, because the 12v battery failed in the first year. Feels like 12v batteries are a lot less reliable lately.
Getting in from the outside with the manual handle isn't so obvious, it's kind of hidden at the back of the handle.
On that note, if anyone with Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, et al. would like to revisit the way their apps handle ride assignment - specifically, the way platforms generally refuse to assign orders when the car is stationary, but then inundate contractors with notifications that must be responded to immediately when the car is in motion - it'd be much appreciated.
https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/2020_2024_modely/en_us/GU...
Not saying the car is great, just that I found the door lever easily. I'd still rather have real controls (and a real sensor) for the wipers and the reliance on software and software updates makes me very nervous. You can't even open the glove box without a voice command or touch screen (as far as I can tell).
Any mood intense enough is extremely distracting and dangerous for driving, whether anger, infatuation, mourning, etc.
Because of this some countries have psychological testing to check your emotional stability when you get your license renewed, but realistically your emotions will be compromised for short durations much more often than that.
The test is a long term ( 15-30 minutes ) strict focus test. You don't have time to fully check everything you do on it, so you do your best and the psychologist verifies both that you have a sufficient ability to focus as a % of tasks reasonably responded to, and that you don't have large "emotional gaps" in your responses where your mind wandered to your bonnie for 45 seconds and you didn't interact with the tasks much or at all.
Dead Comment
Unfortunately, afaik, porclean/cermaic glass breakers are illegal in most states. They are "Burglary Tools".
Nothing wrong with keeping a box of spark plugs in your center console though
>Nothing wrong with keeping a box of spark plugs in your center console though
But then you've got to keep a tool to break the spark plug to give you a sharp ceramic shard to get through the glass.
...unless you're demonstrating unbreakable cybertruck glass to the world.
Fire extinguishers are for small fires! If a little oil in your frying pan catches on fire and you don't have a lid readily available to smother it, use a fire extinguisher. But if your smoke alarm wakes you up and you discover your whole kitchen on fire, get out. The fire extinguisher will not help in that situation, and it may cause you to waste time. (Tip: If and only if the fire extinguisher is easily available, carry it with you as you exit. You might need it to use it clear a path to get out.)
they can also be used on small fires but only if there is a safe escape route. (This is probably the most common use but not the primary use)
We were told to just toss a large cloth on the fire in such cases.
Really though, it mostly is just pull pin -> aim low (at the base and source of the fire) -> squeeze until extinguished. Sweep the nozzle from side to side to get proper coverage.
They're intended to be used by anyone with no training, so there's not much to go wrong (assuming you haven't bought the wrong type and use it on an oil fire, although most of the ones I see for sale for consumers are the powder kind, which work on anything. The water ones are the worst, and I've never seen one).
nozzle gets veeery cold as gas expands, so you can get frost burns
If you find yourself with a fire and an extinguisher, do not hesitate to pull the pin, and go to it. You'll figure it out. In the end, you can't really make the situation worse.
It'll give you a chance to practice putting out an actual fire, refresh first aid skills, learn the incident command system, learn basic search and rescue, and other preparedness skills to help yourself, your family, and neighbors in an emergency (in that order).
[0]: https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/individuals-communit...
Also, we never used a seatbelt ripper -- they don't work. All first responders carrier trauma shears. Those do work and have multiple purposes.
[1] https://fireextinguisherdepot.com/carbon-dioxide-fire-exting...
I once had a go at putting out a fire in a waste paper bin with a water extinguisher, as part of a fire safety course. The burning paper just floated on the water as the bin filled up.
CO2 extinguishers are more effective. But I believe you have to be careful where you hold it or your skin may freeze onto it.
Get a fire blanket for your kitchen.
The water soaks in and prevents the fire re-igniting. 30 years ago, workplaces contained a lot more filing cabinets and bookshelves, and smoking was more common.
CO2 is non-conductive, and less messy. It's also great at flowing around things, making it good for spraying through vents into electrical cabinets and car engines. Downside is the CO2 dissipates within a few seconds, so if the material is prone to re-igniting it's not such a good choice.
Dry powder is in between - the powder stays around, but doesn't soak in. It's a good choice if you're only going to get one extinguisher.
Nobody is whipping out a dry-chem extinguisher because the leaves under the workbench caught on fire from welding sparks.
I mean, still doesn’t hurt to get more familiar, but…
https://www.aoe.net/product/the-ripper-window-glass-cutter/
https://www.lifelinerescuetools.com/products/lifeline-escape...
https://www.ajaxrescuetools.com/prod-20-1-127-28/extrication...
3 of them are mine, my 2002 car has taken huge rocks like a champ…
Its big glass im telling you, esp because the recalibration stuff for Assistive Steering is like 7-800 bucks.
Then we got a 2022 Passport and I swear every single trip has a new crack or chip. I was surprisingly fortunate to be talked into the windshield warranty as the sales guy has been through this exact thing and replacing these windshields with assistive tech is expensive. That warranty has already paid for itself and more including once full windshield replacement.
I did end up getting a windshield replacement shortly after purchase (like 6 months into ownership a rock came out of a truck and hit my windshield). I got it replaced for the normal $100-$200 not from the dealership and the vision system has had no issues.
That was my experience earlier in the year: I was driving alongside a large fuel tanker on a city road when a tiny stone chip, probably thrown up from under the tanker’s tyres, struck the front windscreen. It took about an 1 ½ hour for the initially invisible crack to spread into an irreparable 30 cm one – effectively right in front of my eyes – and the windscreen had to be replaced. Lesson learned: do not drive anywhere near large trucks or fuel tankers or maintain a larger distance.
But the laminated glass will prevent the structural collapse of the windshield and will also prevent the occupants from being showered with glass shards. It is also more likely that the windshield will withstand an impact from a large stone, leaving a localised and static crack that can be repaired with resin.
Hasn't it been the case for a long time now that glass in automobiles is coated so that it breaks into small, generally-square fragments, rather than shards?
I've never smashed a window myself, but every couple of months, I see the remains of a window smashing on the sidewalk... it's always a pile of small, generally-square fragments.
My memory tells me that this design was mandated long ago because folks would get shards embedded in them effectively forever. One of my parents related a story that one of the parents up the tree would irregularly have to extract migrating glass shards breaking through the skin of his face that had been embedded during an automobile accident many years prior. But, perhaps that story is bullshit and completely fabricated, IDK.
Yeesh at that point I'd just be buying a Comma.
I’ll probably be doing my own windshield on my Tesla to avoid this. Safelight has decent prices but whacks you with a huge fee for pressing “calibrate” in the service menu, which is user accessible.