Layouts, Fire Safety, Flammable Foam, Trees, Fire Extinguishers for Home & Layout

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Was planning to use foam insulation for layout on an un-insulated back porch, had not thought about fire safety but read that it is very flammable. Recommendation is covering it with at least 1/2 inch of plaster wallboard in garage insides. It may be something many homeowners, modelers don’t think about, for layout room or home.

It is like getting a fire extinguisher for the car, UNTIL there is a leaky fuel injector under the hood in your car, and a under hood fire. Happened to me one morning in Burbank, at Burbank Blvd. off ramp after exit from I-5.

It may be something modelers & homeowners or apartment Dwellers don’t consider, a couple of fire extinguishers, one for home, another for layout room, or each floor of a house. More so if the house has several floors, laundry room, dishwasher, microwave, the like. Guess my questions were raised by “Money Pit” radio program this morning, and marking a foam sheet for the porch panel insert into the metal wall.

Worse still if you, family member is a smoker.

I can “see” or visualize ADs in MRR for readily available items, or mentions in project tables, more so for regulations for Club layouts.

I recall the USAF having fire extinguishers on every floor, group of rooms in a bay of rooms.

Never seen anything in MRR about it, fire burning your layout & train collection that took years to gather.

Some small reminder and downloadable thing would be a service to all. It could happen to any of us, not focused the entire home safety issues.

Regards, Tom Roscoe

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2

Foam insulation will burn, but then so will wooden tables.

The placement of fire extinguishers is PRIMARILY to help people escape from a burning building rather then to put out fires. (Yeah… That is why they are required near the exits!!!)

Well if you think about it, you rush IN to rescue people, and you want to be sure you have a fire extinguisher with you.

In the train room, yes it will put out a small fire, before it becomes a big fire. There IS a fire extinguisher in my train room, but then I live in a high occupancy multiple building place, and fire stuff is all part of the thing.

All of our guest rooms have smoke detectors, and in the monastery proper, all living quarters have both sprinklers and smoke detectors.

Yes, I have had a couple of small fires on the layout (Track resistors over heating and catching fire) Not pleasant! but of course I am right there and can cut track power from any point around the layout. That will usually put out a resistor fire, if not, I can blow it out like a match.

Must make note to that LION to put in 3A fuses on the track line. The power pack supplies 15 amps, and so a small short is not seen by the power pack at all.

Play Safe. Play by the Rules!

Actually, the insurance inspector was more worried about the accumulation of trash on the floor than anything else.

ROAR

3

The two Biggest Model RR Fire Prevention Tips

  1. When leaving the layout, cut power to everything.

  2. Most fires start from work on the layout and various tools and chemicals used to do it. So you are generally right there to see it happen. Know what you’re doing, don’t leave it unattended, and keep a suitable fire extinguisher handy.

I won’t argue over styrofoam. If you use it, you need to stay aware of it. Most of mine is covered on top with Sculptamold, but underneath is more exposure than I care to think about. See Rules 1 and 2. Ain’t no way to drywall the underside of a layout.[:o)][soapbox]

4

I have a all purpose,chemical 5lb,fire extinguisher,under the side of my bed,30yrs. now,checked every year,free at our local Fire Dept…Two gigantic ones in the garage,for I did a lot of welding,torch,mig and stick…In a house fire,you want to be able to get out,that is the main thing…Material things can be replaced,you can’t,or family members…

Cheers,

Frank

5

I don’t obsess about fire safety, for several good reasons.

  1. I have firefighting training, including ship and aircraft fires. (You CAN extinguish a petroleum fire with water - IF you put it on with a low-velocity fog nozzle.)
  2. I have a, “One switch kills all,” layout electrical system. When the layout room door closes the layout is electrically dead.
  3. I have two dry powder fire extinguishers, one next to the door (and the kill switch,) one at the most active operating/building site.
  4. I don’t smoke, and I don’t use any kind of open flame in my modelwork.
  5. I am VERY conscious of the location and orientation of my soldering tools.

After looking over my layout, and my living room, I’ve concluded that my living room is probably more fire-prone than my layout. Lots of fabric (almost none treated to be fire resistant) and paper (loosely folded or not too neatly stacked.) Electronic devices that are on standby even when switched off. NO fire extinguisher handy…

OTOH, I’ve lived 76 years without setting fire to anything that wasn’t supposed to burn. Guess I’ve been doing something right…

Chuck (Former USAF Quality Control aircraft and facilities inspector modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

6

I did a study on fires and model railroads. There has never been a fire caused by the model railroad itself (at least none that have ever had a fire department response. It is almost impossible to start an electrical fire under normal circumstances (this is direct from the fire forensics labs and they go on to say that the electrical fires reported in regular house wiring by fire departments are in error (look it up). As far as foam, the way we use it, it doesn’t burn as easily as some people would have you believe, in fact mine is beaded foam and you can set a small fire up on it and it will melt and go out (I did real world experiments), soldering irons will just melt it and burning matches barely melt the stuff before they go out.

7

Tom:

The subject is important. We all need a reminder once in a while.

My wife chuckles at me when I insist that all small appliances be unplugged when not in use. Same with corded power tools. It bugs me a bit to leave my cordless lawnmower plugged in 24/7 when not in use. Same with all the rechargers most of us have throughout the house.

Anyhow, a while ago I installed a bunch of GFIs (Ground Fault Interrupters) throughout the house. Never thought about them, that is until the one on the deck cut out after a really heavy rain two days ago. I will have to figure out where the water got into the circuit. Without the GFI there may not have been a fire, but it certainly would have stood your hair on end if you hit the switch when you were standing in the right puddle.[:O][(-D]

Dave

8

“Better safe than sorry” they say. Of course fire extinguishers are a good idea. So are smoke detectors, CO2 monitors, egress windows, and anything else that helps to save your butt when things go wrong.

There is a financial incentive too. We get a small (very small) discount on our home insurance policy because we have fire extinguishers throughout the house. Money or not, I sleep better knowing they are there. And yes, there are two of them in the train room.

Remember to install ABC rated. Never know what kind of fire may block your exit path.

9

Hi,

At age 13, a fire wiped out most of my (and sisters) belongings. In my work career in the oil business, I was fire marshal rep for several years, and had fire training at two refineries. Needless to say, fire scares the heck out of me and I have the utmost respect for it.

In my 8 room house, there are 7 fire extinguishers - two of which are fairly large. There are smoke detectors in several areas. And on trips, a fire extinguisher always accompanies us. I’ve had to use one twice - once for an oven fire, once for someone’s car fire. Having the extinguisher there readily available made ALL the difference.

Oh, for the layout (and also hobby room), when I leave - everything gets shut down.

10

You want to talk about rapid fire with little containment?

Live in a trailer!

They go up in a matter of a few minutes to leave one homeless, and in a park setting often those next door or two doors down will catch too!

Litterally, in a half hour a 14x70 can go, go, gone! Watched it happen.

The trailer will burn down afore the layout will!

We have an extinguisher in the BR,one in the hall by the furnace {outside the BR with the trains in it} and one in the Kitchen.

AS Lion said, will mostly buy us ‘getting out time’ not put out a raging fire!

ANYTHING “flamable will burn”… to varying degrees, I grant you, but foam tends to poof and gone!

SO I don’t worry about it.

Now, where IS that pesky homeowners insurance policy?

DO we still have one?

Oh, yeah, we’re 'in good hands" with Allstate.

[8-|]

11

Actually the foam insulation will not burn. It will not sustain a flame so fire confined to it alone will quickly go out. . However, the fumes from it are toxic.

12

The vast number of folks that die in “fires” die from smoke and/or toxic fumes, and not actually from the flames. Not a pleasant thought no matter how you look at it.

Folks, some basic precautionary measures (i.e. smoke/co2 alarms that work, extinguishers, etc) and good ol common sense will go a long way in keeping a fire tradgedy from happening or doing excess harm.

13

There are FIVE (count them - FIVE) classes of fire.

A - Burning Solids combustibles: Paper wood cloth plastic etc.

B - Burning Liquids

C - Electrical fires

D - Burning Metal (Magnisum, Sulfur, etc)

E - Nuclear (Think Chernobyl) but also includes fires with medical nuclear materials present.

The last two are somewhat more difficult to deal with. On board ship, lockers with magnisum flares are mounted on the sides of the ship. In case of fire, pull a remote lever and the things fall off into the ocean. They will burn all the way to the bottom.

14

I was just wondering about the materials we use for scenery; ground foam, petroleum based paint (I use acrylics, exclusively), etc.