Tythagoras
Newly Enlightened
Hello all,
A week ago, I had a little problem.
I went to work to get a free flu shot. Upon returning home, there was smoke pouring out of the vents to the crawlspace under the house. The dog came running out of the door the instant that it was open. (She turned out to be okay) The reason why was obvious when the door opened a few more inches, there was very dense white smoke filling the entire living space of the house.
This is where my modified Minimag came in very handy. It gave enough brightness that I could see where I was going through the smoke. A dimmer flashlight wouldn't have been very helpful. I did wish it had less spillbeam, though. It would light up the smoke in front of my face at the same time it was illuminating what I was pointing it at. Not a huge problem, but not one that I had given much thought to previously.
What I discovered was that the floor heater had been left on, and a carpet had been left on top of it. I put some water on the smoldering floor heater, turned it off and set up some fans to extract the smoke.
I came back to the heater once some fans were in place and the windows opened, and found that it was still smoking. "That's odd" I thought, since I had poured a substantial amount of water on it. I poured some more water on it and found that it didn't affect the smoke production much. A chill ran down my spine when the realization hit me: the fire was still going, and it wasn't where thought it was at all. It was under the house, in the crawlspace.
I had never been in the crawlspace before, owing to the fact that the opening to it was blocked by a sewer pipe in such a way that only skinny people could get through it. I haven't been a skinny person in six or seven years. I didn't think of that, but grabbed a slide sprayer, filled it with water and headed to the opening to the crawlspace.
It turned out that in the last year, I had lost enough weight that I could squeeze into the crawlspace, drag my sprayer in behind me and fight the fire. My Minimag saved the day here, it was plenty bright to see exactly where to go and what hazards were between me and where I needed to be. Again, a dimmer flashlight would have made things much more difficult. I saw the heater about 20 ft away from me and began crawling toward it, dragging the sprayer tank behind me. I got close enough to where I could hear the crackling of a fire very much still burning.
It was only now that the thought of calling the fire department occurred to me. It could take ten minutes to arrive if they were on another call, and this was at a critical point. I continued on. If someone else called in reinforcements, so much the better, but for now this was my fight. The fire on the heater had caused the wood all around the heater to char and begin burning on its own. No flames just yet, though.
The smoke turned to steam when the water hit the charred wood, the heat wasn't as intense as I thought it would have been, but it was hot enough to make me worried the fire had spread further than the extent of the charring would suggest.
After I had sprayed the charred wood with water, all there was to do was wait and see if the smoke persisted. I turned out my minimag, partly out of conserving batteries and partly out of curiosity. The darkness made me realize that if my light had failed, it would have been a very hard fight to even find my way to the heater. Adding to the problems I would have had was the fact that the smoke was thick enough to make navigation a real problem. Making a retreat would have been rather difficult, had the situation necessitated it.
As it turned out, it didn't burn further than the visibly charred area. That was good, since there was some flammable material not too far above the spot the charring was moving into. The smoke stopped coming, and then the steam stopped too. I got out from under the house and called the Fire Department so I could get a professional opinion of whether the fire was truly out or not.
They arrived a few minutes later, and inspected the damage and looked under the house. When the lead firefighter looked under the house, I expected him to pull out a Surefire, Pelican, UKE, or some other high-end light. I didn't recognize it, but what he pulled out seemed to be a 2-D cell light made of plastic with a switch that worked by twisting the bezel. I was pointing things out with my own flashlight, so we got some incidental side by side beamshots. My modified minimag (using a NexGen 500 with a UX1K emitter) threw just as well, blew it away in the overall light category and was much, much whiter. If he noticed, he didn't give any indication of it.
They inspected the heater from the inside with a thermal imager, and found that everything had cooled down very well, and not hot spots. I didn't get to ask about the battery life of the thermal imager. I was afraid to ask about the cost.
Overall, the only damage done was to the heater itself. No big loss, as I hated that thing anyway. I wondered if my mother/deadbeat-roommate-who-does-my-laundry would ever forget to turn it off. She did. The dog's favorite toy was a casualty of the fire. The dog now searches the house and whines. It's a little sad. It's also a little funny.
Lessons learned:
A light in your pocket or on your belt is vastly more useful than the one sitting in the drawer.
Brighter is usually better in an emergency.
A backup light is a must. (I didn't have one and realized I should have)
My slide sprayer is much more useful if it is kept nearby and if it's tank is full.
Another slide sprayer might not be a bad idea. Nor would a few dry chemical extinguishers for electrical fires. Nitrogen, maybe.
Firefighting is tiring work; a little physical conditioning goes a long way during emergencies.
The question now is what flashlight should I get as a backup? I considered the surefire U2 ultra, but the complaints about the doughnut beam and ugly tint problems on such an expensive light turned me away from that path. The front runners seem to be the ElektroLumens XM-3 and the Pelican M6 2390 LED.
The XM-3 has the advantage of being easily modded, well constructed, and it takes AA size cells. I have long ago standardized on AA cells for almost all of my battery operated equipment. I have heard that it's regulator, while being very flat, doesn't push the emitter very hard, but I have no point of reference. Quickbeam hasn't reviewed the NexGen 500 with the UX1K emitter, and I don't expect him to, but that means I don't have a benchmark to compare my light to without actually doing side by side beamshots. Since people say it's easy to modify, I might just put a wiz2 and a good emitter in it, though that raises the overall cost a bit.
The Pelican has the advantage of just looking like a million bucks. That not lost on me, I like sharp looking equipment. I also like equipment that works real well. Quickbeam's review suggests that it does indeed work very well, and with flat regulation too. It's one of the brightest factory LED lights, so I would probably be happy with that. The biggest problem is that it uses those awful CR123A cells. As much as I use my lights, the cost of 123s would be a big annoyance. Since e-lectronics.com has some 3 volt regulated cells, that might be just the ticket. Rechargeables in the light, and some primaries as spares. Brings the cost to over $100, though. Perhaps not bad considering it need no mods, as it already has an excellent regulator, and at least a good emitter.
I am also considering the McLux III PD. It's pricy, but it seems like a really good little light.
I have a smartfire and some Xnovas coming from Emilion's Workshop, so I will have something to experiment with soon.
Any other lights I should consider? Other comments?
A week ago, I had a little problem.
I went to work to get a free flu shot. Upon returning home, there was smoke pouring out of the vents to the crawlspace under the house. The dog came running out of the door the instant that it was open. (She turned out to be okay) The reason why was obvious when the door opened a few more inches, there was very dense white smoke filling the entire living space of the house.
This is where my modified Minimag came in very handy. It gave enough brightness that I could see where I was going through the smoke. A dimmer flashlight wouldn't have been very helpful. I did wish it had less spillbeam, though. It would light up the smoke in front of my face at the same time it was illuminating what I was pointing it at. Not a huge problem, but not one that I had given much thought to previously.
What I discovered was that the floor heater had been left on, and a carpet had been left on top of it. I put some water on the smoldering floor heater, turned it off and set up some fans to extract the smoke.
I came back to the heater once some fans were in place and the windows opened, and found that it was still smoking. "That's odd" I thought, since I had poured a substantial amount of water on it. I poured some more water on it and found that it didn't affect the smoke production much. A chill ran down my spine when the realization hit me: the fire was still going, and it wasn't where thought it was at all. It was under the house, in the crawlspace.
I had never been in the crawlspace before, owing to the fact that the opening to it was blocked by a sewer pipe in such a way that only skinny people could get through it. I haven't been a skinny person in six or seven years. I didn't think of that, but grabbed a slide sprayer, filled it with water and headed to the opening to the crawlspace.
It turned out that in the last year, I had lost enough weight that I could squeeze into the crawlspace, drag my sprayer in behind me and fight the fire. My Minimag saved the day here, it was plenty bright to see exactly where to go and what hazards were between me and where I needed to be. Again, a dimmer flashlight would have made things much more difficult. I saw the heater about 20 ft away from me and began crawling toward it, dragging the sprayer tank behind me. I got close enough to where I could hear the crackling of a fire very much still burning.
It was only now that the thought of calling the fire department occurred to me. It could take ten minutes to arrive if they were on another call, and this was at a critical point. I continued on. If someone else called in reinforcements, so much the better, but for now this was my fight. The fire on the heater had caused the wood all around the heater to char and begin burning on its own. No flames just yet, though.
The smoke turned to steam when the water hit the charred wood, the heat wasn't as intense as I thought it would have been, but it was hot enough to make me worried the fire had spread further than the extent of the charring would suggest.
After I had sprayed the charred wood with water, all there was to do was wait and see if the smoke persisted. I turned out my minimag, partly out of conserving batteries and partly out of curiosity. The darkness made me realize that if my light had failed, it would have been a very hard fight to even find my way to the heater. Adding to the problems I would have had was the fact that the smoke was thick enough to make navigation a real problem. Making a retreat would have been rather difficult, had the situation necessitated it.
As it turned out, it didn't burn further than the visibly charred area. That was good, since there was some flammable material not too far above the spot the charring was moving into. The smoke stopped coming, and then the steam stopped too. I got out from under the house and called the Fire Department so I could get a professional opinion of whether the fire was truly out or not.
They arrived a few minutes later, and inspected the damage and looked under the house. When the lead firefighter looked under the house, I expected him to pull out a Surefire, Pelican, UKE, or some other high-end light. I didn't recognize it, but what he pulled out seemed to be a 2-D cell light made of plastic with a switch that worked by twisting the bezel. I was pointing things out with my own flashlight, so we got some incidental side by side beamshots. My modified minimag (using a NexGen 500 with a UX1K emitter) threw just as well, blew it away in the overall light category and was much, much whiter. If he noticed, he didn't give any indication of it.
They inspected the heater from the inside with a thermal imager, and found that everything had cooled down very well, and not hot spots. I didn't get to ask about the battery life of the thermal imager. I was afraid to ask about the cost.
Overall, the only damage done was to the heater itself. No big loss, as I hated that thing anyway. I wondered if my mother/deadbeat-roommate-who-does-my-laundry would ever forget to turn it off. She did. The dog's favorite toy was a casualty of the fire. The dog now searches the house and whines. It's a little sad. It's also a little funny.
Lessons learned:
A light in your pocket or on your belt is vastly more useful than the one sitting in the drawer.
Brighter is usually better in an emergency.
A backup light is a must. (I didn't have one and realized I should have)
My slide sprayer is much more useful if it is kept nearby and if it's tank is full.
Another slide sprayer might not be a bad idea. Nor would a few dry chemical extinguishers for electrical fires. Nitrogen, maybe.
Firefighting is tiring work; a little physical conditioning goes a long way during emergencies.
The question now is what flashlight should I get as a backup? I considered the surefire U2 ultra, but the complaints about the doughnut beam and ugly tint problems on such an expensive light turned me away from that path. The front runners seem to be the ElektroLumens XM-3 and the Pelican M6 2390 LED.
The XM-3 has the advantage of being easily modded, well constructed, and it takes AA size cells. I have long ago standardized on AA cells for almost all of my battery operated equipment. I have heard that it's regulator, while being very flat, doesn't push the emitter very hard, but I have no point of reference. Quickbeam hasn't reviewed the NexGen 500 with the UX1K emitter, and I don't expect him to, but that means I don't have a benchmark to compare my light to without actually doing side by side beamshots. Since people say it's easy to modify, I might just put a wiz2 and a good emitter in it, though that raises the overall cost a bit.
The Pelican has the advantage of just looking like a million bucks. That not lost on me, I like sharp looking equipment. I also like equipment that works real well. Quickbeam's review suggests that it does indeed work very well, and with flat regulation too. It's one of the brightest factory LED lights, so I would probably be happy with that. The biggest problem is that it uses those awful CR123A cells. As much as I use my lights, the cost of 123s would be a big annoyance. Since e-lectronics.com has some 3 volt regulated cells, that might be just the ticket. Rechargeables in the light, and some primaries as spares. Brings the cost to over $100, though. Perhaps not bad considering it need no mods, as it already has an excellent regulator, and at least a good emitter.
I am also considering the McLux III PD. It's pricy, but it seems like a really good little light.
I have a smartfire and some Xnovas coming from Emilion's Workshop, so I will have something to experiment with soon.
Any other lights I should consider? Other comments?