Run a pipe from your domestic water supply line, across the ceiling of your garage with fire sprinklers teed onto it at intervals.
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Still only saves you from burning the whole lot but even sprinklers take too long to crack if you want to save the car. A battery disconnect and a fire extinguisher at the hand and another on the escape route are important. They might even save your car in time.
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All my jokes about water balloons aside, I have worked in the fire protection industry for the last 20 yearsā¦
Sprinkler heads only activate when the bulb reaches a set temperature. Most of the ones we install are at about 67 degrees C. And with a standard sprinkler system only the heads that reach temperature will activate. (There are deluge systems that have open heads and are activated via solenoid, or systems that introduce a foaming solution to the water but this is for a conversation another day)
I really feel sorry for David, (having been there done that. Merc fire but a sprinkler system would not have stopped his fire any earlier than his actions with the fire extinguisher, and in fact would have taken minutes later to activate.
A few good extinguishers located throughout the workshop are more versatile and can be aimed inside a vehicle, or under a chassis, whereas a fixed sprinkler system cannot.
For an automotive workshop I would recommend CO2 and dry powder (ABE) extinguishers, a fire blanket at the door, and a smoke detection system that can be turned on when the workshop is not being used. An emergency light that turns on when mains power is lost is a great idea too.
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The use of Halon in fire extinguishers and automatic fire systems is banned here in the U.K. They way I believe it works is to negate the oxygen in the air thereby making it dangerous for any humans to be in its presence.
I thought I had better check the facts and found this:-
Art
Hi Art,. Yes they are banned virtually everywhere. Only used in limited military applications nowdays. Halonās very very bad for the Ozone layer.
The most common alternative to Halon nowdays would be either FM200, or a nitrogen/argon mix, but this is in large fixed systems such as used in data centres. These donāt so much negate the oxygen as dilute/displace it in a room and so arenāt as effective as Halon, but donāt have the toxic side effects, Ozone depleting properties.
Not so. I remember when Halon came in in the 70ās, it was the answer to a maidenās prayers. It put out fires instantly, but was safe for humans in enclosed places. Two illustrations of this: First; at the petroleum show that year, they had a guy in a glass booth, who would light a piece of paper on fire, whence the Halon would trigger, putting the fire out while the guy was fine. Second time was in our new offices. The drafting department had been protected by Halon. A maintenance person brought an oxy acetylene torch in to the map storage room to do some metal cuttng. He lit the torch and it promptly went out and wouldnāt relight. Our safety guy went up the wall when he found out. It was over a thousand dollars to recharge. No one in the room had known the Halon system had gone off.
When Lori and I had our retirement home built (or as Lori calls it āthe garage with the attached houseā to which I always respond āas it should beā) we had to put the workshop below the living area. Regardless I had decided to have an inert gas fire suppression system after my own experience with a gasoline fire decades ago. I spent my career working in factories and am used to automated fire suppression systems, so I had this system configured and installed by a professional firm. There are several types of heat, smoke and gas sensors, and the tanks can dump enough inert gas in 15 seconds to suppress any fire. The control system automatically closes doors and dampers during an alarm so that fresh air doesnāt get to supressed. fire. I hope I never need the system.
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Ahhh! This sounds like what āThe Donaldā would call fake news. The guy in the booth was probably Sig Sevrinson who held the record of 22+ minutes for holding his breath. -
Why wouldnāt the torch relight? Perhaps a lack of oxygen?
Art
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Graham is essentially correct; Halon doesnāt destroy/remove/displace the oxygen in a room but rather disrupts the combustion process. Theoretically it is possible to be in the same room as a Halon discharge, however exposure to Halon has since been shown to have long term health issues. Here is a link to an article from the NZ fire protection organisation. Halon article. (This article doesnāt go into the health ramifications but there are other medical articles available that do.)
Having witnessed suppression system discharges (not Halon) youāre more likely to have a heart attack from the noise rather than any long term issues!! 
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Exactly; the lesser of two weevils.
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Every one in the drafting department would have been dead with no oxygen. As it was they didnāt even know it had happened.
The beauty of Halon was it would instantly snuff out the flame, while not affecting anyone around it.
Not sure I included the quote correctly -
As Halon is a CFC, chlorinated fluorocarbon, Iām going to assume that it is the chlorine component that inhibits the combustion. You want to totally screw with someone, take carbon tetrachloride and dump a little in his carās fuel tank. The car will completely stop running and heāll spend a lot of time trying to figure out why. And no, Iāve never done this insidious deed.
. Pretty much any chlorinated hydrocarbon will eliminate combustion under the right scenario.
HALON. My experience with halon extinguishers is they work great and leave no residue behind.
When I was flying for PanAM we went to ground school every six months and a big part of it was
hands on using a halon extinguishers on fires. This was in a classroom size room with 8 or 12
people and everyone used the halon. No, nobody died. After that I went out and bought two big
halon extinguishers for my kitchen and garage. If they were still sold I would buy more. Pete
Halon extinguishers are still available in the US. They arenāt inexpensive but available.
you will be surprized how inexpensive they are in comparison to losing your car in a fireā¦ HALON is the only way to go for dousing a car fireā¦ if you find yourself in the in the unfortunate situation of needing it. There is something else which Iām told is equivalentā¦ but donāt take my word for itā¦ HALOTRON not sure what the difference is but it is ( I believe ) available in Canada.
Very interesting article. You could put a Halotron system in a workshop, where its bigger size would not be a disadvantage.
Still available in the US . Probably not California.
A coincidence thatās were those terrible fires wereā¦ I think not .