Safety - Fire Extinguishers and their purposes

Please print this out in colour, laminate and display in your houses:



From http://www.fireandsafetycentre.co.uk/advice-centre/fire-extinguisher-chart/

I hope you also have an extinguisher in the truck and your car Mike

What about the Fire Blanket for when your chip-pan ignites...

Is that on the other laminated printout?

Useful info for an office but I have to admit the chances of a home having all the different types of extinguisher are slight. Perhaps it would be faster to have just one type and remember what NOT to use it on..

I have dry powder in the car and home and no chip pan

Don't forget to put one in your bomb shelter.

Couldn't resist Keith, sorry

Im not putting a chip pan in the bomb shelter Timmers the dried fish will be redesignated bio hazard

Dry powder is ok but leaves a shocking mess and makes any repair impossible. Dry powder maybe better.

Should be noted as well that water mist can be used on fuel based fires and is now the prefered method of extinguishing them, well as a fixed system on vessels anyway. CO2 can be used on class A fires now as well

Can you check what you typed in the first line, Stu. ?
I am interested to see what you wanted to say.

Good spot. CO2 is better in alot of instances than dry powder.

I think you have the best idea, Keith We also have no chip pan.

Dont want the missus to have to think about it to much CO2 is good but can spread paper by pressure

This puzzles me...

I think young Keith means that the pressure alone from a CO2 extinguisher tends to blow things around like paper when it is operated, its not really the case though.

Dry powder is good but the biggest issue is the mess it leaves behind (difficult to clean up the residual powder) and the fact that most things are unrepairable afterwards. With the right technique CO2 can be used on most types of fires. I only know this as I have just completed my STCW10 firefighting refresher training and things have moved on since 1994 when I last did it

I just think the simplest way to go is to have dry powder, Jim & Stu.
When a fire starts, and I hope it doesn't happen to any of us, panic kicks in and the simplest way to stop the fire spreading is to use dry powder and sod the consequences of the electrical device being marked. Lives are more important and I think my wife will be less stressed too.... Get the kids out and get the powder going. If the powder doesn't stop the fire everyone out.
We have two smoke alarms also and one of them is a Carbon Monoxide detector also.

No arguement from me. You are indeed correct about panic, just with my background I'd pick slightly differently. The mess made is more from a commercial point of view as well to be fair. Let off a dry powder in a lot of compartment offshore or on ships and the cost of replacement, repair and down time is huge. At home of course you have insurance. A good fire blanket is a very good addition to a kitchen for oil based fires. As long as you leave it over the pan and not take it off.

I do worry about this:

Dry powder (ABC) fire extinguishers are an exceptional multi-purpose fire extinguisher, usually recommended for use on vehicles and also for use in domestic homes. All of our powder fire extinguishers are red with a blue panel and are ABC rated which means they are safe to be used on fires where electrical equipment is present. It is important to state that Dry powder extinguishers are not to be used in confined or enclosed spaces e.g. an office, school, hotel, for example, as the fire-fighting Powder (agent) creates a dust cloud that makes it hard to see and the powder can also cause breathing problems.
One important thing to be aware of is that Ammonium phosphate, which is used in dry powder, can react with water and creates phosphoric acid, which is highly corrosive and can seep into even the smallest gaps in electrical equipment. Therefore dry chemical ABC rated fire extinguishers should never be used on sensitive electrical equipment unless there is no other fire extinguishing equipment.

I forgot about that bit (I had a hangover) All the firemen on the training wore dust masks, though this was mainly to prevent a dose of the trots which is another common side effect of breathing in dry powder.