On the Care & Feeding of Your Home Fire Extinguisher
by Edwin Johnston
Most people don't have a home fire extinguisher—but if you need one, you really need one and at a time when there's no way to go out and buy one. But which kind should you get, and how should you look after it?
Home Fire Extinguisher Types
Not all fire extinguishers are created equal, and different kinds of fires need to be put out using different substances. There are six major types of fire extinguisher, and you can tell which is which by looking at the coloured band around their label.
Black extinguishers contain carbon dioxide and are suitable for use on electrical fires and fires involving flammable or combustible liquids such as petrol or kerosene.
Blue extinguishers contain foam and are suitable for use on flammable carbon solids (wood, paper, cloth, grass, rubber, plastics: pretty much everything you own is a flammable carbon solid) and fires involving flammable or combustible liquids such as petrol or kerosene.
Oatmeal extinguishers contain a wet chemical compound and are suitable for use on flammable carbon solids and fires involving cooking fats and oils, which is a good extinguisher type to keep handy in your kitchen.
Red extinguishers contain water and are only suitable for use on fires involving flammable carbon solids.
White extinguishers contain dry powder and are suitable for use on flammable carbon solids, electrical fires and fires involving combustible liquids such as petrol and kerosene. They're good general extinguishers to keep in your home.
Yellow extinguishers contain a vapourising liquid, and are suitable for use on flammable carbon solids, electrical fires and fires involving combustible liquids such as petrol and kerosene. While they do the same job as white extinguishers, they're not so good a domestic choice: many models are being withdrawn from general use due to safety concerns.
Home Fire Extinguisher Maintenance
Looking after your home extinguishers is easy: you simply need to check the pressure gauge every now and then to make sure it's still in the right place and give the whole thing a bit of a shake up to keep the contents from settling too much.
Home Fire Extinguisher Use
For years, firefighters have taught the general public how to use extinguishers effectively with one simple acronym:
P (Pin)
A (Aim)
S (Squeeze)
S (Sweep)
To use a fire extinguisher to put out a small fires—once you've checked that it's the right type for the material in question—you need to pull the pin, take aim at the base of the fire, squeeze the trigger and sweep the spray from side to side across the entire base of the blaze.