Fire extinguishers

johnniet

johnniet

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Jul 12, 1999
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Every gadget seems to have a learning curve. Even cutting with a fixed blade involves technique, to say nothing of firearms, optics, computers, etc...

But I don't think I know anyone who's ever picked up a fire extinguisher and just "practiced". :)
Which is odd, considering the stakes of using it right the first time.

Has anyone here used a household fire extinguisher?
More than once?
Made a beginner's mistake with it?

Do any of our emergency workers have tips on this? Or at least morbidly funny stories?
 
I love a good fire extinguisher. First of all, they're mighty good for putting out fires, but secondly they make an awesome self-defense tool, as they can blind a person rather quickly, plus you've got something nice and blunt to smack the baddie with. I've yet to find anybody that has enough of them in reality. A lot of people think they do, but chances are they're off by quite a bit.

The main beginner's mistake is to buy the smallest one you can find and keep it under the kitchen sink. They're only going to give you a short spurt of agent, so you better be good with it. Most people who don't use an extinguisher fairly regularly don't stand a snowball's chance of putting out any real fire with one of those. I'd personally recommend a minimum of a 10lb extinguisher, with several of them placed strategically around the house. Get a good metal ABC, that way you can get it refilled when it gets emptied. They're not that much more expensive anyway.

When I teach a CERT class, I always ask who's never used a fire extinguisher before. It amazes me how many people have never done it. I guess it's a good thing, sorta, but it's a skill you really oughta know, because it's not something you can pick up as you go. You either know it or you don't, and if you don't know it when you need to bad things happen. If you're new to extinguishers, it might be helpful to stop in and talk to your local fire department, somebody there should be able to give you some more information. If they're nice, they might even let you try out an extinguisher. Better yet, you could take a CERT class and learn fire suppression and more, FEMA style. .

Funny story time - I had to give a speech in high school on something I knew how to do, so of course, I did "How to use a fire extinguisher". I walked everybody through it inside, then we went out into the schoolyard to actually show how it's done with a live extinguisher. I approached the "fire" and either forgot or subconsiously placed the class downwind. The drychem was everywhere, and when the haze cleared the entire class was covered in white powder. It had thinned enough to not worry about breathing problems, luckly, but they were all sorta upset at me for a little while. .
 
Whe I graduated HS back in the stone ages, the father of my GF gave me a 2 3/4 lb. dry chem. which he insisted I learn to use immediately so we went to the end of his driveway (in a small town) where he proceeded to pour gasoline and throw a match!! Very interesting!

Larry S.
 
Make sure that you are going to use the correct type of extinguisher for the type of fire ,PULL THE PIN OUT - it is easy to forget to do this, even by "professionals"! do a quick squirt to test the extinguisher before you approach the fire, keep your exit route from the fire clear, keep low, use the throw of the extinguisher to maximum advantage.
Idealy you should always back-up one extinguisher with another, or some other kind of firefighting medium.
 
The job I used to have required us to qualify once a yaer on extinguishers and some other equipment and quarterly on air packs. One of the fire marshalls that came to check us out on the extinguishers did his talk from a copy sheet then took us outside to a cardboard box of newspaper, which he tossed a match into. After if was going fairly good he used the extinguisher to blow it all over the parking lot, around and under the cars and across lawn. We ended up walking around putting out the paper bits by steping on them and someone got a bucket of water for the box. The "training" sort of died after that.
 
I´m the kind that had a very small one in the kitchen, aerosol type, one day many years ago I was fixing some plumbing with an old style gasoline torch when a leather washer in it started leaking from the handle, the floor got covered with it and caught fire, luckily I had the extinguisher at hand and put it out fast, now I have a bigger one at home.

Another time I was in some office when we felt a burning smell, a trash can had caught fire, probably someone threw in a cigarette butt or something, I looked around for an extinguisher but someone else was faster with soft drinks, it worked because the fire was still small and inside the can.

Where I work they give training to some people, it´s quite through, they even have a location with a model three story building that they can set on fire and put off with fire hoses, I´ve never being to one of those sessions though.

I think the main mistake people make is to not even have an extinguisher at home, I´m considering getting a second one.
 
I'm be no means any kind of expert, but I have used fire extinguishers a few times and worked jobs where they were always around. I put out a fire in an old couch started by a cigarette butt- it was Super Bowl Sunday several years ago and we were all blind drunk. We went outside for a smoke break to find small flames licking the edges of our porch couch. One of the guys ran to the kitchen, filled a bowl with water, ran back and dumped it on the couch with no effect, and ran back to the kitchen to refill his bowl. I hosed the couch down with dry chem and solved the problem.

I used to work summers on a farm in eastern Washington, so we'd always have fire extinguishers available. Dryland wheat stubble will burn like it's been soaked in gasoline if something hot (like parking brake lining) gets in it while the wind is blowing. The trucks all carried pressurized water extinguishers, which are only class A and will only put out dry burning material, not fuel, rubber, or electrical fires. They could squirt pretty far- a few dozen yards- but weren't large enough to do any good for anything larger than a square foot or two. The combines all carried ABC dry chem extinguishers in addition to the A water ones. A practice we all followed, which was repeated in a farm implement safety class I took (from a guy with three fingers on his left hand :rolleyes: ), was to always turn the extinguisher upside down and smack it on a tire or something to unclog the nozzle before giving a test squirt and a full blast. The vibration from being on the combine fourteen hours a day would apparently plug up the nozzle and prevent any chem being shot when you needed it.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, the following info might prove useful. There are three classes of fire extinguishing agents:

A- IME, water. Only good for putting out fires in paper, wood, rubbish, and other dry combustible material.

B- Will also work on burning liquids, i.e. gasoline etc.

C- Will also work on electrical fires.

I think everyone should have an ABC extinguisher in the kitchen, on every floor of the house, anywhere combustible materials are stored (garage), and in every vehicle. Better safe than sorry.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable can provide more information.

Jeremy

Edit- the implement safety class included practice with A and ABC extinguishers- putting out a wood fire and gas/diesel in a 55-gal. drum. We also practiced occasionally on the farm with the A extinguishers (they made good squirt guns :) ). Of course we refilled them immediately after our practice or horsing around.
 
I caught my wood porch on fire from hot coals falling out the bottom of a charcoal grill and put it out with a dry chem fire extinguisher.It damaged two 2X6 boards.

I am required by law to have 7 ABC class extinguishers on the fishing trawler I run and I must get them inspected and tagged annually.
I have had to use them on boats a few times and IIRC all times also dry chem units and they make an unholy mess.
I fear that they would damage or destroy expensive electronics,electric motors,bearings and such with the huge amount of fine powder they spread so I have replaced them with co2 units in the wheelhouse and engine room.

The co2 extinguishers do cost more.
 
I used to work for a large company doing some networking, and their computer center was protected by halon. The good stuff, too, the "If you're not out in 30 seconds you're sure not going to be breathing in there" kind. It's great for electronics, just not so much for people. .

Ohhh, and you "can" put out a petrol fire using a class A extinguisher. Not easily, and not something I'd try in the heat of it all, but I've done it more than a couple of times in a controlled environment and with a little finesse, it can be done. .
 
P. P. S. S.

Pull the pin
Point the nozzle
Squeeze the lever
Sweep the nozzle back and forth.

We used to teach a class on home fire extinguisher use until the eco nuts shut us down because we were creating pollution. :mad:

You would be surprised how much fire a pressurized 5 gal class A water extinguisher can knock down.

John...
 
I used to work for a major chemical plant. We received fire extinguisher classes yearly, and hands-on training every other year, so I've used them twice. The plant fire department had a 4 foot square, one foot deep tub they'd fill with diesel, and we would have to approach it two at a time and attempt to put it out. The sweeping from side to side thing is what most people seemed to forget. You can kind of use the stuff to "scrape" the fire off if you start on one side and move the spray steadily to the other side.

JR42 forgot class "D" extinguishers, used on burning metals (like magnesium). They keep these on aircraft carriers because some planes (F-18) have landing gear struts made of magnesium. If a tire blows on landing and the wheel assembly collapses, the friction against the struts will ignite the magnesium. Fun, eh?

The mnemonic I learned for remembering the A,B,C code is this..

A - good for anything that makes an Ash (paper, rubbish, etc)
B - good for anything Boiling (liquids: oil, gasoline, etc)
C - good for anything carrying Current (electrical fires)

A good thing to remember is that water extinguishers ("A" only) are always silver to distinguish them from multi-purpose units. If you spray water on a liquid fueled fire it can spread, and if you spray it on an electrical fire it can kill you.
 
That's a great mnemonic, Foxhole Atheist, and a much better description. I've never heard of class D before- what exactly can extinguish burning magnesium?

Thanks,
Jeremy
 
Sodium Chloride (NaCl) works best for burning magnesium. It just smothers it, basically. Depending on what is burning there are different agents that can be used, but it's usually sodium chloride.

Ohh, and FYI, according to NFPA 1998 (I think) there is now a Class K. K is for Kitchen, so now kitchen fires have their own designated class. .
 
One other thing. After you get an extinguisher be sure to shake it up to keep the powder from completely settling and that it is still holding a charge. I had a grease fire in Feb. of this year. My 10 lb extinguisher that I hadn't check in 2 or 3 years didnot work. I was out of the house for 2 months while it was repaired. Two minutes once a month might have saved alot of money time and posessions.

Bob
 
Nice to see this subject getting some air time.
Some East & SE Asia have different color codes than Europe and US. Some times no labels or in a different language.
Only clue is what type of nozzle is attatched. Also note that in a the dark, and tense situations, color or reading a lable is not an option.
CO2, water, drychem nozzles are distinctive, with halon being a toss up unless the bottle is green or green/black.
Note that some places list the power as drychem, but is actually only baking soda.
The color is the clue, generaly white, yellow, pink in that order.
Still, Foam is my preferred, other than electrical. So with that you need only two types, foam and drychem. Both are harder to clean up, but cant be beat for putting out a fire. Both do require some training to best be effective though.
Cert, basic and advanced fire courses are mandatory for offshore personell, and a toned down instruction course would be a good idea for office/city zones also.
Most fire stations will come and give classes if asked, unfortunatly are not asked enough.
Rad
 
One thing I have noticed is the newer units all have a placeard on them stating they are non-flamable.
 
ACMarina said:
...snip... I've yet to find anybody that has enough of them in reality. A lot of people think they do, but chances are they're off by quite a bit.
...snip...
Click to expand...

10 lb ABCs in: Front room of basement, Back room of basement, Garage
5lb: Kitchen, Den (In box near fire place), truck, wifes car
2lb: Linen closet (probably should have put another 10lber there, but Dad needed another more than I did, so I gave it to him)
 
ACMarina said:
Looks like a good list to me. Just ditch that little 2lb critter and you'll be all set. .
Click to expand...

Yeah, Next time I see this one freind. I can usually get a free commercial 10lber from him. He has a fire protection place, and he constanly gets back units that have been graffitied, scratched, etc - can't put them back in service without an overhaul, and it's usually cheaper to replace them. Guess what happens to the old ones? The go to folks who need them but are NOT by law required to have them, so they don't have to clean/pristene
 
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