If you don't have a fire extinguisher in your home, you should strongly consider purchasing one. Extinguishers can prevent small fires from spreading out of control, which stops them from causing potentially catastrophic damage. However, owning a fire extinguisher is only one part of your home's fire safety plan — every member of your family needs to know how to use it in a safe manner. Using a fire extinguisher improperly can make a fire worse or put the user at risk. To learn how to use your home fire extinguisher, read on.
1. Assess the Safety of Your Situation
The first step is to evaluate how safe the situation is. Fire extinguishers are meant for smaller fires that have just started. If the fire in your home is rapidly spreading or if you're not able to reach the extinguisher in time, you should evacuate your home instead of attempting to extinguish the fire.
2. Make Sure You're Using the Right Fire Extinguisher
The front plate on your extinguisher will tell you which types of fires it's designed to fight, and these types of fires are divided into classes.
- Class A: Combustible solids such as furniture, clothing, wood, and paper.
- Class B: Flammable liquids like natural gas or gasoline.
- Class C: Electrical fires (or any fire that's around a live source of electricity.)
- Class D: Metals that combust when exposed to air (you're very unlikely to find this in your home.)
- Class K: Cooking grease.
Most home fire extinguishers will be rated ABC, but you should always double-check the plate on the front of the extinguisher to make sure. You should never use an extinguisher on a class of fire it's not rated for. If you don't have the correct type of extinguisher, you should evacuate your home instead of fighting the fire.
For example, you shouldn't use an ABC-rated extinguisher if your deep fryer catches on fire — that's a job meant for a Class K extinguisher. Likewise, don't use an extinguisher near running electrical appliances unless it's rated for Class C fires. The Class C rating means that the extinguishing agent doesn't conduct electricity.
3. Spray the Extinguishing Agent at the Base of the Fire
While standing at a safe distance, begin by pulling the safety pin out of the top of the fire extinguisher. After the pin is out, aim the nozzle on the extinguisher at the base of the fire. Aiming at the base of the fire will cover the object that's burning with the extinguishing agent, which is what actually stops the fire. Aiming at the flames won't extinguish it.
Depress the lock on the nozzle in order to release the extinguishing agent. Cover everything that's burning by making side-to-side motions with the nozzle, and slowly work your way from the front of the fire to the back.
While you're doing this, continue to assess the situation. If you're not extinguishing the fire fast enough or if the fire is spreading into your escape route, immediately stop trying to extinguish the fire and evacuate your home.
Overall, using a fire extinguisher is a simple process that can help prevent small fires from spreading out of control. It's a good idea for homeowners to own one. Ideally, you should purchase both an ABC-rated extinguisher for general home use and a Class K extinguisher to keep in your kitchen. Above all, make sure that all members of your family are trained to use your extinguishers safely and that they know what types of fires each extinguisher is meant for.
If you don't have a fire extinguisher for your home, reach out to a supplier like County Fire Inc.
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