Every home, office, and other building should
have one or more portable fire extinguishers
for putting out small fires before they become
devastating. It is a good practice to have
a fire extinguisher (of the right type) readily
available to any area where a fire could
easily start such as the kitchen, garage,
workshop or a room with supplemental heaters.
When buying a fire extinguisher
look for:
- approval by an independent testing lab such
as UL
- suitability for the kind of fire you are
likely to have:
- Class A extinguishers are for fires from
everyday combustible materials like wood,
cloth, paper and many types of plastic
- Class B extinguishers are for fires from
flammable liquids like grease, paints, gasoline
and oil
- Class C extinguishers are for electrical
fires from wires, appliances, and fuse boxes
- Class D extinguishers are for fires from
flammable metals and are not usually recommended
for non-professional users
- Multi-class extinguishers are combinations
of A, B and C classes and are used for all-purpose
extinguishers
- sufficiently high rating number for the area
likely to be on fire:
- Class A and B ratings indicate how much extinguishing
material is in the bottle
and what amount
of fire area it will extinguish
- Class C has no rating
- The higher the rating usually indicates the
larger and heavier the fire
extinguisher
will be
Finally, make sure everyone is
familiar with
the manufacturer's instructions
on how to
use the extinguisher so that
they do not
waste precious time and capacity
in an emergency. |
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