Fire safety is an incredibly important subject to become familiar with, for both yourself and your family. You may know that you are supposed to have a fire extinguisher in your house, but did you know that depending on where you are and the type of fire, there are different extinguishers that will work better or worse? Read on to find out more. 

A-Class Fire Extinguishers

A-class fire extinguishers are the most common type of extinguisher that you will find, as A-class fires are the most common type of fire. These fire are started by wood and paper products and are primarily extinguished with water. Thus, many of the fire extinguisher for A-class fires have water in them. Others, however, have a chemical powder within them that has a particular composition that makes it able to extinguish A-class fires.

B-Class Fire Extinguishers

B-class fire extinguishers are extinguishers that will extinguish B-class fires. B-class fires are started with combustible or flammable liquids. These are compounds such as gasoline, paint thinners, and polishes. These compounds can not be extinguished by convention means with water. Sometimes water will actually aggravate the situation. Instead, you should be using a B-class extinguisher, which has a powder compound inside that is able to extinguish this type of fire.

C-class Fire Extinguishers

C-class extinguishers will extinguish C-class fires. These fire start through electrical means. Examples of this would be your toaster setting on fire while plugged in. These fires should never have water added to the equation, as water conducts electricity and can get you electrocuted. Instead, you should use a C-class fire extinguisher that has a compound within it made exclusively for electrical fires. If you do not have one of these around, and it is safe to do so, try to unplug your electrical device from the outlet. Once unplugged, the fire should die out because nothing is feeding it. If it doesn't however because there is no electricity running through the device, its class has changed to an A-class fire, and water can now be used.        

D-class Fire Extinguishers

D-class fire extinguishers will extinguish D-class fires. D-class fires are fires that start through combustible metals. These include lithium, potassium, and titanium.  Water on these fires will inevitably make these fires worse due to their chemical nature. Instead, use a D-class fire extinguisher that is filled with a dry powder that will stop the chemical reactions from occurring, thus putting out the fire.

For further assistance, contact a local outlet, such as Echo Fire Protection.

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