Last updated on March 25th, 2011 at 05:37 pm

As you sit at your desk or workstation take a look around you, how many fire extinguishers can you see between you and the exit (or exits) you would use to get out in the event of a fire?

If the answer is that you can not see any then ask yourself what you would do in the event of a fire?  How would you get to the fire exit safely?

Of course, you may be lucky, or have planned well, and be able to see at least one extinguisher between you and the exit – but hang on a moment, what kind of extinguishers are they?  Different types of fires need different types of equipment (have you ever seen an oil fire like a chip pan fire where someone has put water on it – the author once attended a fire training session where this happened and it was like an explosion with fire being spread everywhere).

Basically there are 6 different types of fire :-

• Class A : Fires involving combustible solids such as wood, paper, textiles, straw etc
• Class B : Fires involving flammable liquids such as paint, petrol, paraffin and oil (but not cooking oil, this is a different class)
• Class C : Fires involving gasses such as natural gas, butane, lpg, calor gas etc
• Class D : Fires involving flammable metals
• Class F : Fires involving cooking oils
• Live electrical equipment fires

Each type of extinguisher is designed to be used safely on one or more type of fire so :-

• Water : used on Class A fires
• Foam : used on Class A and B fires
• Power : used on Class A, B, C and live electrical equipment fires
• CO2 : used on Class B and live electrical equipment fires
• Wet Chemical : used on class F and A fires (usually a specialist requirement)

So, if you are working in a typical office you might think about the types of fire and decide that they are class A (waste-paper bin fires for example), class B (paint stored after the office was decorated), and live electrical (computers have been known to catch fire).  In this case you would be pointed towards powder fire extinguishers, however something that should be thought about is the mess caused, powder extinguishers get their powder everywhere and the author would prefer to have two extinguishers – a water one for Class A fires and a CO2 one for Class B and electrical fires.

One thing that has been stressed in all the fire safety and risk management courses that the author has attended and is important for you to remember – you should not use the extinguisher to try and put out a big fire (if it is just a waste paper bin or a bit of electrical equipment you can attempt it).  Use the extinguisher to “clear a safe path” to the fire exit and leave putting out the fire to the experts in the fire brigade.