That being said, always use your best judgment and proceed with caution, especially because when it comes to extinguishing a blaze, identifying the type of fire can be incredibly important. A class C fire refers to a fire that involves flammable gases such as natural gas, petroleum gas, butane, hydrogen, acetylene or propane. extinguisher. Subscribe to our daily newsletter to get more of it. Always use stairs rather than elevators, stay low to the ground, and use the back of your hand to feel if closed doors are warm to the touch, as you should never open doors that do not feel cool.



Class letters are often assigned to the different types of fire, but these differ between territories.

Class B fire extinguishers.

In fact, trying to fight a blaze with the wrong method might make the situation worse. On most extinguishers, the lever is located above the handle.The device through which the agent is expelled (96).A simple, quick-release device that secures an extinguisher's lever to prevent accidental discharge (96).Commonly known as the gauge, indicates whether the extinguisher has adequate pressure to operate properly (96).Water is an excellent extinguishing agent suitable for Class A fires (ordinary combustibles) only.

Designed as an alternative to halon in areas where contamination must be kept to a minimum without the expense of halon substitutes. Therefore, even a small metal fire can spread and become a larger fire in the surrounding ordinary combustible materials. In early development, sodium bicarbonate was found to have great effectiveness on flammable liquid fires compared to other chemicals being used at the time.A regular dry chemical.

While the fire is or possibly could be electrically energized, it can be fought with any extinguishing agent rated for electrical fire. Avoid skin contact, can cause cold burns (99).Comparative fire tests using various sizes of wood-crib, wood-panel, and excelsior fires (99).Fire tests using square steel pans in specific size increments and a flammable, liquid test fuel similar to unleaded gas. Per NFPA 10, burning may be classified into one or more of the following fire classes and your fire protection specialist will select the right fire extinguisher size and agent for the hazard.
1. Class A: That is ordinary combustibles like you, paper, wood,plastic, cardboard, clothing, linen and many other materials. For 10A rating, extinguisher should extinguish the 6A wood-panel fire plus appropriate 10A wood-crib fire test. Carbon Dioxide displaces oxygen and care should be taken in confined spaces.



For tests in excess of 20B, outdoor fire tests are conducted. They may be extinguished by water, wet chemical suppression, or dry chemical powder.These are fires whose fuel is flammable or combustible liquid or gas. iStock House fires endanger everyone in the home and even small fires that are put out quickly often result in thousands of dollars of damage. If you have any doubt at all about your ability to quickly and safely extinguish a fire, you should immediately evacuate. The items around the electrical sources may burn.

Two halogenated agents have been most common: Halon 1211 and Halon 1301.