Apart from following the given rules and regulations, you also have to ensure a minimum amount of fire deterrent. This includes equipping the space with fire fighting equipment like fire extinguishers. It is also important to ensure that we source carefully, such as selecting the right fire safety extinguishers suppliers.
Choosing the right extinguisher
All fire looks the same and hence, choosing the extinguisher must be as easy as just picking one up from the store. But, it is actually far more complicated than that. This is because of the nature of fire itself. While every fire may look uniformly familiar to us, to a fire fighter each fire has its own character, which also determines the way we extinguish it.
Let us first understand the character of fire. A fire is more complicate than it appears. For any fire to occur and sustain we need three elements heat, fuel, and an oxidising agent, typically oxygen. Together this forms the fire triangle. We need all three elements to be present in sufficient amount for a fire to take place. Hence, fire is an event that occurs only when certain conditions are met.
The trick to avoid and extinguish fire lies in taking out at least one element. We can use a cooling agent to lower heat, a neutralising agent to counter the fuel supply or blocking agent to cut out the oxidising agent. Fire extinguisher often use one or more of these tricks. Fire safety extinguishers suppliers use various agents in the extinguisher to achieve this.
What usually makes one fire so different from another is the fuel. When a fire breaks out, the initial spark may come from a fixed point, such as an electric spark. But it spreads because of the fuel or accelerant present in the room. These are the usual combustible materials in a room. For instance, the accelerant in a factory could be the electronic devices or chemicals or wood and cloth.
Since, the fuel is different; the extinguishing agent also has to be different. This is the basis for classification of extinguishers.
Type of fire extinguishers
Fire extinguishers are classified according to the class of fire. There are six classes of fire:
- Class A: Involving carbon-based solids like paper, cloth or wood. Class A fires usually occur at home where we have a large existence of such solids. Effective extinguishers include powder ABE, water, foam and wet chemical extinguishers.
- Class B: Involving flammable liquids like petrol, or oil (barring cooking oil). Class A fires can break out wherever flammable liquids are stored, such as a garage or a factory. Ask your fire safety extinguisher suppliers for powder ABE or foam extinguishers.
- Class C: Involving flammable gases, like methane, propane orbutane. This class of fire can break out in places where highly flammable gases are found, such as an LPG cylinder in a kitchen. Only powder ABE (or just BE) extinguishers are effective in this case.
- Class D: Involving flammable metals, like aluminium, magnesium orlithium. Class D fires will usually take place in commercial or industrial spaces where such material is stocked. You will need powder BE fire extinguisher.
- Class E: Involving fires caused by electrical equipment. This kind of fire will break out in any space that is stocked with electrical appliances, such as an office that houses computers, printers and other electronic equipment. Powder ABE and CO2 extinguishers will be effective here.
- Class F: Involving cooking oils such as animal oils, vegetable oils, and fats in cooking appliances. The danger zones for such fires are kitchens, including commercial kitchens in hotels and restaurants. This kind of fire requires powder BE or wet chemical extinguisher.
Conclusion
To buy the right extinguisher, hence, requires a better understanding of the space in question and the accelerants present. You can also get expert evaluation before contacting your fire safety extinguishers suppliers.