when was the last time that you had to
use a fire extinguisher for most of us
fire extinguishers are one of those
things we like to have around but hope
never to use hi I'm Rachael Walla with
Ally safety and in this video we're
going to cover some quick tips on fire
extinguisher use it's gonna include the
types of fire extinguishers out there
when to fight a fire and when to
evacuate and lastly how to use a fire
extinguisher so without further ado
let's jump right into it
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to know about how to fight fires you
first have to understand the fire
triangle for a fire to exist there has
to be three elements in place those
elements are oxygen heat and fuel fire
extinguishers are designed on the type
of fuel that may be needed to be
extinguished using the wrong type of
extinguisher can actually just make a
fire worse think for example of an oil
fire being extinguished with a water
extinguisher now the oil is naturally
going to float on top of the water and
the water will just encourage the fire
to spread so you have to know the type
of fuel that you're going to need to
extinguish to choose the right
extinguisher how fire extinguishers are
designed is to remove just one side of
the fire triangle for example a lot of
Vic fire extinguishers are powder
extinguishers what they do is they
suffocate the fire with powder removing
the oxygen or something like a water
extinguisher will remove the heat from
the fire so you can see it's a pretty
simple science all in all the classes of
extinguisher that you need to know are a
B C D and K class a fire extinguishers
are for ordinary combustibles things
like wood paper and cardboard Class B
fire extinguishers are for flammable
liquids like diesel oil gas both types
of things Class C fire extinguishers are
for energized electrical equipment Class
D fire extinguishers are for combustible
metals those are things like sodium
magnesium and potassium class K fire
extinguishers are easy to remember
because think of the case standing for
kitchen they're designed to put out oil
fires and things like deep fryers
now one thing to know about fire
extinguishers are some are specific to
just one type of fuel for example it may
be simply a type A extinguisher or a
type K but most can extinguish more than
one type for example this is an ABC fire
extinguisher this is actually the most
common out there how it works is it uses
a dry powder to smother the fire
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portable fire extinguishers are built to
extinguish fires that are in the
incipient phase this is the phase that
comes soon after ignition before the
fire has really generated a lot of heat
a fire in this phase is roughly the size
of an office trashcan now you don't want
to extinguish fires that have gone to
the next phase which is the growth phase
in the growth phase the fire starts to
generate heat and grows rapidly a fire
extinguisher isn't designed to
extinguish a fire that large in fact
you're gonna run out of chemicals before
you get that far along one thing to note
when making the decision whether to
evacuate or fight the fire is that most
fire extinguishers only have enough
extinguishing agent to last about 30
seconds in the event of a fire always
make the decision that your safety is
your priority never put yourself in the
position where the fire is blocking you
from the exit and only fight it if you
feel comfortable and safe doing so
now to fight a fire using a fire
extinguisher remember the past method
that's pas s pull the pin aim the nozzle
squeeze the trigger and sweep at the
base of the flames from side to side
once fires out it's not uncommon for the
fire to reignite a few minutes later so
make sure that you're keeping watch
until you're certain that it's out and
done okay so now you know the basics of
fire extinguisher use make sure you go
around your work area and check that you
have the right fire extinguishers for
the type of fuel available also check
the fire extinguishers to make sure that
they're properly charged and ready to go
in case they're ever needed thank you so
much for watching if you enjoyed this
video remember to like and subscribe
until next time I'll see you later