Most people will walk past a fire safety extinguisher and ignore it. For them it is merely a red cylinder with no real purpose. The majority of people have never used a fire safety extinguisher and many of them never will. That cylinder will forever be a mystery to them. However, a fire extinguisher is a life-saving device and learning how to use one should be the goal of every single person. There are about a dozen different types, so this article will concentrate on three of the main ones: water, foam and dry powder analysing what type of fires they should be used for, what their dangers are and how they should be utilised.

The water and water spray fire safety extinguishers are the cheapest available. This also makes them the most limited. When dealing with people’s lives, it is best to spare no expense, though water has its uses. Water spray is far more effective than water jets and is useful for fires involving wood, plastics and paper etc. The dry powder type is far superior to water and can be used on the same kind of materials as water. In addition, it can take care of oil based fires and is safe to use on live electrical equipment. Foam extinguishers are also ideal for fires involving solids.

The dangers with water extinguishers are manifold. They should not be used on oil fires because they simply won’t work and use on electrical fires could prove to be fatal. Although dry powder fire extinguishers are versatile, they don’t do a good job of cooling fires and great care must be taken to ensure that the fire does not flare up again. Foam should not be used in the home nor should it be used on liquid fires.

When using a water fire safety extinguisher, point and spray at the base of the fire. Water cools the fuel surfaces and a spray is effective because the water covers a greater surface area than a jet release. These extinguishers usually contain surfactants which help the water penetrate deep into the burning material. Use the dry powder to attack the fire and force it to the far edge until it is out. It works by acting as a thermal ballast which makes the flames too cool for chemical reactions to continue. They quickly knockdown the fire but they may not keep it out. For solid fires, point the foam extinguisher at the base and move it across the area of the fire. For liquid fires in a container, point the spray at the inside edge of the container. Foam is usually water based, with the foaming agent designed to float on top of the burning material, breaking the contact between the flames and its fuel.

The next time you see a fire safety extinguisher, you should know how important it is and how you should use it. Remember, although a water fire extinguisher is better than nothing, it is not nearly as effective as its foam or dry powder equivalent. Know what fires to use them on, find out how to use them and try and learn how they work for a greater understanding of how to deal with fires.

While everyone knows the importance of a fire safety alarm for their home, having effective fire safety alarm systems for entire buildings seems to be something that gets continually ignored. Every building except domestic premises are subject to the Regulatory Reform Order 2005 and the ‘Responsible Person‘, whomever that is, is in charge of risk assessment. Therefore, a fire safety alarm system is not only essential for safety, it is also illegal not to have one if you own or look after a building. There are generally three different kinds of fire alarms available: Conventional, Analogue and Wireless systems.

Conventional alarm systems have a number of detectors and call points wired to the Fire Alarm Control Panel and these are separated into zones. A zone is a circuit and this would usually be wired to individual floors of the Fire Department. There are also a number of zone lamps. The purpose of the zones is to give the department a good idea where the fire has occurred. The control panel is wired to at least two sounder circuits that are designed to emit audible sounds.

Analogue detectors are sometimes known erroneously as ‘intelligent’ fire safety alarm systems. In actual fact, the majority of analogue detectors are anything but intelligent. They only give outputs signals with no actual sign that there is definitely a fire. It is then left up to the control panel to ascertain whether there is a fire, or if its just a fault. As one can imagine, such alarms would be irritating and time consuming for fire brigades in cities who have to deal with dozens or hundreds of calls a day. The truly intelligent analogue detectors however are excellent devices because their computer evaluates the environment around the alleged fire, figuring out for itself the nature of the alarm and informing the control panel of the reason for the alarm. This type of fire safety alarm is far more advanced than conventional systems.

If you don’t want one of the traditional wired fire alarm systems, then there is a wireless option available. They interconnect the sensors and devices like smoke detectors with the controllers using secure, license-free radio communications. This is a fairly simple but effective concept and is every bit as useful as its conventional fire alarm system counterpart without the hassle of cables. When a fire safety alarm system is being fitted, things like the number of zones required and the maximum amount of detectors also need to be considered.

Although a fire alarm is a fine tool for alerting you to the dangers posed by fire, they cannot protect your property when you’re not there. With a fire safety alarm system, the fire brigade will instantly be informed if a fire takes place in your home and will rush over there to save your property. They are assisted by the likes of conventional, analogue and wireless systems that give them the maximum amount of time required to successfully find and put out the fire, hopefully preventing too much damage from being done to your home.