Fire Extinguishers

[Ashful]

When I moved to our current house from our old house, I brought my small collection of fire extinguishers with me, and just scattered them about the house. Now I'm finally trying to get them wall mounted in the most sensible locations. Owning mostly 5 and 10 lb. extinguishers, I'm wondering if I should up to 10 lb. and 15 lb., although the former would be easier for wife and/or kids to handle.

Here's my current plan, based on what I already own, although I'm more than willing to add to or replace what I own as it makes sense to do:

Barn / shop (2 floors x 20' x 30'): 10 lb. ABC dry nitrogen + 2.5 gal water extinguisher
Shed (un-heated): 2.5 lb. ABC (tractors)
Attached garage: 10 lb. ABC dry
Top of basement stair (1st floor): 10 lb. ABC dry
Top of main stair (2nd floor): 5 lb. ABC dry
Top of attic stair (3rd floor bedroom): 5 lb. ABC dry
Music studio (above garage): 12 lb. Halon (hey... I have it)

Thoughts? Should I buy another 2.5 pounder to go under the kitchen sink, for a quick grab? Kitchen is in middle of house, between garage and basement stair (each of which have their own extinguishers).

 

[jb6l6gc]

I think you have more than 99% of people lol. Good thing to have lots of. Wouldn't hurt to have one in the kitchen though

 

[bholler]

I would put one in the kitchen and a much larger one in the tractor shed

 

[firefighterjake]

As mentioned . . . a) you have more fire extinguishers than probably 99.8% of most Americans and b) it would be good to have a BC-rated extinguisher somewhere in or near the kitchen -- especially since cooking fires have been and will no doubt continue to be the leading cause of fires in the home.

Halon . . . impressed I am . . . you don't see too many of those in home use any more . . . halons used to be the "darling bud" of the fire service . . . until the whole, pesky deal with halon, freon and other CFCs causing the hole in the ozone caused the manufacturers to stop making new halon.

FYI: on your dry powder extinguishers just be sure the needle shows charged and in the green . . . and if you want to go a step beyond, every once in a while take one, tip it upside down and give it a couple raps with your hand to help loosen up the powder inside. Much like baking soda, if you leave the extinguisher (or baking soda box) in one place for long it will cake up and harden a bit. In the case of the baking soda you end up with big clumps when you only need a teaspoon . . . in the case of the fire extinguisher when you use the extinguisher you may not get as much extinguishing agent.

 

[Jags]

I am all for the addition of an extinguisher in the kitchen and readily accessible. I won't go into details on why I feel this strongly about it.

 

[firefighterjake]

Hmmm . . . mental note . . . bring extinguisher if Jags invites me over to dinner at his place and he is cooking.

 

[Jags]

Hmmm . . . mental note . . . bring extinguisher if Jags invites me over to dinner at his place and he is cooking.

No need. I now have two within spitting distance of the stove and oven.

 

[heat seeker]

Another good point - don't put the extinguisher near the potential source of the fire. You may not be able to get to it. For that reason, I keep an extinguisher well away from my stove. Depending on your lung power, spitting distance is far enough!

 

[Ashful]

Thanks, guys! Some replies:

I think you have more than 99% of people lol.

This is a larger house, and I suspect a lot of people don't have as many extinguishers as they'd wish, when a fire starts.

I would put one in the kitchen and a much larger one in the tractor shed

Thanks. I can easily squeeze a 2.5 pounder under the kitchen sink, although I do suspect we can get to the 10 pounder as fast as digging something out from under the sink. The tractor shed is attached to barn, where I have another 10 pounds and 2.5 gallons, so the small one out there is just for a quick grab. The location where I'd like to mount that unit (next to door) is pretty tight, hence the smaller size, but I might be able to fit a 5 lb. Amerex there.

Halon . . . impressed I am . . . you don't see too many of those in home use any more . . .

I come from a long line of firefighters (father, grandfather, great-grandfather), so no surprise, there. I can't remember why my father bought the Halon, but since he was involved in fire equipment and worked as a fire detective, I suspect he had good reasons. I wouldn't have bought it myself (not too good on the 'A' rating), but since I already have it...

FYI: on your dry powder extinguishers just be sure the needle shows charged and in the green . . . and if you want to go a step beyond, every once in a while take one, tip it upside down and give it a couple raps with your hand to help loosen up the powder inside. Much like baking soda, if you leave the extinguisher (or baking soda box) in one place for long it will cake up and harden a bit. In the case of the baking soda you end up with big clumps when you only need a teaspoon . . . in the case of the fire extinguisher when you use the extinguisher you may not get as much extinguishing agent.

Excellent advice! I knew to weigh them once per year for their tagged all-up weight, and not necessarily trust the gauge, but had not thought of tipping / shaking them. I will do that as I go around mounting them, and as part of my yearly checking them.

Another good point - don't put the extinguisher near the potential source of the fire. You may not be able to get to it. For that reason, I keep an extinguisher well away from my stove. Depending on your lung power, spitting distance is far enough!

Yeah, this is a challenge. "One per floor" and "mounted near exit" sort of dictates top of stair is a best compromise location for each extinguisher in the old wing of the house. However, top of stair is adjacent to stove room, in this 4-square central hall colonial layout. In fact, basement stair case lets out directly opposite stove in old kitchen (now a den).

 

[semipro]

Spending 5 minutes to teach your family how to use them could be critical. You may not be around when it happens. Their application is not intuitive.
Remove safeties -- aim at the base/source of the fire - pull the trigger and sweep back and forth. (at least that's what I remember from training at work)

 

[firefighterjake]

Spending 5 minutes to teach your family how to use them could be critical. You may not be around when it happen. Their application is not intuitive.
Remove safeties -- aim at the base/source of the fire - pull the trigger and sweep back and forth. (at least that's what I remember from training at work)

PASS

P -- Pull the safety pin
A -- Aim at the base of the fire
S -- Squeeze the handle
S -- Sweep side to side

And of course remembering that before using . . .

1. Call 911 and get everyone out
2. Have the right extinguisher for the right type of fire
3. Extinguishers are for small fires -- if the fire is bigger than you it's probably already too big to use an extinguisher on it
4. Don't breathe the smoke -- the smoke is what kills. If you cannot stay below the smoke layer, get out.

 

[Ashful]

I don't care what you say, I'm grabbing the extinguisher and yelling for someone else to call 911, before taking time to find a phone myself! It'll take a long time for fire to travel to any part of the house far enough away that people are not already aware it's happening. With 14 smoke detectors on-premises, I don't think any fire will get very far, before we catch it.

 

[Ashful]

Hey Jake, would that Halon unit be good for mounting in the kitchen? At 9 lb. of agent, it's bigger than I'd buy for kitchen if I were buying new, but I'm not sure I really have any other use for it. Rating is 1-A:10-B:C.

 

[BrotherBart]

Before Halon was banned we had the activation buttons on the outside of the door in our data centers. It works by very efficiently displacing all of the oxygen in the room. And would extinguish the employees just as fast as the fire.

 

[Ashful]

Yeah... I'm actually old enough to remember those, too! There are two types of halon, tho... one for fogging, another for spraying. The fog systems were dangerous, but effective!

 

[firefighterjake]

Hey Jake, would that Halon unit be good for mounting in the kitchen? At 9 lb. of agent, it's bigger than I'd buy for kitchen if I were buying new, but I'm not sure I really have any other use for it. Rating is 1-A:10-B:C.

You could use the halon pretty much anywhere in your home ... kitchen is as good a place as any.

 

[Ashful]

Well, sure... but that "1-A" makes me think I better grab one of the dry chemicals if there's more than grease or electronics burning.

 

[firefighterjake]

Well, sure... but that "1-A" makes me think I better grab one of the dry chemicals if there's more than grease or electronics burning.

Not to mention that it would be much, much, much cheaper to use a dry chem extinguisher when it comes time to replace it or refill it.

 

[Ashful]

Speaking of which, I got around to weighing that unit last night. It's right on min spec for gross weight. Gauge is still in the green, but on the low edge of the green range. Time to get that one serviced, I guess.

 

[billb3]

You don't have to be cooking to have an oven fire.

I remember carrying an electric stove out of the house with my dad when I was a teen smoldering with an electrical wiring fire first thing in the morning one morning. No drama. Just carried it out to the middle of the yard in case it wanted to smolder for a while.
"Well, I guess that's the end of that. "

 

[Ashful]

Guess it had a plug? They're almost always hard-wired, here. Would be fun getting it out of the house, in a hurry, without a screwdriver or some very serious wire cutters.

 

[billb3]

Plug like a (220) dryer.
I've never seen a range hardwired, just cooktops and built-in wall ovens. Last range I bought didn't come with a cord, I was shocked.

 

[Ashful]

I think our current (PA is on NEC 2008) code calls for a plug, but it seems most folks are still (re-) using the hardwired connection that was on their older stoves. One dies, pull it out, disconnect, slide new one in, wire back up.

 

[BrotherBart]

Not to mention that it would be much, much, much cheaper to use a dry chem extinguisher when it comes time to replace it or refill it.

Especially if you go to the bankruptcy auction of a large mattress store that had to have 34 medium and large dry chems by code. Bought them all for $135 dollars and while I was hauling them out I sold three for $150.

 

[jharkin]

I think you are dong great Ash, reminds me that I need to check mine.


I keep 3 around. All placed so that going to get them is also taking me in the direction of exiting the area at risk.

- One hanging on the wall at the bottom of the basement stairs
- One at the back door near the kitchen
- On in the garage hung between the 2 doors