Effective extinguishing

This issue, our engineers tackle extinguisher questions.

Q. The Occupational Safety and Health,Administration (OSHA) requires my company to train employees how to use the extinguishers we've placed throughout the building. OSHA has no clear guidelines on the training that's needed. What do you suggest for this type of training program?

A. Assuming that these are average employees and not individuals who are part of a fire department, I would suggest a training program with three parts. First, show the NFPA video "Fight or Flight," which portrays average people who don't know how to use extinguishers. They fumble with them at the beginning, but after some training, they're extinguishing fires. Follow this with classroom instruction using the Fighting Small Fires workbook as a guide. This neat little booklet has questions at the end of each chapter so the reader can check his or her comprehension of the covered material. The final step in a good training program is to take the class outside and have the students discharge the types of extinguishers used in the building. Experts are still debating whether to use real fires for this type of training. Unless you have access to a fire academy, however, stay away from lighting training fires. One final tip is to include the Fire Extinguishers in the Workplace brochure with employees' paychecks periodically. Q. Why do many extinguishers have hoses?

A. One obvious reason is to let the user easily direct the extinguishing agent across the base of the fire. The hose also allows access to hard-to-reach places like behind a large mainframe computer. Additionally, a novice will often turn an extinguisher without a hose on its side, not realizing that only a portion of the extinguishing agent will discharge. The hose gives the novice something to do with both hands, forcing the extinguisher to be held upright, enabling essentially all of the agent to be expelled.

Q Our company bought a building that, although we'll use it every day, will remain unheated I need to place 2-A rated extinguishers throughout the building. I like the 2'/ gallon stored pressure water extinguisher but am concerned about freezing. Any suggestions? Consider the loaded stream extinguisher. Basically, it's a 21/2-gallon water extinguisher with an alkili-metal salt solution additive that prevents freezing. The loaded stream agent won't freeze at temperatures as low as -40F. Many 21-gallon water extinguishers are listed for both water and loaded stream. Q Like many hospitals, ours just installed a new helicopter landing pad After reviewing NFPA 418, Standard for Heliports, we decided to install either dry chemical or foam extinguishers. The people using the extinguishers may have no firefighting experience, so which type would be best for us?

A Although dry chemical is more effective on pressurized or flowing-fuel (three-dimensional) fires, a spill fire is a more likely scenario. A novice would probably be more effective with a foam extinguisher on a spill fire. But, if the hospital has the money available, get both.

Q. What course of action should be taken in the event of a fire in a restaurant deep-fat fryer?

A. If a commercial fryer (new terminology for deep-fat fryer) catches fire, it's due to overheating of the cooking oil to the point at which the oil autoignites. Most commercial fryers have extinguishing systems. Always pull the manual actuation for the extinguishing system first, unless the system has already dumped. This does two things: It shuts off the fuel or power to the fryer and discharges the extinguishing agent. This should put the fire out. If the fire reflashes, it may be too much for an extinguisher to handle. If an extinguisher is used, remember to use the right type and to begin discharging the extinguisher about 10 feet away, being careful not to splash the oil. *

Copyright National Fire Protection Association Mar/Apr 1997
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