Are you prepared?  Are your kids?  It’s Summer and you are trying to find something to do, educate your kids on fire safety one morning.  Run a fire drill in your home, create maps {with crayons and construction paper} on safe routes out of your home, a meeting place for the entire family if there ever was a fire, a whole protection plan for your entire family to practice.  Kids find this fascinating and the older ones LISTEN and truly absorb the concept and education behind this task.  Make it fun!  And as an adult, educate yourself often.  Today, you’ll be receiving information on the CO2 Fire Extinguisher and how to properly use one in your home.  I must admit, we do not own a fire extinguisher…I think it’s time to get one!  Thanks Chris Curry from Fire Protection Online; it’s good for us all to take a moment, stop shopping, and learn something that could save our lives…

The Proper Use of a CO2 Fire Extinguisher

For many years, water was the only thing used in the art of fighting fires. But as technology and intelligence has increased, we have seen a different trend. Now, CO2 fire extinguishers are becoming the norm in a wide variety of fire fighting situations. One of the main reasons for this is that they are incredibly versatile. This means that they can be used in a wide variety of fire fighting situations. While water is typically only useful in Class A fires, CO2 can be used in Class, A, B and C fires. Also, it is extremely effective in all of these types of fires. However, without knowing how to properly use it, you will not be able to reap the benefits. Unfortunately, although it is fairly simple, if you have never used one in the past you might have difficulty the first time. And you certainly don’t want your first time to be when you are in the face of an inferno.

This is one of the reasons that it is important to take the extinguisher on a dry run. Depending on the size of it, these devices can in fact be much heavier than one might suppose. So by simply picking it up and practicing aiming it, you will automatically become better prepared to combat a fire. Although you shouldn’t actually set off the fire, you can practice holding it and aiming it. As most of us know, you need to attack the fire at the base and not at the top. So get used to aiming it low. If possible, try to hold it for a long period of time. This is the only way to find out if you are going to be physically able to fight the fire if the situation arises.

Although a CO2 fire extinguisher can be used in a variety of situations, it is still important to know the various types of fires. A Class A fire is one of the most common household fires. These types of fires include wood, paper and other items that can be found around the house. Although water will work with these types of fires, it is not usually the best idea. Since water can in fact cause more damage than the fire itself, you should instead use a CO2 fire extinguisher. In the case of a Class B fire, that involves gas or other flammable items, you need to take absolute caution. Unless you have to, it is advisable to wait until the professionals arrive. One wrong move can turn deadly and can even cause a small fire to blow out of control. An explosion is always a great risk in any type of fire, so make sure you know what you are dealing with.

By simply becoming aware of how to operate the extinguisher, you automatically make yourself better prepared to fight a fire. Of course, no one wants to ever have to fight a fire but it can happen to anyone. And if you are prepared, then your chances of survival are greatly increased.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under MAMAELAN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.