When they experience a fire, people naturally reach for whatever is to hand in an attempt to put out the flames. But when you’re faced with an emergency, it’s important to know that each tool has its own purpose and no one solution fits all, since picking the wrong one could make things far more dangerous.
While this might seem like a theoretical risk, it’s been a documented cause of fire-related injuries, and that’s why fire safety professionals consider training in knowing where – and importantly what – your extinguisher is to be just as important as having one there in the first place. Knowing what your fire extinguisher is is simply a matter of fire safety. For Fire Extinguishers Oxford, contact https://firealarmsystems.co.uk/
If you try putting water on an electrical fire, the water acts as a conduit for electricity. Suddenly, if the area includes burning electrical equipment, the water could provide an easier pathway for electricity to flow back to you. At that point, you would face the risk of electrocution rather than of burning.
Water won’t put out a cooking oil fire, but it can cause it to explode. For example, in a common domestic fire scenario involving cooking oil, if you spray water onto the oil, then it vapourises and instantly turns the oil into superheated oil at up to 1,700 times the volume of the water added to it. Within a fraction of a second, a fireball could erupt and push flames right up to the ceiling. In contrast, the wet chemical extinguishers used to tackle such fires suppress them without causing extra problems.
With other types of fires, certain extinguishing agents, such as dry powder, can reduce visibility to almost zero, while failing to address the fuel source.
In short, the wrong fire extinguisher in the wrong hands can become a dangerous object.