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A water fire extinguisher is the most commonly used type of fire extinguisher.  As the name suggests, the extinguishing agent is water, which cools the heat of a fire. One of its main advantages over other mediums such as foam or powder extinguishers is the fact that it doesn’t leave a mess or residue when discharged. Its main disadvantage is that it conducts electricity so care needs to be taken when using a water extinguisher to prevent any hazards. A water extinguisher specified with a carbon dioxide extinguisher in various locations such as offices, schools or shops is usually a very effective combination to offer the correct fire risk coverage.

Another advantage of plain water extinguishers is that they are environmentally friendly and are safe to discharge down drains. These are great for training use and are both cheap and easy to refill.

Some water extinguishers contain a wetting agent or additive which helps to reduce the waters surface tension to enable it to extinguish the fire more efficiently.  This also increases the fire rating of the extinguisher allowing smaller fire extinguishers to be used with the same fire rating as a larger one.

For example, a 21a rated fire extinguisher may be recommended by the fire service, in this instance, a 6l water extinguisher with additive may be used instead of a larger 9l water extinguisher.  If a 13a rated fire extinguisher is suitable for your needs, a 3 litre water with additive may be a lighter, smaller alternative to a standard 9 litre water extinguisher. Overall water is still a popular choice to cover the floor fire risk rating but there is much more choice than the traditional 9 litre water fire extinguisher.

Fire blankets are a great cost effective fire fighting medium.  They are inexpensive to buy and maintain, and are great to have in the home and garage as well as in the workplace.

The most common use for a fire blanket is for putting out cooking fires, however they have many more uses including to smother clothing fires and for extinguishing waste paper bin fires.

Check your home insurance policy – your premiums may be reduced if you have fire fighting equipment such as a fire blanket or extinguisher. It is common for caravan or motorhome insurance to include a clause, requiring you have an small extinguisher and fire blanket.

If you smoke, use candles or have portable heaters, the risk of having a fire in your home is increased, it is therefore advisable to keep a fire blanket for any accidental fires which you may be able to extinguish before they turn into a larger uncontrollable fire.

Most fires in the home are caused by cooking, the most dangerous cooking fires are those started by hot cooking oil.  To ensure safety when cooking with hot oil, only fill a pan 1/3rd full of oil and ensure it doesn’t get too hot.  The best way to do this is by using a temperature controlled deep fat fryer.  You should not attempt to move a burning pan or fight a cooking fat fire with a fire extinguisher (except a specialist wet chemical fire extinguisher with an F class rating) or attempt to put it out by pouring water on it, each kind of attempt will aggravate the fire and risk splashing the hot oil and spreading the fire.  Use your fire blanket to smother the fire if it is safe to and you are confident in your ability to use it effectively.  However, if you doubt your ability to fight a fire in your home, get out and call the fire brigade.

A question often asked is ‘Which fire extinguisher is suitable for all fire risks? The clear answer to this question is ‘None!’. There is simply no extinguisher that is suitable for all industrial fire risks. However, a new extinguisher generation is now making it possible to have just one portable extinguisher type in residential housing, schools and standard offices. The Jewel Dry Water Mist Extinguisher is suitable for A, B, C and F class fires. This extinguisher contains de-ionised water and nitrogen and produces an extremely fine ‘dry’ water mist with a droplet size of less than 25 microns. The water mist penetrates burning surfaces, cools the fire and expels oxygen as it expands.

As the droplets are not heavy enough to sink into fat fires, they are perfectly suited for extinguishing fat fire and deep fat fryer fires. The water mist extinguishers are certified for A and F risks but are also very powerful on B and even C fires. Hopefully, the British Standards are going to be rewritten soon to allow water media to be certified for B and C categories, something that is not possible yet.

As the extinguishers are filled with de-ionised water and because there is no solid jet the extinguishers are safe for use near electrical appliances.

The water mist extinguishers do not create a mess, no puddles of extinguishing agent and can be used in confined spaces. They do not require any specialist training, as they do not cause splashes into burning liquids and are safe to inhale. They cannot be used as an offensive weapon and refills are extremely cheap.
These extinguishers allow the replacement of water, powder, foam, CO2 and wet chemical extinguishers in most applications!

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 aims to reduce discrimination and ensures that disabled people have civil rights in the areas of: employment, education, access to goods, facilities and services, and buying or renting property. The Act requires public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people including considering the safe escape of disabled people in emergency situations.

Disability Rights Commission estimates that 11 million people in the UK have some kind of disability. This may impact on their ability to leave a building speedily in the event of fire or make them totally dependent on others to escape. Installing an evacuation chair will help your company meet the duty of care under Health and Safety Discrimination legislation and also meet the requirements of the Regulatory Reform ( Fire Safety) order 2005.

Most lightweight evacuation chairs are a cost effective solution suitable for light / emergency use and can be neatly folded away in very little space. Tracked evacuation chairs may be used by a single user to aid the evacuation of those in need of assistance over stairs with an even, controlled descent with no heavy lifting or manual handling necessary. Evacuation chairs are used in all public buildings such as office blocks, hospitals, hotels, shopping centres, and department stores.

The Disability Rights Commission state ‘There is no document which states that disabled people should be left in a building to wait for emergency services during a fire Situation – all people should be evacuated if there is a fire’. Apart from the clear risk to life, employers and those in charge of a building who leave disabled persons in a fire refuge could also be guilty of discrimination.

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