The Right Way to Use a Fire Extinguisher

A FIRE EXTINGUISHER IS MORE THAN A of one 5-gallon bucket becomes the size of 64 burning buckets. Just 180 seconds after it begins, a fire can be transformed from a nuisance to a room-size, life-threatening inferno.

- Roy Berendsohn

What we state above is a pillar of firefighting science, and we came across it in taking a class on using a fire extinguisher at the newly opened Allentown Fire Training Academy in Pennsylvania. Our instructor was John Christopher, the fire department's captain of public affairs. Every week, he teaches a wide cross-section of the community the tool that puts out a fire. It can be the arbiter between life and death. Consider this: Fire with access to air and fuel will double in size every 30 seconds. In three minutes, a fire that starts out the size intricacies of using a fire extinguisher. Construction company employees, truck drivers, nursing home employees have all taken his brief class.

Like learning CPR or first aid, training yourself to use a fire extinguisher can save your own life and property, or that of someone else.