When it's expended, you can use the empty casing to beat the fire into submission.

Grab hold of the tube and hammer away at the burning bits.

Askreddit often has "what should be taught in high school" questions.

I think a practical/hands-on demonstration of a fire extinguisher should be taught and used. They're in most public places, but few people have actually ever used them. It's just as important to show what kind of fires they work on and how long they last so you know when to try to put out a fire and also when to just run.

I discovered this after seeing this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/zvr8cl/christmas_wreath_burn_down_because_of_candle/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

The product says it can spray for 32 seconds which is 4x longer than other extinguishers and I was ready to call BS on that. But sure enough after a bit of googling, the smaller home extinguishers don’t even last 10 seconds!

Now I’m feeling a bit paranoid since I’ve got a few young kids in the house that can’t even open their bedroom door and would even need to be carried. In the event of an emergency in the middle of the night I can’t even imagine 30 seconds is enough to get everyone out and safe. Am I underestimating how fast we would be moving? Is there a different product I should have to give peace of mind?

Fire extinguishers are AMAZING. Had a grease fire my first Thanksgiving after my goose baking dish leaked in my oven. 5 mins from being done and my oven erupted in flames. Luckily I had purchased a fire extinguisher. It ruined the meal but saved my house and oven. BUY ONE NOW. (Check it regularly too they do go bad)

There should also be mandatory First Aid courses. In my country First Aid courses are only mandatory for your driver license.

Your high school didn’t do that?

That’s not the only thing that last twenty seconds high-fives self

You can get a 200 pound extinguisher that can be sprayed for 250 seconds but usually the entire house has burned down by the time you get it out of the cabinet under the sink.

It's smoke that gets people, not fire. Fire alarms and crawling is the answer. So if you're that worried, install smoke alarms and buy a respirator with a filter that works against fire smoke, store it low where you can reach it from all fours with eyes closed. And for some extra fun on a rainy day practice crawling with your eyes closed to the respirator, put it on, crawl to kids bedroom and out the door. (Then see if the neigbours believe your explanation of what you're doing locked out of the house on all fours in your PJs with a gas mask on, and report back pls)

25 seconds is an absolute eternity in an emergency. This is a miracle of science we can get 25 seconds.

Umm, How does fire extinguisher run time correlate to time to escape a fire?

You either spray the fire or you say screw it get out of the house… or spray then throw it down, yell like Bill Paxton in Twister and run like hell to GTfO when it’s insufficient in taking out the fire. You don’t have to be spraying the whole time you’re leaving.

My school district had a mandatory CPR course that was tied into health class. Not first aid though.

Come on, that’s a very reasonable time to last. He is trying his best

Me 🤝 fire extinguishers

A fire extinguisher either puts out the fire in seconds or it doesn't. If you need more than a few seconds to put out a fire, it's already totally out of control until real fire suppression measures get there, and even then it's generally more of a "prevent spread" thing.

10 seconds is a long time in an emergency. Count ten-mississippis and imagine you're trying to put out a fire.

I've used extinguishers multiple times, and it's usually a couple quick one second bursts to knock the fire out, followed by emptying the thing to be sure it stays out.

Yeah but they completely cover your garage and the inside of a McDonald's in a thick layer of dusty BUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLL-SHIT!

It's a shame the BCF Halon extinguishers are no longer manufactured (since Halon is the worst CFC depleter known to science) I remember a single 1/4 second spray on a full-on oil fire (as in, a barrel of burning oil) put it out immediately, remarkable shit.

You can last twenty seconds?!? *High five*

maybe OP's thinking is worst case scenario with a fire well on it's way to consuming the structure and best hope is just calm/slow/delay the fire's spread to get time to get everyone out which is one way to look at it.

My thought is to have multiple extinguishers prepositioned along with multiple ways out including windows. heavy blankets in the bedrooms hallways. tossed over the back of the couch. etc.

and these throwable extinguishers are amazing in an enclosed space that would challenge a handheld pressurized unit.

They can shut down a kitchen fire in one or 2 shots or make a hole through a larger fire to be able to get out the door.

spend for proper smoke detectors. don't forget the garage if you park indoors.

To be fair, goose flambé sounds like it was ruined before you applied the CO2 sauce

Seconding what this guy said. If you empty an extinguisher and the fire’s not out, you should’ve been running in the first place

Exactly! Count to 25 out loud.

The problem with halon is it tends to kill people in the room too, not just the fire. It’s a little too good at displacing oxygen

Subway kid begs to differ

If there is a fire in the middle of the night, you get everyone the hell out first. Then call the fire department. Then if it is safe, get your fire extinguisher and try to put it out.

Mine didn't either (UK). A company I worked with did though.

Holy fucking shit, fire is terrifying, even a controlled fire used for training purposes. Fire extinguishers are also pretty effective for the size of fires they're okay at fighting - if you cannot put it out in 5 seconds, stop fighting the fire and do a fucking runner.

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Ah, I thought the goose itself was up in flames.

Happened to my grandmother once when she was cooking lamb.

(The lamb was up in flames, there was no goose involved)

I can only imagine OP is thinking of a scenario where he'll be running through fire filled rooms and extinguishing the flames in his direct path to the exit, like a video game or something.

Fires in the oven aren’t too crazy, they look scary but if you keep the door closed they will suffocate themselves.

…while full of adrenaline

>there was no goose involved

Maybe that was the problem

Don’t see how it would have helped. Geese suck at cooking

Would make for a fun and memorable lesson too, vs like "how to do income taxes"

I think Id say first aid is like three things: CPR, recognizing a stroke and stopping bleeds.

Yeah the big sealed metal box that's expressly designed to get hot is the best fire extinguisher of them all.

It's why you should have a cooker cut-off switch away from the cooker so you can turn it off without risking yourself and then just let it burn out.

If plural children is sleeping and there is a non tiny fire I am grabbing the kids and going to the neighboer to wait for the fire men.

Even if there isnt children. I will only put out tiny fires.

My fireman friend told his kids to just leave if it burns. Dont risk your health to save the insurance company money.

As someone who worked in industry, training on use is essential. At least watch a video on YouTube before you need to use one.

Learn P.A.S.S. Point, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep. Google it, having trouble copying on my phone.

We had annual training on them and the one time we really needed it, you could see who was goofing off during the class.

We had a fire break out on a machine that coiled hot steel. The grease use to lubricate the equipment caught on fire. The crew looked like the Keystone Kops when they turned on the water to the fire hose mounted by the coiler before unreeling it. Hose just blew up. Then they grabbed fire extinguishers (5) and after figuring out how to charge them, just aimed at one spot. By this time they finally called the fire department.

I grabbed the last extinguisher and swept the flames out.

I was a volunteer firefighter for a while and the general rule of thumb is that if you can see a fire burning then by the time you get to an extinguisher it is too late.

There are plenty of exceptions I know but I was about saving lives not property

Exactly this, most people are flapping in a fire too

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And what I learned in my "mass shooter prevention" class at work is they make great weapons. You can swing them as blunt object. You can spray them in someone's face and it's always disorienting and you can spray them on the floor to make the floor extremely slippery.

I've been on many such courses as I work in schools, and I'm now technically a "fire warden" in one.

Let me tell you what we're taught, every year for about the last 20+ years:

GET OUT.

Raise the alarm.

GET EVERYONE OUT.

Don't fight the fire unless absolutely necessary.

GET OUT.

That fire extinguisher won't do crap against an established fire.

GET OUT.

Don't stop for anything.

GET OUT.

The official line is that the "extinguisher" is not an "extinguisher" but to help you secure your exit if you're entirely trapped by the fire. That's it.

We're told - by ex-firefighters who specialise in the training nowadays, know we deal with tiny little tots, and have seen horrors of all kinds - to not try, to get out, and anything larger than a wastepaper basket... forget it. Just get out.

The "hands-on" demo is an exercise in disappointment. Water ones you can piss more water on the fire, and from further away! CO2 ones are going out of fashion and don't really do very much and can be dangerous to you (they're being replaced by modified foam powders). Powder ones just make a damn mess and you better hope you covered every single inch of the fuel with the limited amount you have or it'll just reignite.

Basically, as a fire warden, in a school, where there's the most critical usage of equipment, the most expense spent on fire equipment, lots of training on fire equipment, things like design and technology labs with CNCs, laser-cutters, etc., swimming pools with chlorine and other chemicals, science labs with all kinds of lovely flammables, propane, gas heaters and boilers, cooking rooms with all kinds of fire hazard, everything you can imagine... as a FIRE WARDEN, we're told to just get out, and get everyone else out.

They're not for you to fight a fire, that's completely the wrong terminology. They're to put out the very, very, very beginnings of a fire that you could do in a thousand more effective ways, like "taking the burning bin away from other flammables" or "closing the oven" or just letting it burn out.

I've been doing this for 23 years in schools - some of them specialist behaviour schools where kids would try to set the school on fire. I can name real incidents - a candle left to burn in an unoccupied room that a member of staff was living in (boarding school), a cardboard box left on top of a stove, a grease-fire in a canteen kitchen hood. Each time the alarm was sounded within seconds, automatically.

The worst was the latter - actual flames going up out of the hood and visible outside the school, and we evacuated the whole building in under 2 minutes. NOBODY in their right mind was going to tackle that fire.

In all that time, I've never picked up or used an extinguisher except in the training you mention, and nor has anyone else.

Extinguishers aren't for what you think they are. If you're not willing to use it on candle just seconds after the flame gets big (which means you'll piss off a lot of people putting out fires that were likely going to burn out anyway), it's not worth using it at all.

If you ever have to stop to think "what kind of fire is this, what kind of extinguisher should I use", it's likely too late for that extinguisher to do anything.

Just get out. Every time.

Raise the alarm, get out, get everyone out.

The extinguisher is for when there's a kid stuck in a room, surrounded entirely by fire, no way to get them out, and you're literally willing to sacrifice yourself to try to get to them THIS INSTANT rather than hang on a little for the professionals. Even then, fuck that. I've seen them. They won't work like you think. You can put out a small wastepaper basket, that's about it. In most instances a fire blanket is actually far more useful.

You want to train your kids? Train them to evacuate, raise alarms and to check and fit smoke alarms correctly as they get older. A well-trained school has a THOUSAND CHILDREN, from toddlers to stroppy teenagers, adults, guests, staff and visitors, all out of danger and accounted for within 2 minutes. TWO MINUTES.

Just get the fuck out. Everything else is property, objects, things. You burn or get overcome while trying to put out a fire, someone's got to risk THEIR life to come get YOU out.

And anything you COULD have put out? It'll be out by the time you're outside OR the professionals will get it out, no problem. With 10,000 times the water in seconds.

All these stories here about "X caught fire, and I used this extinguisher" ask yourself the questions: Who called the fire in? Who got everyone else out? Who set off the alarm? Why would you not do that FIRST? Because if the extinguisher hadn't worked (and it won't on anything non-trivial), you just cost yourself over a minute of your evacuation time and now people are caught off-guard and an exit is blocked, and STILL nobody knows about it outside the immediate vicinity.

Where as my ass can go from up to 2500 seconds. Starts fires though.

Less actually. It’s 13 seconds for most 20 lbers

They don’t last for 25 seconds. 13 is standard for 20 lbers.

That's what she said

Run away and switch off all the breakers

25 seconds is more than just "seconds", especially if you are actually using it.

Aside from those kitchen ones obviously Most fire extinguishers are not to put all the fire out, they are there to give you a path to an exit

I don't think that's true.

Wikipedia:

> For example, Halon 1301 total flooding systems are typically used at concentrations no higher than 7% by volume in air, and can suppress many fires at 2.9% v/v. [...] Halon 1301 causes only slight giddiness at its effective concentration of 5%, and even at 15% those exposed remain conscious but impaired and suffer no long-term effects.

Also, Halon extinguishers don't work by displacing oxygen. They disrupt the chemical reaction of the fire itself by providing an alternative reaction.

Apologies, I'd heard that a while ago and never questioned it. Turns out Halon fell out of favor because it damages the Ozone layer; CO2's the bigger danger for oxygen displacement.

EDIT:

Inhaling halon compounds in high concentrations can cause central nervous

system disorders including dizziness, unconsciousness and tingling in the arms and legs. Exposure

to halon compounds may also cause cardiac sensitization resulting in irregular heartbeats and even

heart attacks (in a severe circumstances). This is because when halon is used on fires, it produces

such decomposition byproducts as hydrogen chloride, hydrogen bromide and traces of free

halogens.

https://eteba.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SafetyShare-6-6-2016-Health-Hazards-of-Fire-Extinguishers.pdf

Just to ask the question. hypothetically, if the oven had a convection feature turned on, is that fan just moving the air around the ovemn? or introducing outside air? if outside air., I imagine it would just feed a fire in this case. but Im guess, no outside air is introduced to the oven. Perhaps a reddit oven pro can fill me in?

I fired one off as a kid because I wanted to know what it was like. My parents were annoyed but not really mad; when I shot the other one off because the first was so fun, they were mad!

I did a fire extinguisher course at work a few years back. It was an enormous eye opener for me.

We built fires, out in the car park. Then we got to use a whole bunch of extinguishers on them.

Holy shit. We'd all massively misjudged how well each type would work.

Water: Awesome for most fires (don't use it on burning liquids). Really made a huge difference.

Foam: Not bad for burning solid stuff. Worked really quite well on a quart of burning petrol (gasoline).

Dry powder: Worked well to put out petrol. Also worked well to make it hard to see (outdoors). If you use one in a confined space, you'd better have a good recollection of where the door is to leave, 'cos you ain't going to be able to see your way there. Won't stick to a vertical surface that's on fire.

CO2: If you want to blow burning embers of paper and cardboard everywhere, accept no substitute. If you want to put out a burning solids fire, don't pull the pin, instead use the base of the extinguisher to beat the flames out. You get only a few seconds of CO2, and it's SHOCKINGLY loud in a confined space. I had almost zero success with CO2 - in a controlled environment, with no risk to personal safety, and having had verbal instruction just seconds before.

Whoa, check out Mr. Marathon Man over here! 🙄

Fire extinguishers (as I have mentioned elsewhere) are your absolute best friend in an active shooter situation. If you have no other option and you cannot escape or hide, they can be used to distract, to shield, and most importantly (and as the final resort) attack the skull of the gunman with extreme prejudice. And you don't want to stop until you see grey goop.

Did a training course with an FBI instructor a few years back who taught me that.

I've always found dry chem to be a better pairing with goose. I save my CO2 for beef and lamb.

Is it weird that I expected as much?

Point is, you shouldn't use them continiously, they're meant to be sprayed in single, short bursts

One time my brother sprayed an old fire extinguisher at me because he thought it would be like TV: just covering me with whipped cream or something. It shot a burning powder straight into my eyes and mouth.

Thanks for coming from a different angle and understanding. Yes worst case scenario where there is a fire on the stairs and section of the floor which is between me and the kids. I would need to be in and out of 3 rooms and then get out of the house.

This makes sense. I should probably buy a little one just to get a feel for it. I’ve never sprayed one before so I’m happy thinking I may be underestimating the effectiveness.

My train of thought was regarding one kept in my room for the sole purpose of getting the family out asap. Everything else is replaceable.

Absolutely. My thought was regarding a fire separating me from the kids. The stairs are also in between our rooms so if there was a fire blocking the path I would assume it would also be on the stairs and the same extinguisher would be needed to get us out of the house.

It is! I've used one and it was way more time than was needed to put out the first completely.

I‘m one step ahead of you, using a fire extinguisher strapped to a skateboard to escape the country when it‘s time to pay taxes.

We have the alarms and I suppose that really would be what gives us plenty of time to get out and make my new found paranoia unnecessary. :)

Just keep it under your pillow in your bed

The vast majority of extinguishers you're likely to encounter in daily life are dry chem. CO2 are generally reserved for electrical fires, so if it's extinguished quickly, the equipment will only be damaged rather than destroyed. Occasionally you see them in kitchens, too, but most places will either have foam or a full on fogging system if it's a bigger setup.

Fire blankets are also a really good idea, as anyone (including kids) can use them and they're quite effective on say, a stove top that's lit up. Obviously those can get out of hand in a hurry, but in a lot of cases like that, or say, a garbage can or something that's on fire, a blanket can kill it before it gets too big. Obviously if you have any doubt about your ability to fight fire (no matter what tool you have), then get out, but there are plenty of situations where you can contain it if you keep your wits about you, and you have the proper equipment close by. Definitely an extinguisher (hopefully a decent sized one) and a blanket should be mandatory gear on anyone's deck or patio if you have any kind of bbq/grill/smoker happening.

If you go to any fire hall, there's a very decent chance they'll let you blast an extinguisher on something. In many cases (if they have the facilities) they'll even light something up for you and let you put it out. Lots of fire halls do this sort of thing for like, the Boy Scouts or school trips and crap, and most any firefighter will be delighted to show you proper technique and whatnot. Honestly I think every school age kid should get a trip to the local fire hall every so often and get their hands on a real extinguisher, so they're familiar and realize what they're all about, what they can and can't do.

Yeah there should definitely be one on every floor of your house, plus the kitchen gets its own. As well as any other potentially hazardous area (garage, bbq area, basement if you have like, a workshop or whatever in your basement).

where did you learn this? I'm not having a go, I'm curious.

Eternity yes, unless you're using a fire extinguisher on a big or growing fire.. in which case 25 seconds is a blink of an eye

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200lbs? that requires teamwork.

I can't speak to effectiveness of each, but there are other cool ones out there too; FM200 is something that removes the HEAT from the fire triangle!

I might actually look into this. That’s a really good idea especially if I can get a group involved.

Omg the fire is so much worse now! Can’t I start spraying???

You're supposed to replace/refill them after each use, regardless of whether it's completely used up.

So you're going to get a full 25 seconds for a single incident. And if 25 seconds of use isn't enough to put out the fire, you shouldn't be trying to put it out by yourself.

If you need that long to extinguish a fire then you need to get the fuck out.

Thank you for writing all of this!! Super helpful and honestly not intuitive to someone untrained

I'm a volunteer fireman. I'm also simplifying, but you usually don't need to spray a continuous stream of powder, bursts take away the oxygen and cover the burning surface. In addition to lasting a bit more, of course

Then again, there are a few misconceptions about fire extinguishers that come from films and movies: they're effective on small fires, to choke down a fire at the beginning, once the fire catches, you need other ways to fight it. And a lot of fires what can be extinguished with an extinguisher can be choked with a fire blanket. Which isn't as exciting to show in a TV show xD

So Wall-e LIED TO US

ah, okay, I was fire warden on most sites I've worked, some sites required us to just expend the extinguisher in one go and if fire wasn't contained GTFO, but most were as you said, short bursts and sweep along the base of the fire.

In practical terms, introducing fresh air means that the OvenU needs to heat it (requiring energy). You'd also need a definite exhaust path for the (quite hot) air. For a standalone cooker, that would heat the kitchen in short order. For these two reasons it makes sense that they'd be a closed systen.

Not going to happen. If the fire is such you cannot pass, and you use the exstingisher it will instantly make the room covered in smoke. You are not getting past it twice. I would go outside and break the windows to get the kids out.

Having fire exstibgishers are great for small stuff, and can save a lot of damage and hassle. But anything of size is dangerous.

Focus on prevention. Fire alarms in every occupied room, the ones where all ring if one ring. And being carefull with open flames, used batteries and never cooking unattended.

You're almost certainly better off going out the most convenient door and back in their bedroom window. The way more significant issue is you choking to death from the smoke of whatever's on fire.

Is it weird that this doesn't surprise me? Should this be surprising?

If you're trying to put out a fire and it needs more than a 25 second blast from a fire extinguisher... stop trying to put it out and start trying to escape.

If indoors, good advice. Unfortunately outdoors on cars that's not always the best plan.

100 percent an awesome idea. As I say, most every fire hall will be more than happy to show anyone who wants to know how to fight a small fire with the tools they're likely to have around them at home or work.