Fire Extinguishers

Responsibility for providing fire extinguishers lies with your business. You are required to provide means of fighting small fires.

We only provide extinguishers which are manufactured to the legal standard BS EN 3.

Unfortunately there isn’t a single fire extinguisher for all fires. We can review your premises and then guide you to the best extinguisher for the potential fire risks.

Types of fire

It’s important to identify the types of materials in the area of the fire. Fires are then split into different classes.

Class A:
Solids, e.g. wood, cloth, rubber, paper, and some types of plastics
Class B:
Liquids or Liquefiable solids, e.g. petrol, oil, paint and also some waxes & plastics, but not cooking fats or oils
Class C:
Gases, e.g. natural gas, hydrogen, propane, butane
Class D:
Metals, e.g. sodium, magnesium, and potassium
Class E:
Electrical appliances, wiring, or other electrically energized objects in the vicinity of the fire
Class F:
Cooking fats and oils. Extremely high temperature means that normal fire extinguishers should not be used.

Colour Coding of fire extinguishers

Water
(class A)
Signal red
For wood, paper, textile and solid material fires
Powder
(class A+B+C)
Red with a blue panel
For liquid and electrical fire
Foam
(class A+B)
Red with a cream panel
For use on liquid fires
Carbon Dioxide
(class E)
Red with a black panel
For liquid and electrical fires
Wet Chemical
(class F)
Red with a canary yellow panel
For cooking fat and oil fires