Equipping Your Home With Fire Extinguishers? 4 Safety Tips To Follow

If you don't have at least one fire extinguisher in your home, make some changes right away. There should always be at least one working fire extinguisher in your home at all times. But, it's important that you take the right precautions when equipping your home with a fire extinguisher. Here are some tips that will help you ensure proper fire safety in your home. 

Know the Type You Need

If you're going to buy a fire extinguisher for your home, make sure you buy the right kind. You might not know this, but there are a variety of extinguishers to choose from. Each one is designed to extinguish a specific type of fire. Because of that, it's important that your home is equipped with the right type of fire extinguisher. For instance, you wouldn't want to use a fire extinguisher designed to put out paper fires on an oil fire. That can lead to catastrophic results. For residential use, it's best to choose a multi-purpose fire extinguisher as your first line of defense. If you work with flammable liquids in your garage or home workshop, it's best to also have a Type B fire extinguisher. Type B extinguishers are designed to extinguish fires caused by combustible and flammable liquids.

Avoid One-Size-Fits-All

When it comes to choosing a fire extinguisher for your home, it's important that you take your family into consideration, especially the size and age of each member. You want to make sure that the fire extinguishers you choose aren't too heavy or too big for each family member to use. This is especially important if you have elderly family members in your household. If that's the case, you want to have at least one lightweight fire extinguisher in your home. 

Ensure Proper Family Training

Once you have your home equipped with fire extinguishers, plan a training session. You want to make sure that each family member knows how to use the extinguishers. The best way to train your family is with the PASS method. Pass stands for pull, aim, squeeze, and sweep. First, pull the pin. Second, aim the fire extinguisher at the fire. Third, squeeze the trigger. Finally, sweep the nozzle in a side-to-side motion towards the flames. Make sure your family has the opportunity to practice this method. It's also a good idea to schedule several refresher sessions throughout the year. 

Recharge Your Fire Extinguishers

Finally, after your home is equipped with fire extinguishers, you'll need to keep them well-maintained. Part of that maintenance includes recharging them. Keeping your fire extinguishers recharged will make sure they're ready to go in an emergency. A good rule of thumb is to recharge them after each use.