Reflection: What they don't tell you about using a Fire Extinguisher

A few months ago there was a large fire drill held on my company grounds. Apart from the regular drill of standing up from our desks and walking towards the nearest fire escape and descending to the safe zone, some lucky employees were also invited to demonstrate to the crowd how to put out a fire using a fire extinguisher. Below are some heroic pictures of my deeds.

The people in charge of the demonstrations made sure to instruct everyone clearly on how to use it. These instructions are universal already but they're worth listing down here:

1. Pull the Pin
2. Aim the nozzle at the base of the fire
3. Squeeze the Handle
4. Sweep from side to side

This is useful information, but I find it more interesting what they DON'T tell you about using a fire extinguisher. Below are some of my key takeaways aside from the items mentioned above.

1. It's lighter than it looks.

Fire extinguishers are metallic and it's a common trope in movies for protagonists to sneak up behind goons and knock them out with a fire extinguisher. The truth is they're not super heavy at all. I imagine they'd feel even lighter when a real fire breaks out because of all the adrenaline that courses through the body.

2. There is no recoil when you squeeze the handle.

It would seem that the solution inside the hull is highly pressurized, and it is to some extent, but unless you're a pile of feathers then the chances of you being blown away when you squeeze the handle are highly unlikely. The pressure coming out of the can isn't strong enough to disrupt your aim, so you would have no worries should a real fire break out.

3. It runs out surprisingly fast

Since the whole can looks like it can fit roughly a gallon and a half of liquid in it, you'd expect there's enough extinguishing agent in there for you to survive more than one fire incident, but it's actually only good for one use. That doesn't mean that one fire extinguisher isn't enough to eradicate a small fire; during the demonstration, the controlled fire we were trying to kill died out in less than 1 second of spraying the extinguishing agent. We just had the tendency to squeeze the handle longer than we should have, so we emptied the can. It only took us 5 seconds to do so.


Overall it was a pretty good experience, and I had no doubt in my mind that it will be memorable. I highly recommend others to give it a shot if the opportunity arises. Using the fire extinguisher made me realize to take tropes and theatrics involving fire extinguishers with a grain of salt. E.g. knocking someone out with one or how the extinguisher zips across all over the room when it's punctured. Obviously, the most important thing you could learn from this is how to save your life one day, should you have to deal with fire,