Classes Of Fire & How To Extinguish Them

Did you know that fire is produced when fuel interacts with heat in the presence of oxygen surrounding us? When these three elements are present, a reaction will occur causing fire to be produced.

Fire can give various benefits to humans, however, it can also cause harm at the same time. Fire can occur anywhere and everywhere so it is important to identify the classes of fires so that we are able to extinguish them using the proper fire extinguisher.

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Fire can be classified as Class A, B, C, D, E, and K, and depending on the class of the fire, the way to put it out will also be different. This is crucial to avoid any serious damage to yourself and your surrounding.

Before we go into details about the classes of fire, we will look into the type of fire extinguishers that are available in the market. Some of the common fire extinguishers to be used will be water, foam, powder, or even continuous water spray.

Aside from that, there are also carbon dioxide, sand, and graphite asbestos that are among the medium for extinguishing certain types of fire.

Classes Of Fire

Class A Fire

Class A fire is a fire caused by solid hydrocarbon materials such as textile paper, trash, and many more. When the solid hydrocarbon is heated, it will produce a highly flammable gas type when mixed with oxygen.

The right medium for extinguishing class A fire will be water, powder or continuous water spray.

Class B Fire

Class B fire involves the burning of hydrocarbon liquid or liquid containing both hydrogen and carbon. Some examples include petrol, gasoline, kerosene, and others.

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The suitable extinguisher will be foam, powder, carbon dioxide or continuous water spray.

Class C Fire

Class C fire is the burning of gas or highly flammable liquid. When such gas mixes with oxygen, it only requires a small spark for it to start burning and quickly spread around. To some extent, this type of fire can also cause an explosion.

Some examples include methane, propane, butane, hydrogen, acetylene, and many more. The way to put this kind of fire will be to use an extinguisher that is either foam or carbon dioxide.

Class D Fire

Class D fire involves the burning of metal. In most cases, the metal will be the alkali group 1 in the periodic table. As you might have experienced yourself in chemistry class, some of the metal includes potassium, natrium, magnesium, and calcium.

These metals are highly reactive and can react in the presence of oxygen causing the flame to spread relatively fast. The use of graphite asbestos, soda ash or powder-type extinguishers will effectively put the fire out.

Class E Fire

This is probably the most common type of fire in most households as it involves the burning of electrical appliances. Some instances could happen when the electric fuse box gets burned or any machinery or other electrical devices in the house.

To extinguish class E fire, we can only use carbon dioxide or powder-type extinguishers as these ones have proven to be rather effective.

Class K Fire

The burning caused by fuel waste or other forms of fats will be a class K fire. This usually happens in the kitchen or canteens where oil is often stored and used.

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To put out this type of fire on a stove typically, one needs a foam or powder extinguisher.

Final Words

In general, fire can be classified according to these 6 classes depending on the type of materials causing the fire. Due to that, it is up to us to exercise due diligence about these classes of fires to ensure that when such situations do arise, they can be handled accordingly.

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