In article , PC Paul
writes
Anna Kettle wrote:
On 20 Jul 2005 23:58:37 -0700, wrote:

I only mentioned fire extinguisher because, when I turned on the
C/H in one of my flats the other day, there was a sharp crack, the
power went off, and I could smell a burning smell near the Fuse
Box. It turned out to be no big deal - a wire had burnt out, and
cooled down fairly quickly, and it's now fixed. However, I felt
really uncomfortable/worried, and would have felt a lot better if I
had had an extinguisher handy. Pull the loop, aim at base of fire,
press the trigger - not sure what's difficult about that g

Not difficult, but if I understand right, lethal. It is essential to
stand on the exit side of the fire, so that when the fire is 5x the
size after youre done spraying it, youre not then trapped and facing
death. That is, again IIUC, one way they get people into trouble.
Another is they expose you to smoke inhalation, which kills more
people than the fire itself.

When I went on a fire safety course the fireman said get a fire
blanket not an extinguisher cos ...

- There are several types of extinguisher for different sorts of fire
and will you choose the right one in the heat and the smoke of the
moment?

- If the fire is too big to put out with a fire blanket then you don't
want to be anywhere near it

- Fire blankets are better than extinguishers for dealing quickly and
safely with a chip pan fire


Although a recent test (in Which maybe? was on the news anyway) found that
most domestic fire blankets performed worse or only as well as a wet
towel...

Not that surprising really. The few fire blankets I've seen seem to be
rather inflexible and if you were to put that on a chip pan the air
could easily leak around the edges whereas a wet towel would be far more
flexible and form a better seal, thus cutting off the air supply.

Not that this likely to be a problem here, being married to a French
foodie who thinks that English women are grossly overweight 'cos of all
the chips they eat.

Still you don't need to cook all those salads do you?, even in
winter;(....

--
Tony Sayer