Fire Extinguishers

If it belongs to someone else and you're doing it without permission, yes; if it belongs to you, then "stupid" is probably a more apt term for it. There's not a great deal of fun to be had in playing with the now-ubiquitous dry chemical types anyway. Anecdote: many universities require graduate students in chemistry to take a fire safety class. In one I took, the instructor told us that they used to have the old brass pump-style water fire extinguishers in the dorms; they would occasionally during an inspection find one that had been filled with beer as a sort of impromptu keg. The good news was that beer would at least still put out a fire. When they discovered one that had been filled with gasoline, though, they removed those and replaced them with carbon dioxide extinguishers. However, they found those frequently needed recharging: students had discovered you could chill a can of beer quickly by sticking it in the horn and setting off the extinguisher for a second. They were in the process of replacing those with dry chemical extinguishers; in the words of the fire safety instructor, "The students haven't yet found any way to do anything with those except make a mess, which they have to clean up, so they don't get tampered with much."

Assuming this extinguisher is following Australian rules, that is a dry chemical extinguisher. If this is an American extinguisher, there are no standards, only conventions, and I couldn't tell you by color alone.

It actually is used, but only to cool the burning structures. If you add water to a large oil or gas fire, it would carry the burning fuel around, since the fuel is lighter and will float on the water.

Class B extinguishers are used for liquid fires, typically gasoline and oil fires. Extinguishers rated ABC will be effective against all three classes, but seldom as effective as a dedicated Class B extinguisher.

how do you punctutate a fire extinguisher of course is a good idea

FIRE extinguishers are used to put out fire.

A portable fire extinguisher will take between 10 and 60 seconds to be empty, unless it is larger than 40 pounds.

A fixed fire extinguisher may last between 40 seconds and four minutes (the latter to fill an airplane hangar with high-expansion foam).

Those markings help to identify which class of fire each type of fire extinguisher is intended for:

Class A: ordinary combustibles;

Class B: flammable liquids

Class C: energized electrical fires.

A class A:B:C extinguisher may be used on any of these types of fires.

A class A extingquisher is intended to put out things that when burned, leave an ash--hence class A. They are usually some form of liquid or plain water. A class B fire is a liquid fire and using a class A extingquisher will only add volumn to the liquid that is burning making it a larger area to put out. With a class B fire you need something that will smother the fire without making it spread out even farther.

A Class A fire extinguisher is the least expensive and most easily available type of extinguisher to use on wood or paper fires. They are normally filled with water or water-based foam and pressurized with air.

most likely not because the chemicals could get into your food and ruin our digestive system and any other system involved

Class B

No, the ABC extinguisher uses a dry powder chemical composition that by its application displace the oxygen required to maintain the ignition process. additionally, since it disperses a fine dense cloud of powder, it coats the intended surface with its compound. This action extinguish the class A and B fires, however, this media does not provide any retardancy to the subject fire. additionally, class C is not meant to be a type of fire, instead is defines the cause of the fire, i.e., cause by an electrical energized charge that will require a non conductive medial that passed the 100,000 v generated by the test to qualify for a class C rating.

It gets very cold to the point that it could cause frostbite if you don't hold it where you're supposed to.

An electrical fire is a class "C" fire. A Class "C" fire is actually a class "A" or "B" fire that is caused by electrical current.

It used to be thought that foam blanketed burning substanecs from the air, smothering the fire, and so the side of the fire triangle removed would be "oxygen". Recent research suggests that, whilst smothering plays a small part in foam's effectiveness, its main value is to reduce the transfer of vapours from the burning substance to the flames. In this way, it acts to prevent fuel reaching the flames, and so extinguishes by starvation. Foam also contains about 96% water, and so will cool burning substances below their ignition point. Summary: foam attacks all three sides of the fire triangle, but its main action is to reduce the flow of fuel from the surface of the burning substance to the flames. Note that many science teachers still follow the incorrect information in textbooks which states that foam "smothers" a fire (e.g. excludes oxygen). The UK Manual of Firemanship (official guide for UK firefighters), and the Royal Navy's technical firefighting handbook both provide evidence for the "starvation of fuel" mechanism. In case of a dispute, you could point out that nowadays, all foam (from extinguishers and larger foam generators / branchpipes) is made of a detergent solution that is blown full of air: a blanket of air bubbles wouldn't be particularly effective in simply smothering a fire, but the fact that the bubbles are made from detergent solution allows the foam to spread in a thin flim over the surface of the fuel, stopping the flow of vapour. Modern developments of this theory include the design of afff (aqueous film-forming foam) concentrates which are even more effective at "filming" over a burning substance.

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Motorboats between 26 and 40 feet must have two B-I extinguishers.

B-I is either 2 pounds dry chem, 4 pounds CO2 or 6 quarts foam.

According to US Coast Guard regulations.

NOTE: When a fixed fire extinguisher system is installed in the machinery space(s), it will replace one B-I type portable extinguisher.

Different regulations may apply to uninspected passenger vessels, including those "carrying not more than six passengers, including at least one passenger-for-hire" and for vessels in "international waters".

The first thing you must do is make sure you can get out safely if you are unable to stop the fire with the extinguisher.

The second thing is to determine what type of fire it is so you choose the proper type of fire extinguisher. Do not consider a fire extinguisher if the fire is more than waist high or larger than 10 square feet -- leave immediately.

The next thing is to get between the fire and your primary exit and use the extinguisher on the fire.

Well, you CAN- depending on the type of fire.

Unless you are equipped with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), you should avoid using fire extinguishers that displace the breathable oxygen, generate other asphyxiants or otherwise implicate your ability to breathe.

If you do not have SCBA and vapor-barrier protection (e.g., structural or aircraft firefighter turnout suit) and you should avoid using water-based extinguishers that can turn into 20,000 times more steam.