Fighting fire and its threat to life and property often require the use of certain equipment. The use of fire fighting and detection equipment can ensure that property is well-protected and ready to take on the challenge in case a fire do break out in your home or office. Having such equipment readily available can help you lessen the threat that fire can have on your property as well as your life.

A number of fire detection and fire fighting equipment are now readily available in the market to help fight fire in a number of ways. Each one can tackle fires at different levels of development. They can work together or on their own in trying to combat fire and effectively put them out.

Portable fire extinguishers play a major role in fighting fires at its inception. They are usually hand-held and can be the most effective means of fighting fire that is just starting out. Using the appropriate fire extinguisher for the right type of fire. Here are some of the types of portable fire extinguishers available and fire fighting equipment:

Water fire extinguishers 

The most common type being used to fight common Class A fire. Water has a great effect in cooling fuel surfaces that helps in stopping the continuous burning of combustible materials such as wood.

Fire extinguishers using water usually contain anti-rusting chemicals to lengthen the life of the extinguisher. The use of water fire extinguishers is fairly limited on putting out class A fires and may not be as effective for other classes of fire.

Foam fire extinguishers 

Another Class A fire extinguisher that is also effective against Class C or electrical fires and other types of Class B, or combustible liquid fires. These fire extinguishers are water-based with a foaming agent that act as a fire suppressant by floating on top of a burning liquid to break the interaction between the fire and the fuel surface.

Dry Powder fire extinguishers

This type of fire extinguisher are generally used for Class B and C fires which makes use of two main varieties of dry powder chemicals. The BC powder is usually composed of either sodium bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate that is propelled by CO2 or nitrogen.

The other dry powder fire extinguisher, the ABC type, is usually made of monoammonium phospate and ammonium sulphate as the extinguishing agent.

The DC dry powder works by reacting to make the fire too cool to restrict chemical reactions that make out fires. The ABC dry powder works by suppressing the flame in the air and may melt and form a barrier that prevents gas as well as heat transfer from the fuel surface.

CO2 fire extinguishers

This type of fire extinguisher is of a gaseous nature and is effective in Class A, B as well as Class C fires. It works by trying to suffocate the fire by taking up the space that oxygen may occupy. Being of gaseous nature, the CO2 fire extinguisher can be used to fight fire that may react negatively to water or in areas where water damage is being avoided as much as possible.

Fire Sprinklers

These are fire protection systems installed within the interiors of buildings and even homes in order to suppress fire when detected. Fire sprinklers are composed of an interconnected series of pipes with fitted sprinkler heads placed at strategic places of the building interior.

It can be a water sprinkling system or can also be designed to make use of foam, CO2 and other fire extinguishing agents, depending on the location and the classes of fires a certain building interior or room is being protected from. They can be automatically activated through heat or smoke detectors.

Heat & Smoke Detectors

This equipment does not directly fight fire but helps provide early detection of any occurrence of fire before they become a major threat. Heat and smoke detectors are always connected to fixed systems such as fire sprinklers in order to provide an active means of fire protection.

Heat sensors and smoke detectors are designed to detect the the early warning signs of a growing fire threat and act as an automatic switch to turn on an alarm or a fire extinguishing system or both. With the heat and smoke sensors installed, every building interior is actively monitored and well-guarded from possible fire threats 24 hours a day.