Fire safety is an essential topic and it is imperative that one know what to do in case of a fire. You know the old saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, better to know something and not need to use that knowledge than not to have that knowledge and actually need it.

With the extent of know-how a lot of us have when it comes to fire safety, if a fire of any classification did break out, I’m sure a whole lot of us would be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. We were fortunate enough to have fire experts, Lexka Fire Equipment & Services Ltd, who are situated in Livingstone’s 217 area, along Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road, visit our office for a crash course on fire safety procedures. First off FIRE is actually an acronym, who knew right. So here’s the breakdown:

F – FIND
I – INFORM
R – RESTRICT
E – EXTINGUISH

Those are pretty self-explanatory right? First you find where the fire is, then you inform everyone in the vicinity that there is a fire and assist anyone who is not able to evacuate themselves. You then restrict the fire and lastly extinguish it, if you are able to. We also learnt that there are different types of fire, which are categorized into classes. Class A being solid fires, i.e. involving paper, furniture, cardboard, most plastics, etc. Class B is for fires involving flammable or combustible liquids, i.e. gasoline, kerosene, grease or oil. Class C is for fires involving electrical equipment, like appliances, wiring, circuit breakers or outlets. Class D is for fires most commonly occurring in chemical laboratories, these involve combustible metals, like magnesium, titanium, potassium or sodium. Class K is for fires that involve cooking oils, trans-fats, or fats in cooking appliances, typically occurring in restaurants or cafeteria kitchens.

Now color me ignorant but I had not the foggiest idea that there were actually different types of fire extinguishers for different types of fires. Check out the diagram below.

We should all look into equipping ourselves with the necessary implements needed to combat fires because you never know when disaster can strike. There is such a thing as knowing too little, there is never a point at which someone knows too much…#themoreyouknow #firesafety #educateyourself #stopdropandroll