Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

A measure of the effectiveness of the use of extinguishers in dwellings by the occupants is obtained by comparing the performance of extinguishers with other 'first-aid' methods in common use. Official Fire Brigade Reports have been used to provide data and the measure has been made in terms of the proportion of fires put out by the use of the different methods and the average time taken by the brigades to control those fires that were not put out. It is appreciated that it was not possible to include many small fires which were neither attended by fire brigades nor reported to the organisation but it is considered that the fires attended by the brigades are likely to give a representative cross section of experience with this limitation. The analysis shows that when the occupants attack a fire before the brigade arrives the severity of the fire is reduced. In general however, they are less successful with extinguishers than with other first aid methods. There are however, indications of substantial differences between different types of extinguisher, and also between different types of other first aid methods such as to suggest that an overlap of effectiveness might exist.