One of the most important things about designing a health and safety plan is instructing your employees or at least your key management staff on the use and the classifications of fire extinguishers. Many people know about extinguishers but have no idea which ones work for the type of fire they may have. When your company is giving instruction on the classifications of fire extinguishers, you will need to start by explaining how important it is to use the right equipment, on the proper type of fire. The reason for this is that the use of the wrong extinguisher can create even more problems that may lead to injuries to the person using the extinguisher and the people in the area.

    Usually the classifications of the fire extinguisher are comprised of letters which tell you what type of fire it is best used for and number showing the size of the fire that the extinguisher can handle. Some s extinguishers may be used for several types of fires, which mean it will have several different letters in its classification.

    In order to come up with the number, many tests were conducted by setting fires and putting them out using the extinguisher. Therefore an extinguisher that has a number of 12 can extinguish 1.2m of fire. The higher the number, the larger the fire you can use this piece of equipment on.

    Another important thing that should be a part of your health and safety knows what types of fires can be extinguished by the type of extinguisher you have. The A classification refers to extinguishers that deal with regular everyday materials like paper, wood, textiles and cardboard. With the B classification, you can put out oil and petrol fires. The C classification allows you to extinguish gases and propane. Metal fires use the D classification. The F classification refers to fires made by deep fat burning. In the UK there is no set classification for electrical fires, some think it would be the E classification, however this is not true. The way the UK looks at this classification is that once you take away the power supply it would easily classify as one of the other classifications, so they did not give electrical fires a classification. However it is important to remember that if the extinguisher is a water extinguisher, and you put it on an electrical fire you may find yourself electrocuted.

    Knowing the different classifications of fire extinguishers are a good way to ensure your health and safety should you have to deal with a fire. If you don't know the different classifications it is best that you do not try putting the fire out.

    設計一個健康和安全的計劃最重要的事情之一是指導你的雇員或重要管理者對滅火器進行使用和分類。很多人對滅火器略有所知，但他們并不知道用哪種滅火器對付哪種火焰。當你的公司正在進行滅火器種類講解時，你首先需要知道正確使用滅火器設備以及判斷火焰類別是何等重要。因為錯誤的使用方法會對手持滅火器的人以及周圍的人們造成傷害。

    通常滅火器分類方法是由字母和數字組成。字母表示該類滅火器用于對付哪種火源，而數字表示滅火器可以處理的火勢大小。有些滅火器可以用于多個類型的火源，因此上面標識的分類含有多個不同的字母。

    為了精確地定義滅火器上的數字級別，人們通過點火和用滅火器滅火來進行多次實驗。標識為數字12的滅火器可以熄滅1.2米高的火焰。數字越高，可以控制的火勢越大。

    另一個關系到你的健康和安全的重要的事情是，你得知道你可以用你手里的滅火器撲滅哪種火焰。A類滅火器可以撲滅日常材料引起的火災，例如紙張，木頭，織物，硬紙板。B類可以撲滅汽油和石油引起的大火。C類則用戶撲滅煤氣、甲烷引起的火災。撲滅金屬燃燒的大火要用D類。F類滅火器用于厚脂肪燃燒引起的大火。在英國，沒有電器火災滅火器的分類，一些人把它叫做E類，然而這是不正確的。一旦將電源切斷，這類滅火很容易就被歸為其它的類別，所以無法對這一類滅火器進行分類。但重要的是你得記住，如果你用水管類滅火器來對付電器引起的火災，那你肯定會觸電。

    了解不同種類的滅火器，能使你在不得不對付火災時很好地保證你的健康和安全。如果你不了解這些滅火器的差別，你最好別去嘗試滅火。