A Quick Guide to Fire Extinguishing Agents
    Class of Fire  
AGENT
A
B
C
K
Multi-Purpose
 
Regular  
 
Purple K  
 
Carbon Dioxide  
 
Wet Chemical  
  
  
Halotron
 
Water
 
  
  
Foam
 
  
Fire Classifications
Class A
Class A fires involve common combustibles such as wood, paper cloth, rubber, trash and plastics. They are common in typical commercial and home settings, but can occur anywhere these types of materials are found
Class B
Class B fires involve flammable liquids', gases, solvents, oil, gasoline, paint, lacquers, tars and other synthetic or oil-based products. Class B fires often spread rapidly and , unless properly secured can reflash after the flames are extinguished.
Class C
Class C fires involve energized electrical equipment such as wiring, controls, motors, data processing panels or appliances. They can be caused by a spark, power surge or short circuit and typically occur in locations that are difficult to reach and see.
Class K
Class K fires involve combustible cooking media such as oils and grease commonly found in commercial kitchens. The new cooking media formulations used for commercial food preparation require a special wet chemical extinguishing agent that is specially suited for extinguishing and suppressing these extremely hot fires that have the ability to reflash.

Fire Extinguishers
Extinguishing Agent
Multi Purpose Dry Chemical
Regular Dry Chemical
Purple K Dry Chemical
Carbon Dioxide
Wet Chemical
Halotron
Water
Foam
Effective Against Fire Class:
A:B:C
B:C
B:C
B:C
K
A:B:C
A
A:B
Chemical Content:
mono-ammonium phosphate
sodium bicarbonate
potassium bicarbonate
carbon dioxide gas
potassium acetate
holotron
water
foam
Properties: non-toxic, highly effective on all 3 common classes of fire, absorbs some heat, mildly corrosive when moisture is present, non-conductive non-toxic, effective on class B and C fires, non-corrosive, non-conductive superior to other dry chemicals in extinguishing class B fires, non-corrosive, non-conductive, non-toxic cooling agent, removes oxygen to starve fire, limited range, environmentally safe, leaves no residue reduces temperature, cooling agent, extinguishers and reacts with cooking media to form saponification layer to prevent reflash, specifically designed for commercial kitchen application ozone friendly, vaporizing liquid, primarily a cooling agent, leaves no residue, clean agent alternative to Halon 1211, EPA approved removes, heat from fire by cooling, wets embers to prevent re-ignition, long-range, capability, conductive - not for use with B or C fires cooling agent, floats on surface of flammable liquids to suppress vapors and help prevent reflash, easy to clean up, non-toxic
Extinguishing Action: breaks chain reaction of fire also smothers and cools breaks chain reaction of fire breaks chain reaction of fire smothers, cools chemical reaction, cooling cool, quench, break chemical reaction cool, quench cool, smother, break chemical reaction
Clean-Up: vacuum, sweep promptly or scrub to avoid corrosion vacuum, sweep or flush with water vacuum, sweep or flush with water none required wipe down none required allow to dry wash down, let evaporate
Applications: Stores, factories, homes, schools, hospitals, hotels, general office areas Laboratories, factories, residential kitchens, garages, boats Military facilities, oil companies, airport ramps, garages, factories, vehicles, service stations, transfer areas For areas where contamination and clean-uptime is critical, such as data processing centers, labs, telephone equipment rooms, video and audio storage areas, food storage and processing plants Commercial kitchens - required by code Computer rooms, clean rooms laboratories, communication studios, theaters telecommunications areas, museums, FAA control towers, marine applications Stockrooms, schools offices, dry-goods stores Garages, vehicles, homes, workshop areas
Temperature: -65 to 120 F -65 to 120 F -65 to 120 F -40 to 120 F -40 to 120 F -40 to120 F +40 to +120 F +40 to 120 F
Color Code: yellow red purple black silver green blue beige

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