Is Water the Best Way to Put Out a Fire?

Video Transcript

"You know, most people don't consider or ever think about there are several types of fires and types of extinguishing agents. Hi, I'm Captain Joe Bruni and what I'm going to talk about is whether water is really the best agent for fighting a fire. Depending on the class of fire, water is typically used for a class A fire. There are four classes of fire, A, B, C, and D. A class A fire is your normal, everyday combustible such as wood, paper, and cloth, and water indeed would be your best extinguishing agent. A class B fire is a flammable liquid fire involving grease fires, gasoline fires, and for those types of fires, two other extinguishing agents are popular. The dry powder, or ABC extinguisher, and the carbon dioxide or compressed gas extinguisher. The carbon dioxide or dry powder or dry chemical extinguisher can be used on the flammable liquid fire. Class C fires, both of these extinguishers are also readily available for class 3, which is energized electrical equipment. The class D fire is burning metals such as sodium and magnesium, and for those types of fires, they make a specially special extinguishing powder that can be shoveled onto the burning metal and it self-extinguishes itself inside the crusted forms. So is water the best extinguishing agent? Not in all cases, only for the class A, normal everyday combustible fire of wood, paper, and cloth. I'm Captain Joe Bruni, stay safe."