The "A" in ABC

• Purchase a fire extinguisher with an "A" rating for ordinary household fires involving wood, cloth, paper, plastic and similar items. These extinguishers may contain water.
  
  

The "B" in ABC

• Purchase a fire extinguisher with a "B" rating for liquid fires, such as gasoline or grease fires. These extinguishers cannot contain water, as water tends to spread liquid fires rather an suppress them.
  
  

The "C" in ABC

• Purchase a fire extinguisher with a "C" rating for electrical fires. This includes computers, TVs and other electrical items as well as general home wiring fires. These extinguishers do not contain water, as water may cause additional problems when mixed with electrical equipment.
  
  

The ABC Extinguisher

• Purchase an ABC extinguisher for general home protections since it is impossible to know ahead of time what type of fire may need suppression in a home setting. A combination ABC extinguisher is designed to extinguish all three different fire types: combustibles, liquid and electrical.
  
  

Buy the Proper Size of ABC Extinguisher

• Buy the largest extinguisher that you can afford and that you can comfortably hold. Fire extinguishers have numbers on them such as this: 2A 10B:C. The larger the numbers, the larger of an area the extinguisher is able to cover.
  
  

Know How to Use Your Extinguisher

• Study your extinguisher and know how to use it when you purchase it and when you place it in your home. There is no time in an emergency to read the instructions. Most extinguishers merely require you to pull a pin from the handle, aim the nozzle and pull a trigger; but details for using extinguishers vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Aim the extinguisher at the base of a fire and slowly sweep the nozzle back and forth until all flames are extinguished.