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Life saving tips
In this post we will answer this question: what is a class K fire ?
What makes it very critical is that it is likely to occur inside every home.
It does not need a specific industry or worksite to occur inside.
Simply if you have a kitchen in your house, you are exposed to this class of fires.
Also, we will tell you how to select the proper way to extinguish it.
Because if your selection was not proper, the situation will be worse.
Dealing with this class of fires in a wrong way can cause a disaster.
So please read the following lines carefully.
But first we will explain how a fire can be extinguished.
What is a class K fire
Many of us don’t know how scary is the kitchen fires
Because we were not exposed to it.
And you may think that any fire extinguisher can deal with it.
Even, many incidents happened already when people tried to control these fires using water.
But then they discovered that this was one of the most critical mistakes they ever committed.
Fires usually are classified according to the fuel feeding them.
In class K fires, this fuel is the cooking oil inside the home or commercial kitchens.
It includes vegetable oils, animal oils or fats inside the kitchens.
USFA is considering this fire as one of the most dangerous fires,
for this reason, a specific fire extinguisher is designed to fight them.
Selecting the Right Fire Extinguisher
There are many classes of fire extinguishers to help controlling every fire class.
What ever the fuel is, you can still use the proper fire extingusher.
So, you need first to identify the fire hazard you are facing to be able to select the proper fire suppression system.
For today’s fire, we are dealing with kitchen oil fires.
The fuel here may be either vegetable or animal oils or fats
These oils contain high content of fatty acids.
When we use an alkaline mixture with these fatty acids, saponification reaction occurs.
As a result of this reaction, a soapy foam is formed which is lighter than the oil itself.
This foam layer is applied on the surface of fire isolating the fire from oxygen.
And a coolant effect helps to control the fire.
This saponification can be granted when we use class K extinguishers.
Class K fire extinguisher
This is the only effective fire extinguisher for kitchen fires
It must be kept reachable in commercial kitchens and also at home.
It can deal with the fire in different ways.
By isolating the fuel (hot oil) for the atmospheric Oxygen
and absorbing the majority of produced heat
These class K fire extinguishers contains a wet chemical, which is alkaline in nature.
To interact with the fatty acids in the cooking oil allowing the saponification reaction to occur.
Potassium acetate, potassium carbonate, potassium citrate,
or a combination of these chemicals can be inside class K fire extinguisher.
The conclusion
- Never use water to control a kitchen fire
This method can lead the situation to an uncontrollable scenario.
Water can work as a carrier which rapidly spreads the fire and lead to severe consequences.
- Make sure that these extinguishers are labeled (Class K)
- The way to these extinguishers has to be clear and obvious.
- The most important is to train your people on how to use it in emergency.
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