Water Fire Extinguisher

As the name suggests, the extinguishing agent is water. It may also contain an additive to make extinguishing more effective. The water cuts off the oxygen supply and cools the burning object massively so that it does not re-ignite.

Above all, never use a water extinguisher on anything live, and never try to put out burning fats and oils, such as those in a kitchen, with it. If you tried to put out a burning pan with water, the fire would spread massively and could even engulf the person extinguishing it, which is extremely dangerous.

It must not be used on flammable metals, especially magnesium-based ones, on live appliances or on burning vegetable and animal fats and oils.

A special type of water fire extinguisher is the water mist extinguisher. It has a special sonic nozzle, so instead of a jet of water it discharges a fine mist that effectively cuts off the oxygen while cooling the fire efficiently. This means it can put out things for which an ordinary water extinguisher is not suitable. With a water mist extinguisher you can safely put out a fat fire. Purely hypothetically, it can also deal with burning gases and flammable liquids. Officially, however, it is only approved for class A (solids) and class F (vegetable and animal fats and oils) fires.