It was because of a chemist called Ambrose Godfrey that we have fire extinguishers today. Godfrey, developed the idea back in 1723 when he took a chamber and filled it with gunpowder—which sounds counterproductive to putting out a fire—and a fire extinguishing solution, which he then exploded to scatter the solution. Later, in 1818 George Manby created what we know now as the modern fire extinguisher. The innards were made up of potassium carbonate and compressed air—in other words, pearl ash—which, when scattered would simply suffocate the fire and put it out.
Most extinguishers nowadays are based on CO2 or water. The CO2—carbon dioxide—extinguishes the fire by effectively depriving it of oxygen. The six classifications of fires in the United Kingdom are labeled from A to F and include the types of fires and their potential seriousness. For instance, Class A is the most potentially dangerous and involves paper or wood. Class B involves combustible liquids such as oil or gasoline and so on.
Public Areas and Airports
It is most important that airports and public areas are properly equipped with enough fire extinguishers to take care of small fire in the event that a fire engine cannot get there quickly enough. In some situations it will be completely unnecessary for a fire engine to attend a small fire if it can easily be controlled or extinguished with an extinguisher. However, for larger objects such as airplanes it is necessary that fire engine attend a possible blaze on an aircraft. Many a time an emergency call has come over the airwaves to the air traffic control that an emergency landing is in progress and they request fire trucks at the landing point. This is prove vital in some situations and can be life-saving to many. Any number of things could cause an emergency landing, due to a fault on board it and there is every chance that there could be a possible explosion of aircraft fuel. This means that every fire engine in the area is required to attend and be fully equipped to deal. For passenger safety there is a fire extinguisher in Gatwick airport and they are there to protect every person that walks through the doors.
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