Fire; Classes Of Fires; Compliant Fire Extinguishers - Chris-Craft 2014 36 RH Corsair Owner's Manual

Safety and Operations

Fire

When fighting fires:
• Activate Fireboy System if there is a fire in the engine room.
• If possible, throw burning materials over the side.
• Never use water, or water-type extinguishers on gasoline, oil, grease, or electrical fire. Water spreads the
flames and acts as a conductor for electricity.
• Pull the safety pin and aim the fire extinguisher at the base of the flames. Squeeze the handle and use a left-to-right
sweeping motion to extinguish the flames.
• Signal for help using an appropriate signaling device.
• If required, abandon ship, but only as a last resort.

Classes of Fires

In the United States there are four classes of fire of which you should be familiar with. They are:
• Class A – Wood, paper, textiles, trash, and other ordinary combustibles
• Class B – Flammable liquids, oils, solvents, paints, grease, fuels, etc.
• Class C – Electrical, energized electrical equipment
• Class D – Combustible metals (magnesium, titanium, potassium, etc.)
Dry Powder type extinguishers are used on Class D (combustible
metals) type fires. This type of fire is rare on a boat of this type and

Compliant Fire Extinguishers

Fire fighting extinguishers have been developed to combat the various classes of fires. These are:
• Water
• Carbon Dioxide
• Multipurpose Dry Chemical
• Foam
Some extinguishers are classified as multipurpose, meaning they can be used on more than one type of
fire. For this reason you should equip the vessel with at least two different types of fire extinguishers,
one for general purpose (such as Carbon Dioxide) and another for fuel (such as Multipurpose Dry
Chemical or Foam). Table 2-7
2-29
To help reduce the possibility of fire, store flammable
materials in an approved shipboard storage container.
therefore not discussed.
indicates which type of extinguisher works best for which class of fire.