Fire Extinguishers

Portable fire extinguishers are probably the commonest type of fire fighting equipment to be found in industrial and commercial premises.

Use our free calculator below to determine how many extinguishers you need.

Calculator

Approximate floor area (m²):

Fire "A" Rating required:
Extinguishers required:

Disclaimer: This calculator is only to be used as guidance and does not provide the definitive answer.

For a floor in a building, the correct number of water extinguishers to tackle Class A fires (fires involving combustible solids such as paper, wood, cloth, plastics etc) may be determined if the fire rating of the floor is known.

The fire rating is found by multiplying the floor area in m² by 0.065. Thus for a floor area of 200m² the fire rating is 200 x 0.065 = 13A.

A 9 litre water extinguisher has a fire rating of 13A therefore one 9 litre water extinguisher will be required for every 200m² of floor area.

For special risks such as fires involving live electrical equipment, one should provide a suitable extinguisher, carbon dioxide or dry powder, near to the risk or at least within a reasonable distance (less than 30m) usually placed next to the water extinguishers required.