A close call, recently brought my oft overlooked fire extinguishers to the top of my mind.

A few weeks back, I came home from the grocery store carrying my bag of groceries. When you enter my house, you’re in my kitchen. Directly across from me is my glass-top stove, which I tend to treat like an additional countertop. I have very limited countertop space in my kitchen, and that tends to be the only space without anything on it when I come home. I know better than to use it as a countertop, but I still tend to. Well, this particular Saturday morning, I laid my bag on the stove and started unloading it.

All of a sudden, I smelled something burning and noticed that my bag was on fire, with my groceries still in it, and me standing there. This literally took seconds to happen. Apparently, I must have accidentally hit the knob on my stove and turned it on when I placed the bag down.

Without thinking, I grabbed the bag and ran it outside, still burning. I went back into the kitchen to check everything out. Plastic had melted all over my stove and was still burning. I was lucky since everything was contained to the stovetop, and I quickly got it under control. I’m relieved, knowing things could have been so much worse. I recently had a friend who lost their entire house to a fire, so the possibilities of what could have happened were very clear in my mind.

After hours of scraping my stovetop and airing out my house in the middle of winter, I started thinking about my fire extinguisher. I know I have one. I bought it and put it in a kitchen cabinet, just in case I ever needed it. I wonder which cabinet it’s in. How long has it been since I bought it? I wonder if it even works. These were all questions that entered my mind, and I should have already known the answers to.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has codes (NFPA 10) regarding extinguishers for commercial, industrial, and residential buildings. It is not mandated for a single-family home to have one, but it is highly recommended, just like changing the batteries in your smoke detectors every 6 months. These codes provide guidelines on proper spacing, placement, having the appropriate extinguisher for the hazard, size, accessibility, and visibility.

Extinguishers should be checked monthly, along with maintaining a tag on the extinguisher (paper or electronic) with the month of the inspection and the person conducting the inspection. You are not required to be certified for these monthly checks. On the other hand, the annual inspection needs to be completed by a certified fire inspector. The inspector will check the physical condition, pressure gauge, and operating parts, along with tagging your extinguisher. They will notify you if your extinguisher needs maintenance.

After my Saturday morning incident, I located my extinguisher. The gauge is in the green, but I recall that extinguishers need to have a 6-year maintenance performed on them. I only know this from being in the fire protection industry. This maintenance includes a thorough inspection, recharge, and replacement of any necessary parts.

This is more involved than what I want to get into, so I chose to replace it. Now that I’ve gone down this rabbit hole, I started to Google where extinguishers should be in a single-family home, out of curiosity. Of course, the kitchen is one of those places, but it also mentions the garage, bedrooms, and near heating sources. How many homeowners have a fire extinguisher in all these locations? I know I didn’t. The extinguishers are meant to be visible and easily accessible. Looking back, putting it in my kitchen cabinet was not the best idea, especially since I didn’t even remember which cabinet.

Reflecting on that close call, I’m reminded how quickly things can escalate when we’re not paying attention. A simple mistake almost turned into a disaster, but it also highlighted how easy it is to overlook safety precautions we take for granted. Fire extinguishers aren’t just a box to check off; they’re a critical part of keeping your home and family safe. So, whether it’s checking that your extinguisher is up to date or placing it in an easily accessible spot, it’s worth the effort.

After all, a few moments of preparation can make all the difference when every second counts.