Fire extinguisher five categories. In the UK the use of Halon gas is now prohibited except under certain situations such as on aircraft and in the military and police. Fire extinguishing performance per fire class is displayed using numbers and letters such as 13A, 55B. EN3 does not recognise a separate electrical class - however there is an additional feature requiring special testing (35 kV dielectric test per EN 3-7:2004). A powder or CO extinguisher will bear an electrical pictogramme as standard signifying that it can be used on live electrical fires (given the symbol E in the table). If a water-based
Fire extinguisher are dissolved in water, whereas the agents used in condensed aerosols are microscopic solids. In 2015, researchers from George Mason University announced that high volume sound with low bass frequencies in the 30 to 60 hertz range drives oxygen away from the combustion surface, extinguishing the fire, a principle was previously tested by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). One proposed application is to extinguish fires in outer space, with none of the clean-up required for mass-based systems. Most countries in the world require regular fire extinguisher maintenance by a competent person to operate safely and effectively, as part