Do you keep a fire extinguisher at home??

We have had smoke detectors and extinguishers for a very long time. We keep one extinguisher in the kitchen and one in each bedroom. A hint we learned at a fire safety meeting is that the chemicals in extinguishers tend to settle to the bottom of the tank, often becoming very hard, and very ineffective. It is a good idea to take each extinguisher once a month, holding it up side down and shake it vigorously for a full minute. A very small price to pay in time and energy to help with fire safety.

Oh YES! for sure: in house, country cottage, camping tent and car... - and in my city each year one time a year, the city firemen visit us, each house or apt., to verify if it is well functioning, ready and it is free service. I am in quebec, Canada. But, fire extinguishers can be expensive, i think it is the reason people don't buy it generally, they think only firemen are responsable in case of fire, so, they don't care to be well equiped about it. * But, on TV the publicity is clear: we can save life with a good one at home!

There's a fire extinguisher in the hallway of my building... but now that I think about it, my home doesn't even have a smoke alarm in the first place so I'm still in somewhat of an unsafe situation.