I just wanted to show you a link to a relevant article in my local newspaper - kitchen fires are becoming more common here. It gives a number of examples of less than intelligent first responses to a fire which just goes to show that having a plan and practising it so that you respond instinctively and correctly can save you from a bigger problem.

Cooking Fires Becoming an Alarming Trend

I know it's easy to forget about something on the stove, I have in the past had some burned or spoiled food because I was not attentive to what I was cooking. It isn't a big leap from burned food to an actual kitchen fire.

Close at hand is good - one (small - 2lb) attached to the wall in the Kitchen, one 10lb in the upstairs linen closet, one 10lb in the detached garage, one 5 lb in the basement, and another 10lb in the basement that gets moved to the den in the fall/winter when we MIGHT light the fireplace (have not in 2 years, but)

Why the 10 lbs jobs? I have a friend who gets full charged, good units that are near the end of their hydro test time for free. He's in the business - around here, for commercial use, they have to be swapped out or re-hydro tested - cheaper to swap. I get handed units with a year or so on their hydro, but are still pefectly good and inspected except for that

I also have 2 lb units in both the car and the truck

I'm trying to find a free Purple K unit for the shop, but....

My new fire alarm / smoke detector / and snack!

Fire Alarm?

It is old school, log cabin, and very 1930s but a simple bucket full of sand works on most fires and work very well on grease fires.

A five pound ABC dry chemical fire extinguisher may run you $12 to $18. Larger units and less popular types, like pressurized water, foam or CO2 are much more expensive.

A nice two and a half gallon galvanized steel bucket goes for about $10 and builder's or beach sand can be had for free. Of course you don't have to buy a new bucket. Any appropriately sized bucket with solid construction will work. Your typical five gallon units are too big. They would be too heavy when full and too large to swing easily. I have seen them cut down to half size and they seemed to work well enough.

If you can manufacture a lid that can be removed immediately you can simply use a two to three gallon plastic bucket and fill it with water with a cap full of bleach to keep the water from getting funky. You wouldn't want this setup in the kitchen or garage where class-B fires are your major hazards but in the basement or bedroom where class-A fires are most common it would work well. Possibly better than a five pound dry chemical unit. Given the cost there is no reason not to prepare two or three buckets ahead of time.

Another option is to have a thick wood blanket on hand. Better still if it is treated with a borax solution as a fire retardant but even untreated wool is naturally fire resistant enough that it will still work to smother a fire and buy you time. covering a fire with a wool blanket and following with a bucket of sand or water, depending on the type of fire, is a time tested strategy. A wool blanket is still considered the best way to extinguish a person on fire.

My point here is that while commercially available extinguishers have become the reflexive answer for fire protection there are other, older options. Options that are both cheaper and potentially more effective than most off-the-shelf extinguishers. People have been fighting fire for a very long time and many of those older techniques still work. Sometimes they have real advantages in cost and your ability to create, maintain, and refill your own fire fighting equipment.

A lack of resources shouldn't keep people from having effective fire protection on hand.

That is likely the best advice of all.

If you look at industrial sites you will notice most fire extinguishers are located at the exits. The idea is to get people out of the building instead of letting them be trapped inside by the fire.
Most people do not have the training or skills to fight a fire effectively.
Usually they panic and do exactly the wrong things.

The first step in being prepared is to get the required knowledge.

(and firefighting really should include fire prevention as a first step)

Edit: Roarmeister, how often do you change the batteries in your alarm? (LOL)

Whatever happened to the old adage's,"Keep the lid Handy"? To smother the flames on that Frying pan/Wok!& The ABC Extinguishers-"ABC's Extinguish All Three!" Again,What's more messy,A successful fire,or an Unsuccessful fire? As Always,YMMV

Yes - Fire extinguishers should ALWAY be located between the likely source of fire and the door. Easiest way to do that is to have the extinguisher at/near the door/stairs out. The basement unit is mounted on the side of the staircase, the linen closet is next to the steps down from upstairs, the kitchen unit is next to one of the doors out, the garage unit is on the wall next to the door

Next year, there are plans to renovate my house (fingers crossed) - one item on the lis of a "would be nice - let's see the cost" is putting in a sprinkler system!

KG2V: When I replaced my gas/hot water furnace a few years ago, for $150 extra, I had the plumber install a sprinkler head over the furnace. Cheap insurance in my estimation.

I've seen people do this above their 250 gallon propane tank... really what's sprinkler water gonna do when your propane tank is blowing a 50ft flame out the release valve? Never really understood that.

The idea is to prevent the small fire from getting to the tank, and poping that safety valve