Fire and rescue services do not generally advise householders to fight fires. The advice is get out, stay out, call the fire service, and the reason is that domestic fires develop faster than most people expect and the person holding the extinguisher is usually between the fire and the only staircase. That said, a small extinguisher and a blanket in a house are not a bad thing if you know their limits.
What the official advice actually is
Home fire safety guidance from fire and rescue services concentrates on working interlinked alarms, a practised escape plan, closing doors at night and not tackling fires. Extinguishers are not part of the standard home safety visit advice. That is not a criticism of extinguishers: it reflects that in a house the margin between a fire you can deal with and one that kills you is thin and hard to judge in the dark.
If you buy one anyway: a small fire extinguisher by the exit
A small multi purpose foam or ABC powder extinguisher covers the household risks that are worth attempting, which are essentially a bin, a small appliance or a barbecue. Keep it near the exit from the kitchen rather than inside the kitchen, so you are not reaching past the fire to get it. Read the instructions once now, because you will not read them then.
The chip pan is the exception
Never use a water extinguisher on cooking oil, and do not attempt a pan fire with a general purpose extinguisher. A fire blanket, laid over the pan from the near edge with your hands protected behind it, is the domestic answer to a small pan fire, and even then only if it can be done without reaching over flames. Otherwise turn the heat off if safe, leave, close the door and call 999.
Servicing a domestic fire extinguisher
The same logic applies as anywhere: a pressure gauge in the green, an intact seal and no damage. Small domestic units are usually replaced rather than serviced when they age out, because the service cost approaches the replacement price. Write the purchase date on it, because nobody remembers how long it has been in the cupboard under the stairs.
A house fire extinguisher, and who is responsible for using a fire extinguisher
Nobody in a home is required to own one and nobody is ever required to use one. If you choose to keep one, the useful pair in a house is a small foam or water extinguisher for the general risk and a fire blanket in the kitchen, kept on the escape side of the room so reaching either never means reaching across the hob. In a workplace the responsibility question has a precise answer: the responsible person must provide appropriate firefighting equipment and train staff in its use, and any member of staff who uses it does so voluntarily. Nobody, at home or at work, should attempt a fire that is bigger than a waste bin, that is in a space they would have to enter, or that has anything between them and the door. Get out, close the door, call the fire service: the extinguisher exists for the small fire caught in its first seconds, and for nothing else.
Questions people ask about home fire extinguishers
Should I have a fire extinguisher at home?
Fire service home safety advice concentrates on alarms and escape planning rather than extinguishers. Having one is not wrong, provided you treat leaving as the default and use it only on a small, contained fire with your exit behind you.
Which extinguisher is best for a house?
A small multi purpose foam or ABC powder unit covers the realistic household fires. Keep it at the exit from the kitchen, not inside it, and add a fire blanket for pan fires.
Is a mini fire extinguisher any use?
Only on a very small, contained fire. Their discharge time is measured in seconds, so they are a single attempt at a bin or an appliance, not a tool for anything that has spread.
What household fire extinguisher is worth having, if any?
One small foam unit near the exit and a fire blanket in the kitchen is the honest answer for most homes, and only if somebody is willing to be trained to use them. What matters far more is detection: interlinked alarms on every storey and a heat alarm in the kitchen, which is what actually saves lives. An extinguisher's value at home is narrow, because the correct response to anything beyond a very small fire is to leave and close the door. Buy the blanket for the pan, the foam unit for a waste bin or an armchair, and put the rest of the money into alarms.