what type of fire should you extinguish with a yellow coded extinguisher?

A yellow‑coded fire extinguisher is used for Class F (or K) fires involving cooking oils and fats , typically in kitchens.

Quick Scoop

• Use a yellow‑label wet chemical extinguisher on:
  • Very hot cooking oil and fat fires (deep fat fryers, chip pans).

• It can sometimes also be used on small solid combustibles (Class A, like paper or cloth), but that is not its primary purpose.

• Do not use it on:
  • Flammable liquids like petrol (Class B),
  • Gas fires (Class C),
  • Metal fires (Class D),
  • Most electrical fires (unless the label explicitly says it is safe).

In most modern systems, “yellow coded extinguisher” means a wet chemical unit designed for kitchen fires from oils and fats.

Tiny Story To Remember It

Imagine a busy restaurant kitchen where a deep fat fryer catches fire and the flames shoot up toward the ceiling. The staff rush past the red and blue labels and grab the yellow‑label extinguisher hanging right by the fryer. It sprays a gentle mist that cools the burning oil and creates a soapy layer on top, smothering the flames and preventing them from reigniting.

That’s exactly the scenario a yellow‑coded extinguisher is built for. TL;DR: Use a yellow‑coded extinguisher on cooking oil and fat fires in kitchens (Class F/K) , not on petrol, gas, or electrical fires.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.