With Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year's upon us, the risk of a fire at your home could be higher since you're likely to be cooking more, using holiday lighting (especially on Christmas trees and the like), and perhaps even burning candles more frequently.

The best way to avoid fires is to be safe; check out our safety advice for the kitchen, holiday lights, and candles. Still, you should have fire extinguishers on hand, keeping one each in the kitchen, garage, workshop, basement, and on every living area of the home—and have one nearby when grilling or deep-frying a turkey. "Keep extinguishers readily accessible so you don't waste valuable seconds rummaging around when a fire breaks out," says John Drengenberg, director of consumer affairs for Underwriters Laboratories, which conducts compliance tests of fire extinguishers.

While it might be convenient to keep a fire extinguisher under a kitchen sink, for example, manufacturers recommend you mount extinguishers in their bracket—in a convenient location and in plain sight—3.5 to 5 feet above the ground so they're out of the reach of small children.

You also need to know how to properly use your extinguishers. "When a fire breaks out is not the time to read the instructions on the extinguisher," adds Drengenberg. When you bring the extinguishers home, read the owner's manual to familiarize yourself with their operation and register them with the manufacturer so you're aware of any product updates or recalls.

(We’re currently testing various sizes of rechargeable and nonrechargeable fire extinguishers from brands like First Alert and Kidde for a report scheduled to appear in the May 2010 issue of Consumer Reports, online and on newsstands in early April. Stay tuned for preliminary reports of our findings, including our experience with First Alert’s Tundra, an aerosol spray classified as a firefighting tool as it is not tested to the ANSI/UL711 standards that apply to home-use extinguishers.)

Buy only extinguishers that have been listed or certified by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, such as UL, ETL, CSA, and FM Approvals. You'll notice letters on the extinguishers, which indicate the type(s) of fires they can handle. Class A are designed to put out rubbish, wood, and paper fires; Class B are for oil and grease fires; and Class C are for electrical fires. Class ABC models work on all the fires above.

For the home, Drengenberg recommends Class ABC extinguishers, since you won't necessarily have time to analyze the source of a fire. Our in-house experts recommend that you buy the largest fire extinguishers you can comfortably handle, since they'll give you a longer operating time. To increase your chances of successfully and safely extinguishing a fire, use the PASS—pull, aim, squeeze, sweep—technique and watch this video from the Fire Equipment Manufacturers' Association:

• Pull the pin, hold the extinguisher away from you, and release the locking mechanism.
• Aim low, pointing the extinguisher at the base of the fire.
• Squeeze the lever slowly and evenly.
• Sweep the nozzle from side to side.

"Also, be sure the fire is not between you and the door—you want to leave yourself a way to get out," says Drengenberg, who says you need to be aware of an extinguisher's limits. "Fire extinguishers, especially smaller ones, have a limited amount of extinguishing agent and are meant for fires that are small and contained, such as those in a wastebasket or frying pan. If you're faced with a fire that is spreading rapidly, your job is to get people out and call 911." (If you're faced with a small flare-up in a pan or a pot, turn off the cooking element and cover the flames immediately with the lid, which eliminates a source of oxygen a fire needs.)

Like smoke alarms and carbon-monoxide alarms, which you should replace every 10 years and every five years, respectively, fire extinguishers have a limited service life. Replace home-use nonrechargeable fire extinguishers 12 years after the manufacture date, according to the National Fire Prevention Association. If you're unsure whether your extinguishers are rechargeable, check the owner's manual or the pressure gauge. On most extinguishers, a needle on the pressure gauge will sit in a green-colored part of the dial of if the unit is properly charged and to red-colored areas if it needs to be recharged or is overcharged.

To determine whether extinguishers are properly charged, inspect them every 30 days and as detailed in the owner's manual. If you need to charge rechargeable models, bring it only to a certified fire-equipment-maintenance company.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Check out the ratings of smoke alarms and CO alarms including where to place them in your home. If you want to carry a fire extinguisher as part of a roadside-emergency kit, our Cars blog colleagues recommend a 1A10BC or a 2A10BC compact model. Finally, learn how to treat burns and scalds.