Fire Safety Trivia
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This fire safety trivia quiz has 96 free questions with answers and covers the practical stuff first: where smoke alarms go and how often to test them, what to do with a pan fire, how far a space heater or candle should sit from anything that burns, and which extinguisher belongs on which class of fire. Then it widens out to the history that shaped the rules, from the Great Chicago Fire and the Iroquois Theatre to the Triangle factory, and to the mascots, codes and colour systems firefighters use every day. It is built for Fire Prevention Week in October, workplace safety briefings, scout troops and school assemblies, but it works just as well as a Sunday quiz. Roughly a third of the questions are easy enough for kids; the hardest ask about NFPA standards, hydrant colours and flashover temperatures. Every answer was checked against the U.S. Fire Administration, NFPA material or an encyclopedic source, and each question explains itself as soon as you answer.
30 of 96 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01According to the U.S. Fire Administration, what is by far the leading cause of home fires?
Cooking
Cooking. It is also the top cause of home fire injuries, and the biggest single factor is equipment left unattended, which is why the advice is simply to stay in the kitchen.
Q 02What does the U.S. Fire Administration say to use on a stovetop grease fire?
A pan lid or baking sheet
A pan lid or baking sheet. Slide it over the flames, turn off the burner and leave it covered until it cools; the NFPA adds that water should never be thrown on a grease fire.
Q 03The U.S. Fire Administration says you may have less than how long to escape once a smoke alarm sounds?
2 minutes
2 minutes. Modern furnishings and open floor plans make home fires grow faster than they used to, which is why the advice is to plan two ways out of every room in advance.
Q 04How often does the U.S. Fire Administration say you should test your smoke alarms?
Every month
Every month. Pressing the test button until the alarm sounds is all it takes, and the NFPA and the American Red Cross give the same monthly advice.
Q 05After how many years does the U.S. Fire Administration say an entire smoke alarm unit should be replaced?
10
10. The clock runs from the manufacture date printed on the alarm, not from the day it went up, and the NFPA likewise says to replace any unit more than ten years old.
Q 06The U.S. Fire Administration wants smoke alarms on every level, outside each sleeping area and where else?
Inside each bedroom
Inside each bedroom. A closed door slows the spread of smoke, heat and fire, so a sleeper needs an alarm on their own side of it as well as one in the hall.
Q 07Ionization smoke detectors ionize the air using a small amount of which radioactive isotope?
Americium-241
Americium-241. Its alpha particles ionize the air between two charged plates so a small current flows, and smoke drifting in breaks that flow of ions and trips the alarm.
Q 08Which type of detector responds faster to a fire in its early, smouldering stage?
Photoelectric
Photoelectric. The NFPA says these alarms respond sooner to smouldering fires and ionization alarms to flaming ones, so the U.S. Fire Administration recommends having both kinds.
Q 09Which Founding Father helped set up the volunteer Union Fire Company?
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin. He pressed for it in his Pennsylvania Gazette, and the company formed in Philadelphia in 1736, each member pledging to bring leather buckets to every fire.
Q 10Which three things make up the classic fire triangle?
Heat, fuel and oxygen
Heat, fuel and oxygen. Take away any one side and the fire goes out, which is why water cools a blaze and a fire blanket shuts out the air.
Q 11What does the fire tetrahedron add to the three sides of the fire triangle?
Chemical chain reaction
Chemical chain reaction. Dry chemical extinguishers put a fire out mainly by interrupting that reaction rather than by cooling it.
Q 12Under the US system, which letter designates fires in cooking oils and fats?
K
K. Europe and Australia file the same fires under Class F, and they call for a wet chemical extinguisher, never a solid stream of water.
Q 13Class D fires involve which kind of material?
Combustible metals such as magnesium
Combustible metals such as magnesium. Lithium, sodium and titanium count too, and because several react violently with water these fires need dry powder agents made for Class D alone.
Q 21Sparky the Fire Dog, the NFPA's mascot created in 1951, is what breed?
Dalmatian
Dalmatian. The NFPA calls the choice a nod to the breed's history in the fire service, where the dogs once ran with horse-drawn engines as coach dogs.
Q 22'Stop, drop and roll' puts out flames on clothing mainly by doing what?
Depriving the fire of oxygen
Depriving the fire of oxygen. Rolling on the ground smothers the flames, and stopping first matters because running only fans them.
Q 23The U.S. Fire Administration says to keep anything that can burn at least how far from a space heater?
3 feet
3 feet. The same advice says to switch a heater off whenever you leave the room or go to bed, and never to use an oven to heat your home.
Q 14In the PASS steps for using a fire extinguisher, where should you aim the nozzle?
The base of the fire
The base of the fire. PASS stands for pull the pin, aim low, squeeze the lever slowly and sweep the nozzle from side to side.
Q 15In which month do the US and Canada hold Fire Prevention Week?
October
October. The week marks the Great Chicago Fire, which began on October 8, 1871 and burned on through the 9th, and the NFPA has sponsored the observance since 1922.
Q 16Which president proclaimed the first National Fire Prevention Week, in 1925?
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge. His 1925 proclamation made it a national observance, timed each year to the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Q 17The Great Chicago Fire is said to have started in a barn belonging to which family?
The O'Learys
The O'Learys. Legend blames Catherine O'Leary's cow for kicking over a lantern, but the cause was never determined and Chicago's city council formally cleared her in 1997.
Q 18On the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, an even deadlier blaze consumed which Wisconsin town?
Peshtigo
Peshtigo. It killed at least 1,200 people against Chicago's roughly 300, yet the city fire took the headlines and the forest fire is far less remembered.
Q 19Which mascot has fronted the U.S. Forest Service's fire prevention campaign since 1944?
Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear. A real orphaned cub rescued from New Mexico's Capitan Gap fire in 1950 became his living symbol and spent the rest of its life at the National Zoo in Washington.
Q 20In 2001, the slogan 'Only you can prevent forest fires' had its last two words replaced with what?
Wildfires
Wildfires. The update followed a run of big fires in natural areas outside forests, such as grasslands, which the old wording left out.
Q 24The NFPA says to keep a burning candle at least how far from anything that can burn?
12 inches
12 inches. The NFPA and the US Fire Administration also say to blow candles out whenever you leave the room or go to bed.
Q 25Which appliances does the US Fire Administration say must never be plugged into an extension cord?
Refrigerators, stoves, washers and dryers
Refrigerators, stoves, washers and dryers. The extension cord can overheat and start a fire, so major appliances should go straight into a wall outlet.
Q 26Where does the U.S. Fire Administration say used lithium-ion batteries should go?
A battery recycling location
A battery recycling location. The EPA says the cells can be crushed in a trash or recycling truck and start a fire, so they belong at a separate collection point.
Q 27Carbon monoxide is dangerous partly because it is what?
Colourless, tasteless and odourless
Colourless, tasteless and odourless. It forms when fuel burns incompletely, so blocked flues, unvented heaters and cars left running in attached garages are common culprits.
Q 28The early symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are often mistaken for which illness?
The flu
The flu. Headache, dizziness and nausea are the usual first signs, and the EPA's tell is that they clear up once you leave the house.
Q 29In a standard fire sprinkler system, what makes an individual sprinkler head open?
Heat reaching the head
Heat reaching the head. It breaks a glass bulb or melts a solder link, so only the sprinkler nearest the fire opens and the rest of the building stays dry, unlike in the movies.
Q 30When escaping a house fire through smoke, why are you told to get low and crawl?
Cleaner air is near the floor
Cleaner air is near the floor. Heavy smoke and poisonous gases collect along the ceiling first, so Ready.gov and the Red Cross both say to get low and go under the smoke to your exit.