The extinguisher on your landing lasts under twenty seconds

A six-kilo powder extinguisher, the red one on your landing, empties completely in under twenty seconds and cannot be stopped halfway. With that countdown ahead of you, order matters more than strength.

1. Look at the pressure gauge, the small dial on top. Needle in the green band: it is pressurised and it works. Needle in the red on the left: it is discharged and nothing will come out. It is a three-second check, and in Spain it falls to you, the owner, to do it every quarter; the annual service and the pressure retest every five years are signed off by a maintenance firm (RD 513/2017, the Spanish fire-protection regulation).

2. Break the seal and pull the pin out horizontally, not upwards.

3. Aim at the base of the fire, never at the flames. Powder puts a fire out by covering what is burning; there is nothing to cover on a flame.

4. Squeeze the lever all the way and sweep side to side without letting go. Every time you release and squeeze again you lose powder on the restart.

5. Leave the way you came in, with the fire in front of you, never behind your back.

If the flames are above your waist or the smoke is coming down from the ceiling, shut the door behind you and call the emergency number.