Keep your fire extinguisher handy, a single spark can start a fire
A welder in mask and gloves strikes a bright arc on a metal plate, with a brass extinguisher floating beside him. The headline 'Keep your fire extinguisher handy' and the line 'A single spark can start a fire', its letters edged with flames, make the danger vivid (fear-appeal).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Bethlehem Steel Company
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Labor, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Bethlehem Steel Company. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1220 (NAID 514826).
Text on the object
Keep your fire extinguisher handy A single spark can start a fire © BETHLEHEM STEEL COMPANY
