While fire extinguishers are a great idea... keeping them by the door is even better. It's something you grab on the way OUT. As painful as it might sound, the right thing to do is to get out of a burning building and wait for the fire department. Extinguishers are for minor stuff only. (sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.)
Ray
I couldn't agree with you more, Ray. And as long as we're on the topic, I'd encourage all of you to not only consider an extinguisher for the shop, but to consider WHAT KIND of extinguisher you want for the shop.
They've all got their pros and cons. I apologize to those who already know this (probably most of you), but I think it's too important not to re-state.
Remember the classes:
A=combustible solids
B=flammable/combustible liquids
C=energized electrical
And the types of extinguishers:
ABC
Pros: Pretty cheap, works on anything - a no brainer.
Cons: A HUGE mess to clean up. I can't imagine that it would be good for any kind of electric motor that it gets into.
Water can
Pros: Re-usible. Fairly cheap. You can refill it yourself and re-pressurized it with it's standard Schrader (tire-stem) valve.
Cons: Limited to type A fires only. (But remember that an electrical device on fire is only type C until you turn off the breaker or it trips. Then it's a class A.)
CO2
Pros: No mess to clean up. Won't hurt electrical devices.
Cons: Rated only for class B and C. Refilled for cheap. It will put out a class A fire, but it's not recommended because the force of the CO2 coming out tends to blow firey objects all over (typically not good). EXPENSIVE! Easily 3-4 times the price of an ABC.
Also:
When buying for the shop/home, buy the biggest extinguisher you can afford or physically handle. The standard el-cheapo ABC, disposable, home kitchen unit (2.5lb) only has an 8-10 sec discharge time while a 10lb will give you around 20 seconds (don't ask me how that math works, but those are the numbers).
Get something with a metal handle. There are alot of junk extinguishers out there with plastic handles. I've never had one break on me, but if it can, it will and at the most inopportune time. Plus, those ones are typically not refillable.
Smokesign.com is the cheapest place I've found to get a quality extinguisher. They have free shipping on everything.
This 10lb ABC model ($55, about $3 cheaper than HD plus no tax) and
this water can ($110) are the two best deals IMHO.