Firefighters know how quickly a kitchen fire can spread. That's why having a good fire extinguisher on hand is so important.

"Every 30 seconds a fire doubles in size so what that means time is of the essence," said Captain Gabe Roder of the Vancouver Fire Department.

A fire department video shows a small fire inside a home: At 25 seconds it starts to spread, three minutes later the chair is burning, and a minute after that it's a raging inferno.

Consumer Reports just tested more than a dozen extinguishers, including seven smaller ones convenient for the kitchen. Also tested were two new types of aerosol sprays.

Testers created fires using a flammable liquid to see how well each one could battle a blaze.

"Most did well, but the two aerosol sprays sometimes caused the fire to flare up. And while they may look a lot like fire extinguishers, they're not," said John Galeotafiore of Consumer Reports.

But you wouldn't get that from the First Alert Tundra aerosol spray unless you read the fine print.

"Another problem: These cans don't have a pressure indicator, so there's no way of knowing if they're ready to use, which is critically important," said Galeotafiore.

Therefore, Consumer Reports rates the First Alert Tundra and Kitchen Guard aerosol sprays as "Don't Buy."

A better choice for your kitchen is one produced by Kidde. It's the $25 –model, number 466294. It was easy to use and quickly extinguished the test fires.

There is one draw back -- it's only a B-C extinguisher, which means it won't put out wood or paper fires.

A better choice for all types of fires is an A-B-C extinguisher

"In the size of two-litre pop bottle we call it a five pounder. It's the type of extinguisher, it is rated 2A 10BC, which in fire fighter jargon [means] it's enough extinguishing agent to put out a decent sized fire in a home."

Top-rated in tests is the $60 Kidde model -- number 466297 -- it's much bigger and can fight a fire for longer.

Regardless which extinguisher you have, you have to use it correctly.

Roder used a gasoline fire to demonstrate the proper way to use an extinguisher.

Think of the word PASS:

Pull the pin

Aim low. Point the extinguisher at the base of the fire.

Squeeze the lever slowly

Sweep the nozzle from side-to-side.

An important safety check when buying an extinguisher: check that the pressure indicator registers "full." Besides having a fire extinguisher in your kitchen, Consumer Reports recommends you have multi-purpose extinguishers on every floor of your home.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Chris Olsen