Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of ads for fire blankets, especially on social media. Are they really better than fire extinguishers for home use, as the ads imply?

Fire blankets do indeed work—and have several advantages over fire extinguishers. But you should still have a fire extinguisher on hand (as explained below).

To burn, a fire needs three elements, known as the “fire triangle”: heat, fuel, and oxygen. “If you remove one of those elements, there is no fire. When you use a fire blanket to cover a fire, you remove the oxygen—hence, no fire,” said Robert O’Brien, a co-founder and president of New York Fire Consultants and a retired New York City firefighter.

Most emergency fire blankets for home use—such as those from Prepared Hero, Tonyko, and Dibbatu—are made of fiberglass and, when used early on in a fire, are quite effective at extinguishing it. They can also be thrown over a person whose clothing has caught fire or worn protectively as a heat shield if you have to exit a burning building. Most fire blankets can withstand 1000°F heat for about a minute, which, according to O’Brien, is enough time for the fire to go out.

Fire blankets can be used to put out common housefires from paper, wood, cardboard (class A combustibles); gasoline, kerosene, grease/oil (class B flammable liquids); and cooking fats and oils (class K flammables).

“In our opinion, they would be very effective on those types of fires. But fire blankets are not intended for large or expanding fires, only for the very earliest stage,” O’Brien said. Nor are they good for snuffing out fires from lithium-ion batteries (like those used in electric bicycles and scooters), which have been on the rise and are notoriously challenging to extinguish. If any fire goes beyond your control, it’s time to call 9-1-1.

While not necessarily more effective than fire extinguishers, fire blankets have the advantage of being lightweight and easy to use (just pull the tabs on the package to pull out the blanket and throw the blanket over the fire) and requiring no cleanup. They can be used by people with mobility issues or disabilities and by children.

More pluses—the blankets don’t expire and can be reused provided they haven’t been damaged (don’t have holes or damaged material); any soot from a fire can be wiped off. In contrast, fire extinguishers can be bulky, awkward to use, and often heavy; require deliberate training (most people don’t have experience using them); leave a big mess behind; and need to be replaced or serviced regularly.

Ideally, though, it’s best to have both a fire blanket and a fire extinguisher on hand—and know where they are and how to use the latter (see box, below). Fire extinguishers can handle more extensive fires, while blankets can only smother fires that are smaller than the blanket itself—they won’t work if your drapes, for instance, catch fire.

While O’Brien doesn’t recommend one fire blanket brand over another, he suggests looking for one that has some laboratory rating (such as NSF certified) indicating that the product has been tested and approved. Also, consider the material the blanket is made of. “Wool is okay; fiberglass would be better,” he said.

You can buy fire blankets in bundles and store them around the house, most importantly in the kitchen but also upstairs and in the basement (if you live in a multiple-floor dwelling), as well as in the garage and in your vehicle. You can hang a fire blanket on a wall in clear view (they are less obtrusive than extinguishers) or on the inside of a cabinet door, in easy reach if needed. They cost about $10 to $30 each, depending on their size and how many you buy at a time.

Aside from having these safety items on hand to be used in case of fire, you should also take steps to ensure that a fire can be kept from spreading. That includes making sure your doors can be closed to help contain the fire, which buys some time, and also making sure gaps around pipes and cables are sealed with fire-stopping materials, such as sealants and pipe collars. (Other safety items to have installed at home are smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.)

Importantly, you should also have a plan with your family on what to do in the event of a fire—how to get out and where to meet. And it’s prudent to prepare a go-bag with essential items, including medications and identification and other important documents.