This publication analyzes approaches in Ukraine to ensuring fire safety of buildings and structures of various purposes with the help of primary fire extinguishing means. The statistics of fires that occurred in houses and structures in the first half of 2022 are given, which includes the total number of deaths of people, including children, from the consequences of fires, as well as the main reasons for the ineffective use of primary fire extinguishing agents when extinguishing fires at the initial stage of their occurrence. The issue of modern principles and approaches to the selection, evaluation criteria and use of primary fire extinguishing agents by the leading countries of the world was considered. The main approaches of the world's leading countries aimed at providing primary means of fire extinguishing for buildings and structures of various purposes are highlighted. Attention is focused on the regulatory documents in force in Ukraine, which regulate the requirements and criteria for equipping various construction sites with primary fire extinguishing equipment, and their main shortcomings are identified. The main requirements for the operation of primary fire extinguishing equipment, their order and priority of implementation are given. It was determined that for primary fire extinguishing agents, the main technical parameters for the possibility of their use in buildings and structures are its fire extinguishing capacity and the volume of fire extinguishing substance used in it. For the premises in buildings and structures where the primary means of extinguishing fire will be used, the class of possible fire and the category of explosion and fire hazard are characteristic. The types of fire extinguishers and fire extinguishing substances with which they are equipped, as well as the main normative documents in Ukraine to which they must comply, are given. The existing classes of fires, types of fire extinguishers and their general rules of operation, as well as the main criteria for their placement in different buildings and structures, are disclosed. It is noted that the Institute of Public Administration and Scientific Research on Civil Protection has developed a new regulatory document, which will improve the fire-fighting condition of buildings and structures of various purposes. Also, work in this direction will be continued and the development of a new regulatory document on the provision of primary means of fire extinguishing for wheeled vehicles will begin in the near future. Keywords: primary means of fire extinguishing, norms of belonging, rules of operation of fire extinguishers.