For all the time that man has been using fire. Water has been and continues to be the primary extinguishing agent. Water is the most affordable and versatile substance. At the current level of technological development, it is still impossible to completely replace water with another more effective and affordable means. At the same time, as the level of development in the social and industrial spheres increases, the complexity of fires grows. This entails an increase in the level of fire extinguishing technology. Therefore, the requirements for water quality and the timing of its delivery to the fire site in the required volume are increasing. Currently, uniform standards for the entire territory of the Russian Federation to provide water for fire extinguishing purposes, which are not always relevant for modern conditions, are used. In this regard, the aim of the research was to develop economically feasible approaches for estimating water consumption for extinguishing fires. The authors of the article set the following tasks: (1) to examine existing approaches to solving the problem of rationing water supply for fire extinguishing needs in our country and abroad; (2) to propose new solutions to this problem. The existing generalized methods of rationing need further improvement, taking into account socio-economic, climatic and other factors. Using the example of water consumption rates for outdoor fire extinguishing, the article offers a scientific analysis of the prerequisites for the development of a differentiated approach, taking into account existing developments in regional studies, climatology and other scientific disciplines.