Fire extinguisher bought at car boot sale is false economy

When it comes to Fire Extinguishers I like to think I am pretty clued up on Standards and legislation and at Fire and Safety Centre we have invested a great deal of time in trying to educate our customers regarding compliance issues particularly post the introduction of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005 the RRO. Clearly getting the message across to some businesses on how to select the right Fire Extinguishers has some way to go if my casual observation last Sunday is any measure.

Since the demise of our local village shop I am obliged to visit the next village to collect my Sunday newspaper. In so doing I pass the regular Sunday morning car boot sale in the same village. As I drove through I noticed a chap leaving the car boot lugging a red fire extinguisher.  I only caught a passing glance but thought it unusual to find fire extinguishers for sale on a car boot.

The newsagent is just a couple of hundred yards from the car boot and as I left the shop the chap with the extinguisher had caught me up. He was outside another shop in the arcade and had placed the canister on the ground whilst he unlocked the door so I had a better look as I returned to my car. It was clearly a 6 litre water extinguisher but I could see no BS EN3 kitemark or even a CE mark and worse still the safety pin was missing.  I recognised the new owner as the proprietor of the shop which is a cafe and chippy which I visit occasionally when we fancy fish and chips.

Now it could be that the extinguisher was intended for some legitimate purpose even though it was clearly not fit for purpose, but the idea of a water extinguisher in proximity to scalding hot fat made me more than uneasy. There is a big difference between genuine approved kite marked budget fire extinguishers as found on our web site and car boot seconds of suspect provenance. The few pounds he may have saved may cost him thousands if the fire inspector calls and finds his “bargain” deployed in the shop. I regret to say I walked on by without putting him in the know but will be on the lookout the next time I call in and may summon the courage to mention the potential pitfalls.

Safety Tips for Bonfire Night

Fawkes Night on November 5th is an ancient tradition originally intended as a celebration of the failure of Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators to blow up Parliament and King James I in particular. Although the history is largely forgotten, taking the opportunity to gather the family round a blazing fire and watch a fire work display is still popular. Fire Safety is paramount and many accidents can be avoided by good preparation and some common sense. Here are some tips to ensure an enjoyable and safe bonfire night.

• First of all consider attending an organised event rather than risking your safety by having a garden bonfire.
• If you do have a home bonfire warn your neighbour’s beforehand as a courtesy or better still invite them to the party, so they are less likely to complain.
• It’s a good idea to wear protective clothing if you are in charge of the fire. Flame retardant Overalls, sturdy boots and flame resistant leather rigger gloves are inexpensive safeguards and are useful the year round.
• Only burn dry material as damp fuel generates more smoke and never burn plastics or car tyres as they can produce highly toxic gases.
• Build your bonfire away from sheds, timber fences, trees and any overhanging cables or telephone wires
• Use firelighters to get the fire going. Petrol and paraffin may flare up and can get out of control quickly
• Use a fire bucket filled with sand to light your fireworks and launch rockets.  At the end of the night the sand can be used to smother the fire.
• Have a water fire extinguisher handy or a connected garden hose with a spray attachment nearby in case of emergencies
• Set up a cordon to keep children well away from the bonfire
• Don’t throw any fireworks into the fire even if you believe they are spent
• Sparklers are fun but can be dangerous to small children. Always supervise them and provide a bucket of water to dunk the spent sparklers after use.

Laws governing fireworks
You should also be aware that there are Laws governing the use of fireworks. Breaking these laws can result in fines of up to a £5000 and 3 month imprisonment.
For Bonfire night fireworks can only be sold to adults over 18 years of age and only between the 15th October and the 10th November.
It is an offence to set off fireworks in the street or public places without a licence. If caught the police can give you an on-the-spot fine of £80
Even on Bonfire night and the nights surrounding this date fireworks must not be set off after midnight.

Finally don’t be tempted to buy cheap fireworks from “out of the back of a van” dealers and temporary unlicenced shops. Look for fireworks marked BS 7114 or a “CE” mark that shows the fireworks meet British or European safety standards.

Have a safe bonfire night. If you have any further tips or can recommend good organised events let our readers know.

10 things to do for safety in the home

1. Fit smoke alarms – the simplest and cheapest safeguard to give early warning of a fire, prevent a major fire developing and give you time to get you and the kids to a safe place. Fire safety in the home contains essential advice on what and where to fit.

2. Ensure you have adequate home contents insurance. It’s cheaper than you think and is even cheaper if you combine with buildings insurance, have an intruder alarm, lockable windows and a good no claims record.

3. Gather all your important documents together including passports and put them in a secure place – a decent quality home safe preferably with fire resistance or a fire safe security cash box is ideal. Be sure to bolt it down to something solid to thwart the opportunist thief.

4. Reduce nuisance phone calls that invariably come in the middle of the evening meal by registering with the Telephone Preference Service at www.tpsonline.org.uk or call 0800 398 893. This only works for UK organisations and takes about a month for these calls to stop. Unfortunately some other unwanted calls are more difficult to stop.

5. Put a No Cold Callers sign on the gate – they used to say No Hawkers in my day but the effect is the same in preventing hard sell salesman and dubious religious disciples arriving at your back door. You can download a No Cold – Callers sign from www.moneysavingexpert.com/nocallers

6. Invest in a fire blanket and ABF or Wet Chemical fire extinguisher for the kitchen where 75% of all home fires start. Make sure everyone in the house knows where they are kept and how to use them.

7. Draw up a Fire Action Plan with the whole family to agree what to do in the event of a fire and who should do it.

8. If you have lockable windows that may provide a means of escape make sure there is a release key in every habitable room. Obviously don’t leave in full view on the windowsill or in the lock.

9. If your family needs to access the house at different times rather than have several duplicate main door keys install a key safe box by the door. It’s far safer than leaving a key “under the mat” or risking being locked out should a key go missing.

10. Of course even with the best planning and good intentions tragedies will still happen so make a Will to save your family the hassle and expense of a protracted Probate. If you have young ones discuss and agree who you would want to be their future Guardians if the worst happens and include in the Will or separate legal statement.

If you have any further suggestions on actions to make home life worry free let us know.

Podcast on how to get the best fire extinguisher for your company.

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Ensuring your business and staff are protected from the risk of fire is of paramount importance. However, many people don’t realise that they are legally obliged to ensure the fire extinguishers they provide are set up correctly.

In this interview, fire safety expert David Murfitt explains what to look out for.

Can you explain how to pick the correct fire extinguisher for your business?

The most important thing is….that it’s suitable for the risk that you have in your environment. You may well be sat in a small office environment where you’ve got electrical equipment, reality is that in the event of a fire you’re quite possibly going to pick up a water fire extinguisher  because that’s actually the general sort of extinguisher to be required in a premises. A lot of people would see that’s there only requirement but if there are electrics involved you’re going to need a fire extinguisher to cover that electrical risk. Generally in an office environment it’s also useful to have a fire extinguisher which is less likely to cause a conduction of electricity in its use so a fire extinguisher with an atomized spray is better than a standard water fire extinguisher.

If you’ve got chemicals or high levels of electrics then of course the type of extinguisher changes accordingly.

Do the fire extinguishers have to be vigorously tested?

There’s a British Standard Code of Practice for the provision of fire equipment, what you put, where you put it and how you put it and based on the size of the risk, the size of the fire extinguisher or its rating will differ. Through our own experience we are going out to sites where people have purchased their equipment but they suddenly find out the need for this equipment to be commissioned i.e. put into service, but when we arrive to do that they’ve actually purchased the wrong equipment for the risk which they have within their own environment.

Fire extinguishers need to be commissioned upon receipt?

They do. If you’re not experienced in fire equipment, what it should look like, what it should sound like, the functionality of it, it can actually be difficult to realise that in fact in the event that you need it, it won’t work.

What should businesses looking to buy a fire extinguisher do?

The most important thing to do is to make sure the risk you need to cover is covered with the right type of fire extinguisher.  Once it’s on your site it’s got to be commissioned by a competent person. British Standard 5306 part 3 does state that a competent person is somebody who’s undergone industry training, has access to industry training and is able to competently put that piece of equipment into service.

People buy a piece of equipment, the intention ‘s are absolutely right but unfortunately cometh the event that you do need to use it – and we don’t buy fire equipment so we can use it, it’s purchased in case you need to use it but if anything goes wrong and you do end up with a fire – if that piece of equipment malfunctions or is the wrong piece of equipment for the type of fire you’ve got, so let’s take a really bad scenario where you’ve got a flammable liquid fire and you’ve got a water fire extinguisher you’ve got quite a serious problem because you’re going to make the actual fire worse and potentially put your people at a greater risk.

Do people need a fire extinguisher in every room or should they be employing someone’s services who know all about fire safety?

The first thing to look for is third party accreditations and that’s an ISO system which is backed by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service.  That will ensure that anyone coming out to discuss your fire protection needs with you is suitably qualified to do so.  Fire extinguishers should be placed on escape routes generally unless you have specific risks and of course the most important thing is to encourage people away from the incident and to a point where they can raise the alarm. So generally where you have a fire alarm call point, so an activation device where you press the glass to break it and sound the alarm should be very, very close at hand. Training’s a big part of providing fire safety so you raise the alarm before you even think about using a fire extinguisher. Having raised the alarm you decide that it’s safe to do so because you’ve been trained, the fire is still in its very early and small stages you can tackle the fire because the fire equipment you’ve got is the right one for that particular area. The nice thing to know is that if you don’t put the fire out there’s a big red engine with blue lights on the roof of it on its way to you and hopefully they’ll arrive to congratulate you on having put the fire out. If you haven’t put it out they can take it on from there and your risks are reduced.

Do fire extinguishers need regular maintenance?

Yes, the British Standard Code of Practice requires that fire extinguishers are inspected annually and there are tests which are carried out once every five years. For instance, with a water fire extinguisher it needs to be discharged and inspected inside. The commissioning is really, really important because it makes sure the equipment is the right thing in the right place to cover the risks associated and that it will work. It’s almost a pre-service. The annual inspection thereafter will continue to maintain standards and make sure that equipment is always available and ready for use. So maintenance is critical. There should be a really big emphasis on organisations who are looking to protect themselves from fire to make sure that whatever service they use, whoever the company may be, make sure they have third party certification, check their scope of registration covers the provision of fire fighting equipment because through doing that you have got some greater reassurances that you are being given the right cover.

Fire and Safety Centre says:

We whole heartedly endorse the advice given by David Murfitt with regard to buying the best fire extinguisher for the risk being protected.

Businesses employing over 5 people have an obligation under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005 to carry out a fire risk assessment. The risk assessment should be carried out by a “responsible person”.

Once it has been established what type of fire equipment including fire extinguishers are required you can order the products online from Fire and Safety Centre and to comply with the British Standard Code of practice buy the commissioning at the same time.

Car Fire Extinguishers stand test of time

The safety benefits for having a car extinguisher were recognised 100 years ago when Pyrene introduced the first CTC (Carbon Tetrachloride) canister in 1912. The effectiveness of CTC in suppressing flammable liquid and electrical fires meant they were often fitted as standard to many vintage vehicles and are still sought after today by vintage car enthusiasts and vehicle restorers albeit now only strictly for show.

When you stop to think your car contains a host of materials, including flammable liquids like petrol and oil, solid combustibles such as hose lines, plastics and upholstery that provide a ready source of fuel for a fire. A car also has many potential sources of heat capable of igniting these materials including electrical equipment and evermore complex wiring with the potential to short circuit, hot exhaust systems, air bag detonators and batteries. Even the heat of the engine is sufficient to ignite fumes from leaking fuel lines.

Although most car fires originate in the engine compartment the passenger compartment is not immune. My daughter once had a close encounter with disaster when she left an empty coke bottle in the back seat on a clear sunny day. The bottle acted like a prism and the concentrated sunlight burnt a neat track in the roof lining of the cab. She was fortunate the concentrated rays were not directed at the newspaper and magazines adjacent the bottle.

There are many other practical safety reasons to carry a car fire extinguisher particularly if you are holidaying in a caravan, out for a picnic or camping when statistically the risks of accidental fires are at their greatest. Having a fire extinguisher to hand may prevent a minor fire from getting out of control.

The lethal gases produced as a consequence of using the Pyrene CTC extinguishers sealed their demise a long time ago and they were quickly superseded by modern versatile dry powder and foam fire extinguishers both of which are effective on flammable liquids and solid combustibles. The dry powder extinguishers have added advantages as they can be used safely on fires involving live electricity and also flammable gases like butane.

Extinguishers are available in convenient sizes to fit unobtrusively in your car. The compact 600g disposable aerosol extinguisher is small enough to fit in a glove compartment whilst the 1kg dry powder fire extinguisher with refillable canister can be mounted in a door tray, on a cabin side strut or out of sight in the car boot.