Inspection & Maintenance
How to maintain your fire extinguisher
Do you know how to inspect and maintain your fire extinguisher? most people don’t. Let’s start with the easy stuff. First and foremost, you should have at least one fire extinguisher in your home. As far as a business goes, the amount, size and type of fire extinguishers is dependent on the type of business and the square footage of your building. Since this page is simply going to share information about how to take care of your fire extinguishers, we won’t be discussing the types, locations or size.
Inspecting your fire extinguishers
One of the most important aspects of even owning a fire extinguisher is to make sure you know where it is. I have walked into many a home or business and asked if they knew where their fire extinguisher is, only to get a befuddled look. The best way to make sure you know where your fire extinguisher is in case f a fire emergency is to have the extinguisher installed on the proper bracket in a location that you can see it. A great place is at an entrance or exit so you pass it all the time. The location will be stored in the back of your head. Having the fire extinguisher on the proper bracket will keep it from falling off the wall and will keep it from growing legs so to speak. Fire extinguishers sitting on the floor tend to wander around and when you really need it, you can’t find it.
Making sure your fire extinguisher is in the right location is step one of inspecting your own fire extinguisher. Step two is to make sure that the needle on the gauge is showing in the green. Anywhere in the green is fine, it does not need to be directly in the center, but it should not be under or over.
Next, you should make sure the there are no bugs inside of the hose. Shine a light in the end of the hose and make sure it is clear. If you see bugs or debris in the hose, you can take a pencil or a paperclip and simply clean out the hose. A very good way to make sure that the hose is clear is to tak the hose off of the fire extinguisher by turning it counterclockwise. After you have the hose off, hold it up to the sky or to a light and see if you can look all the way through it like a telescope. Chances are if you clean see from one end to the other, you are all clear.
Lastly, make sure that the pull pin is in place and secured with a tamper tag. After you are done, for businesses, you should put your initials and date on the back of the tag. There, you are done inspecting your fire extinguisher.
Maintenance of your fire extinguishers
How do you maintain your fire extinguishers, so they last and operate safely for a long time? If you plan on hanging a fire extinguisher outside for any reason, you really want to mount the extinguisher inside an enclosure. The enclosure will keep the sun and heat off the fire extinguisher. Heat, rain and other weather can cause a fire extinguisher to age quicker and not last as long.
If you hang a fire extinguisher inside, it should give you years of service if the extinguisher is not damaged in any way. With that said, there are fire extinguishers, such as the store bought over the counter kind that are made to last twelve years. After twelve years of non-use, you need a new one. Professional or commercial fire extinguishers can last for ever if you have them serviced by a licensed fire extinguisher company. A licensed extinguisher technician can keep your fire extinguishers-maintained year after year. In fact, if you own a commercial business, you are required by law to have your fire extinguishers services and re-certified one time each year.
NFPA 633, NFPA 10 and Life safety code 1 and 101 provide plenty of information about how many fire extinguishers you need, the maintenance of fire extinguishers, and the laws pertaining to fire extinguishers.