It's Important to Have Your Fire Extinguishers Inspected, but How Often and Why?

5/14/2019 (Permalink)

Routine and Regular Inspections of Your Fire Extinguisher are Important

Imagine if a small fire breaks out in your home or at work, how unfortunate it would be if you went to use your fire extinguisher only to find that it is either broken or will not work. By making sure to have your fire extinguisher(s) inspected regularly can help you to avoid that. Over time, fire extinguishers can become damaged without you even realizing it. Regular inspections are extremely important and necessary to be sure that your extinguisher will work if and when a fire breaks out.

When used properly, fire extinguishers can help you in preventing a small fire from growing into a large fire which can cause lots of damage or lead to complete destruction and loss of your property. Fires grow and increase in size every 60 seconds! A fire extinguisher can therefore play an important role in how big the fire is able to get. NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency) standards require that your fire extinguishers be inspected on a regular basis. It is best to ensure that you are inspecting your fire extinguishers at least once a month. To remain code compliant, you can hire a fire protection professional to perform brief visual inspections. They can arrange with you to inspect your fire extinguishers on a monthly basis and to also do a more in-depth inspection on a yearly basis. In most cases, if you bring your fire extinguisher to your local fire department, they may be happy to inspect it for you. It is advised before bringing it to them to do so that you contact them directly first to verify if they will in fact do that for you.

If you have any concerns or questions as to what fire extinguisher(s) to purchase for your home or business, than go to your local fire house. Not only will your local firemen be happy to go over the differences of different types of fire extinguishers so that you can choose which would be best for you, but they will also teach to you how to “P.A.S.S.” , which is the acronym on how to properly use a fire extinguisher. Some fire departments even have to ability and equipment to arrange with you the opportunity for you to practice extinguishing a fire with a fire extinguisher. Practice often can be beneficial in the case of you needing to quickly respond to a fire by using your fire extinguisher. Having the confidence to know what you are doing, and the knowledge, along with regularly ensuring that your fire extinguisher will operate, are all key towards you helping to stop a fire in its tracks.

Be sure to check out our other blogs to learn what the difference is between a monthly fire extinguisher inspection, and a yearly fire extinguisher inspection. Don’t forget BOTH inspections are recommended by the NFPA.

If you should experience a fire and fire damage in your home, then once it is extinguished, give us a call. At SERVPRO of Burlington, we are here 24/7 and 365 days a year in order to assist you with your fire damage. We are also here to assist you with any water damage which can arise from fires as well should the fire department need to come in to extinguish your fire. Just give us a call at 336-379-1772