Hi All!Last weekend I started the fire extinguisher discussion, and I appreciated the many replies and advice. But it wouldn't do much good, unless I followed up and DID something. So I called my fire extinguisher guy and asked him to come for a working visit, and advise me what sizes and where best to locate them. We went through the house, attached garage (sometimes used as a workshop), and the big barn (shop being moved to one corner of pole barn, plus tractor storage and sometimes hay storage), and the horse barn. I asked for his professional opinion, and intended to act on it by buying new extinguishers or paying for servicing the existing ones. From his experience, he recommended 10 lb ABC (dry chem) for the garage, shop, and near the wood fired boiler in bsmt. And one more located outside not far from the bulk fuel tanks. Especially by the bulk tanks (gasoline and diesel), I thought that he might insist on a 20#. But he said no, a 20# ABC actually weighs about 40 lbs, and thus is too heavy for most people to handle, especially when they need to move fast. Besides if the entire bulk tank is on fire, you best run, not get near enough to squirt it with an extinguisher. He has been involved in training demonstrations for small factories and automotive shops where they deliberately set an old car on fire and let it get fully involved, and then put it out. He said it takes about 1/2 of a 5# extinguisher to fully put it out. (You must aim the dry chem at the base of the flame...what is actually burning, not just squirt it up in the flames and smoke where it will not do much good). I ended up buying 4 new 10#, one new 5#, and had 5 other 5# and 10#s serviced and reconditioned as they were all 12 years since last certification. He traded my out of date ones for fully serviced similar ones right off his truck, and had the 5 new ones also on the truck. One call, one stop, all work completed. I feel much better and safer now and a little lighter in the checkbook. He recommended that we throw away some of the old extinguishers, as there are some brands that are known to be inferior and problematic. Instead of just throwing them out, he recommended to set a metal pan of oil and paper on fire out on the gravel away from the buildings, and then have my kids/grandkids practice putting out the fire. Should be a real good experience for them. The ones that he did not want to service and recertify were either the General brand (looks substantial, but company is out of business), Honeywell brand (out of business), and the ones with a plastic valve and gauge...like sold at Wally world and other "cheapo" places. I hope some of you follow up by checking your extinguishers, and doing something about them if needed. It will be money well spent, even if you never need to use one. As many of us use this time of the year for our shop work, and some are lucky enough to have a heated shop (not yet here), it really is the best time of year to do something about the extinguisher(s). Keep 'em craNking. Paul in MN
|
