Exploding fire extinguishers
Have you noticed that every time we take steps to reduce the risk or eliminate a possible outcome of a hazard or dangerous occurrence the new method could creat new problems?
Remember when we used to use fire extinguishers to hold open the fire door? (tut tut go and move it now).
Then there was the introduction of a rubber sleave around the bottom of the fire extinguisher to stop the damp corroding and weakening the bottom.
finally now we have to hang the extinguishers on the wall to prevent a trip hazard, make it easy to access, stop people from using it to hold the door open and prevents the bottom from getting damaged by a wet floor and weakening.
Well a new study has found that certain types of fire extinguishers held on the wall by a single bracket could now be dangerous.
“How could this be?” I hear you ask. Well apparently the single bracket puts a lot of stress on a single point of the compressed cylinder and over time could be weakened enough to cause an explosion.
So go and check to see if yours is OK?
Until next time