A lot of fire departments do not want employees trying to fight fires. They would rather have you close the door to the fire are and call the fire department.
Hmm. I can see why that makes sense. I am kinda thinking more along the lines of a company getting sued for a person dying because they didn’t use the extinguisher due to it being verboten.
The companies actually WANT every employee to go through the extinguisher training, but they believe pretty strongly that people need to place a priority on personal safety (i.e., evacuation) and notifying others, including the responding fire professionals.
If someone gets hurt trying to fight a small fire, the question from the attorney might be, “You tried to save company property. Had you ever received any training in how to properly use a fire extinguisher?” Seems like a small thing, but it makes a big difference. It’s relatively easy to just make it a safety policy…not trained, then don’t use an extinguisher.
It’s pretty rare that an individual’s life depends on putting out a small fire, but it’s fairly common for people to get tunnel-vision and try to put out the fire, while ignoring notifying others or getting out themselves.
Funny how stress works. I’ve had fire extinguisher training/practice, but when I tried to use one to put out an actual surprise fire, I had a hard time: I struggled mightily to pull the pin out because in my stressed-out state, I was already squeezing the handle, causing the pin to bind up in its hole. :smack:
I am an instructor in our local CERT program. In our last class, we had some discussion on this point. It lead a couple of the instructors to do some deeper research. Below is our write-up. May it serve you well! 
Fire Extinguisher Maintenance – Should we shake them?
The question is, should you turn your dry chemical fire extinguisher over and tap it to make sure the powder doesn’t get compacted? It’s one of those things we all considered “common knowledge,” but it turned out to be a myth. Well it’s pretty new information in our community, so we wanted to put together all the background we could find. And again, bottom line, no, do not turn your fire extinguishers over or tap them with a mallet as part of your maintenance.
In fact, with modern extinguishers, you are not going to do any good, and you could damage the valve. So just don’t ok?
We talked to a lot of technicians. We studied standards. We studied manufacturers’ websites and product manuals. We talked with leaders of another CERT program, and THEY spoke with some manufacturers. One person interviewed was J.R. Nerat at Badger Fire Protection. J.R. is on the “NFPA 10 Technical Committee on Portable Fire Extinguishers.” He told us some valuable history.
Manufacturers make no mention of the practice. It is NOT part of any recommended maintenance. One manufacturer, Amerex (www.amerex-fire.com), has a page of common myths on their website. They say that the chemicals do not compact, and pounding on an extinguisher is a bad idea. You can visit their site for more. The two articles are also present as PDFs in the shared file link you were sent.
The NFPA 10 standard makes no mention of any such practice. Any UL-listed extinguisher has been tested to be certain it does NOT compact. And as soon as you begin discharging it, the compressed gas expanding inside will thoroughly liquify the powder.
One manufacturer told us that we should, “… ask anyone who advocates shaking to produce a manufacturer’s document that recommends it.”
Here is the history of the myth, according to J.R. Nerat. In the early 1900’s there were no standards and dry chemicals were frequently put in long tubes with cardboard walls. These tubes were stored vertically on the walls of public buildings like theaters. Moisture would permeate the cardboard and dampen the powder, thereby forming a cake. In the 30’s the cardboard was replaced with metal tubes but the issue remained. The powder had no additives to prevent caking or moisture absorption. During WWII the dry powder was improved. It now has anti-moisture coatings, is a variety of mixed diameters and will not cake. The powder packs but when a little pressure is applied it disperses immediately and flows like a liquid.
Check your fire extinguishers regularly in any event. If the pressure gauge is not in the green, or if you detect any damage, take them to a shop that services fire extinguishers. And remember, fire extinguishers have a limited lifetime. It’s years long, but it is not forever. If your fire extinguisher is past its expiration, replace it.
Thanks!
good advice.
Of course this is entirely moot in regards to CO2 extinguishers. What’s most common in a typical home or office? The bulky water extinguishers seem to have gone by the wayside, but I’ve never really looked to see if most places have CO2 versus dry chemical/ABC or something else.
Dry chemical extinguishers are the most common nowadays because they’re suitable for many different kinds of fires and can be made in many different sizes including quite small ones. CO2 extinguishers tend to be fairly big and heavy and are mainly used in commercial/industrial settings, especially labs and places with valuable goods or equipment because they tend not to make messy collateral damage.
Big water extinguishers do still exist, but now they’re generally pressurized tanks of water. In the old days, they were the soda-acid type, the water containing dissolved sodium bicarbonate and they had a little bottle of sulfuric acid with a loose heavy stopper mounted near the top. To use it you would turn it over, the stopper would fall out, and the acid would react with the alkaline water causing the fizzing mixture to squirt out.