How Do You Perform a Monthly Fire Extinguisher Inspection?

If you own a fire extinguisher (or more than one!) in your New Jersey, Delaware or Philadelphia building, the most important thing you can do with it is have it inspected regularly to make sure it will be able to protect you during a fire. But let’s be honest – calling a fire protection services company month after month to schedule a fire extinguisher inspection can be a huge hassle, especially if they’re only going to be there for a couple minutes. So what else can you do?

Monthly Fire Extinguisher Self Inspection

If the thought of scheduling monthly fire extinguisher inspections sounds like a lot of trouble, don’t worry – you can perform the monthly inspection yourself! Monthly fire extinguisher inspections are not especially difficult, and while they should not replace professional annual inspections, they can definitely supplement them. Monthly fire extinguisher inspections consist of just a few simple steps:

• The first thing you should do during your fire extinguisher inspection is make sure your fire extinguishers are located where they need to be, are not blocked by anything and are easy to see and access during a fire. Also make sure everyone in your building knows where the fire extinguishers are so they will be able to get to them quickly and easily in an emergency.

• Next, make sure that the locking pin in the fire extinguisher head is intact and the tamper seal is not broken. Also, make sure there is no obvious physical damage, corrosion or leakage, and make sure the fire extinguisher nozzle is not clogged.

• After this, make sure the pressure gauge is in the operable position (usually indicated by a green zone on your pressure gauge). Don’t forget to lift the fire extinguisher to make sure it’s full. This is an extremely important step of your fire extinguisher inspection, because a fire extinguisher that looks fine on the outside but is not properly pressurized will be harder to spot on a day to day basis and could cause serious problems in the event of a fire.

• Next, make sure the operating instructions on the nameplate are legible and facing outward. This is probably the easiest step of the fire extinguisher inspection – if the extinguisher hasn’t been moved, it should be ok.

• Next, check the tag on the fire extinguisher. All fire extinguishers must be professionally inspected and tagged once a year by a licensed fire protection services company. If it has been 12 months or more since the date of your last professional fire extinguisher inspection, call a fire protection services company.

• Finally, initial and date the back of the tag to state that you performed your fire extinguisher inspection.

Note: while these monthly fire extinguisher self inspections are important, they should only supplement annual fire extinguisher inspections – not take the place of them. If it has been more than 12 months since the date on your fire extinguisher tag and you are looking for fire extinguisher inspection in New Jersey, Delaware or Philadelphia, call Confires today!