Fire Extinguisher Servicing

Service and maintenance
Employers have a legal responsibility under the Fire Safety Order (FSO) to ensure that fire extinguishers within the workplace are regularly serviced, so that they are kept in good repair and working order. 

To ensure compliance with this legislation, a 'responsible person' within your organisation should carry out a visual inspection to confirm that the extinguisher has not been damaged or accidentally discharged. These inspections should ideally be carried out at monthly intervals, but certainly no more than quarterly.

If your organisation employs five people or more, you must also hold written records of all service, maintenance and inspections. This should be recorded in a Fire Log Book.

Your extinguishers should be properly serviced once a year by a suitably-qualified engineer. Nottinghamshire Fire Safety Ltd engineers are BAFE-registered and can offer a full maintenance package, including the sale of new fire extinguishers and fire blankets.

The manufacturer's instructions will tell you what you need to do to keep your extinguisher in good working order. After an extinguisher has been used, even if only partially, it must be recharged according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Siting of extinguishers
Extinguishers should be located in conspicuous positions, available at all times for immediate use and fitted on brackets or stands where they will be readily accessible to people following an escape route.

They should be hung securely on wall brackets. Where this is impractical, extinguishers should be located on suitable stands (not on the floor). If mounted on a wall, the carrying handle of larger, heavier extinguishers should be 1 metre from the floor, but smaller extinguishers should be mounted so that the carrying handle is 1.5 metres from the floor.

Extinguishers should be sited in such a way that means it is not necessary to travel more than 30 metres from the site of a fire to reach an extinguisher. To avoid confusion, all extinguishers installed in any one building of single occupancy should have the same method of operation and, if intended for the same function, they should be similar in shape, appearance and colour.

Wherever possible, portable extinguishers should be grouped to form a fire point.