Now, over the past couple of months, I have provided you with an informative and (hopefully!) entertaining look at the world of fire safety equipment. One of the most common and easily recognisable products is the humble (but oh so very useful) fire extinguisher. These plucky little items are there to provide you with peace of mind and kick-ass fire fighting abilities in the event of a fire in your home, or at work.
So, using the information on this blog, and on the Fire Protection Online website, you go ahead and decide on the type of extinguishers you need. You take into account the types of risk, the hazards that are in the area and the materials that could catch fire. You look at where the best places would be to put your extinguishers, you have fire exit signs, fire extinguisher signs, and train your lovely staff in what to do in the event of a fire. Your new, shiny fire extinguishers arrive, and you stick them on the floor in the room, where they can get knocked about, kicked over and moved to hold open the door. Hmmm….something isn’t quite right here.
Fire extinguisher brackets are the answer to this problem – never let it be said that I didn’t provide solutions to the problems I highlight! These little hooks only cost a few pounds, but will protect your investment from the good sound kicking they might get otherwise.
Now, these hooks come in a few different variations. A J-bracket or wall hook will hold any UK powder (except the 1kg and 2kg tiddlers), water or foam fire extinguisher. This is because they all have a standard sized bracket on the back of the extinguisher, which makes it really easy when purchasing brackets – marvellous. There are different brackets for CO2 extinguishers – trust these ones to be difficult!
Another consideration in this quest is your walls – are they man enough to take the weight of your extinguishers? They can be surprisingly heavy – for example, a 9kg standard extinguisher actually weighs in at a chunky 15kg – which is quite a burden for your wall to take. So if your hook is not properly secured to a solid wall, it might not be up to the job. This is especially true of cavity walls. In this situation, you might be better with a free-standing fire extinguisher stand. This has the added advantage that they don’t need any fixings so there is not a drill or a screwdriver to be lifted at all, and you will not have to display any sort of DIY abilities, other than that of standing it upright – and I’m sure you can manage that one. These even come in chrome and stainless steel to match the chrome/stainless steel range of rather design-tastic extinguishers. A bit of a billy bonus I think.
