What are the NFPA fire extinguisher location requirements?
In this article, we will outline the most important places to keep fire extinguishers in your business or home, as recommended by the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association).
The importance of fire extinguishers in your workplace or home is an understatement when it comes to safety and emergency preparedness. But what’s equally important is knowing where to keep fire extinguishers so they are easily accessible in the event of a fire-related emergency.
Take a second and ask yourself “How many fire extinguishers do I have in my workplace and home, and where are they located?” Think of each room, then think of where the nearest fire extinguisher can be found in an emergency. Ideally, you should be able to recall where each fire extinguisher is located.
Over time, it’s common for these life-saving tools to just become part of the scenery, so it’s essential to refresh your memory on where all emergency equipment is located on your property.
The following is a checklist to be used for proper placement of fire extinguishers in the 5 key locations of your house or workplace.
A Checklist For Fire Extinguisher Placement
- Mount fire extinguishers in plain sight
- Mount fire extinguishers no less than 30 ft. away from potential fire hazard areas*
- Mount fire extinguishers no higher than 5 ft. off the floor so they are accessible to everyone
- Ensure that everyone in the house or workspace knows where all fire extinguishers are located and how to use them.
* Some fire extinguishers allow more than 30ft distance from potential fire hazard areas but the checklist is made to keep things as simple as possible. There’s no harm in placing it closer than farther.
Five Key Locations For Fire Extinguisher Placement
Kitchen Fire Extinguisher Placement
Cooking equipment mixed with bad judgment or forgetfulness is the leading cause of home fires, and not surprisingly a very common occurrence in office kitchens as well.
It is vitally important to have a fire extinguisher within 30 feet or less of your kitchen and/or any cooking area.
Proper placement of a fire extinguisher in the kitchen is crucial. Most fires that start in the kitchen are grease fires, which cannot be put out with water and are very dangerous to attempt doing so as fighting a grease fire with water will cause a flare-up that can increase the size of the fire. Therefore, always fight grease fires with a fire extinguisher that is non-water-based.
Another common mistake with fire extinguisher placement in a kitchen is placing the fire extinguisher too close to the oven or stove-top area.
Most kitchen fires start from the oven or stove-top and can easily become too hot for you to reach the fire extinguisher if it’s been placed too close to the cooking equipment.
Therefore it’s highly recommended to mount the fire extinguisher on an adjacent wall near the entrance of the kitchen. As long as it’s easily accessible, and not behind a door that may be propped open.
Fire Extinguisher Placement Near Sources Of Heat
Heating equipment such as fireplaces, old radiators, and permanent space heaters are common causes of structure fires.
The same rule applies here- don’t place the fire extinguisher too close to the source of heat. Mount the fire extinguisher in a visible location at a safe distance away from the potential fire source.
Fire Extinguisher Placement in the Workshop or Garage
Any area where you work with tools and/or store combustible materials like gas, oils, fertilizers and cleaning products should definitely have a fire extinguisher close by.
The recommended placement for a fire extinguisher in these kinds of workspaces is at eye level, directly beside all entranceways. If it is a large workspace with machinery that can overheat or cause sparks, it’s important to have a fire extinguisher mounted close by that machinery as well.
Fire Extinguisher Placement On Every Floor Of The Building
Many business owners have only 2 fire extinguishers in their office buildings. One for the kitchen, and one for the workspace. If you work in a one level office building or commercial property, this is still not an adequate number of fire extinguishers.
If you own or work in a building with more than one floor then you must ensure that you have a fire extinguisher for each level as well as additional fire extinguishers in place for the other areas, previously mentioned above.
Fire Extinguisher Placement In Bedrooms
Some people will say this is overkill, but statistically, most home fires occur when people are sleeping- between 9pm and 8am. If the fire is right outside your bedroom, the extinguisher that’s centrally located in your house may be unreachable.
Best All-Around Fire Extinguishers For Placement
It’s also important to have the proper type of fire extinguisher in your business or home. There are quite a few different types of fire extinguishers but the most common ones for homes are ABC fire extinguishers.
ABC fire extinguishers are designed to put out Class A,B, and C fires. That means you can fight fires that start from wood, cloth, paper, flammable liquids, electrical equipment, and some plastics. That’s a pretty extensive fire extinguisher!
If you have any doubt or concerns about the fire safety of your business property, call us now and we will make sure to beat any price.
At Desert Fire we are a certified C10 | C16 licensed family business providing fire protection services since 1971.
We take value in our work and want to make sure our customers are happy from the beginning with the assurance their buildings are up to code and running smoothly.
Call us now at 760-322-0995
We’re happy to answer any questions and offer you a free quote.
We proudly service the Greater Palm Springs / Coachella Valley area.
