Get The Fire Extinguisher! Thoughts on Where to Locate Them for Maximum Safety

While the number of fire extinguishers required in an area is fire code driven, where to place them is primarily up to the designer or owner. Too often, the architect or building owner places them in the optimum location to minimize the quantity with no real thought for their utility in an emergency.?Hence, a common question that arises is where should fire extinguishers be mounted from a safety perspective?

The first, and most common approach, is to mount the fire extinguishers where the organization feels they are most likely to be needed. Mounting one next to the solvent dispensing area seems prudent. Mounting one near the cetane test engine seems only smart.

This approach can, however, ?often become complicated. Placing a fire extinguisher next to every place it might be needed is both costly and excessive as often these operations are in proximity. In this case trying to determine the best location often becomes a challenge as should it be closer to A but thus be further from B? Next to the hood handling flammable materials assuming this is the most likely location for a fire due to ongoing research operations inside the hood? Near the flammable storage cabinet assuming this is the most likely place for a spill and possible ignition? Near the bench where an HPLC with flammable solvents are used? All are reasonable locations. Mounting a fire extinguisher at each is not economic or even reasonable.

This approach results in either trying to determine which location is the highest risk?or mounting one fire extinguisher in a location central to all of them. The first approach often becomes an intellectual exercise in trying to predict the future by assigning probabilities to each potential future incident by either a formal hazard analysis and risk assessment or an informal guess. Both are highly variable in their outcome. Both are very prone to error.

Mounting the fire extinguisher in a central location is a reasonable compromise, at least in my opinion, as it recognizes that where it will be needed is usually very difficult to determine. Placing the fire extinguisher so that it can be easily reached from multiple potential places is both efficient, less costly, and prudent. ?However, since every laboratory or pilot plant area is arranged differently with different equipment in different locations this approach also has issues. ?Each laboratory or pilot plant area usually ends up with their fire extinguishers in different locations. Safety and operating personnel are often overly comfortable that the operating personnel will remember where they are in an emergency. My experience makes me much less sanguine.

I used to have to “certify” that operators were trained to run pilot plants and laboratory units after they were built or after the operating personnel were reassigned. Aside from making sure all the appropriate reviews were complete, all the necessary training was performed, and similar obvious issues I used to spend a brief time talking to each operator and asking them questions about what they would do in a specific emergency I made up at the time. Before I asked these questions, however, I would routinely ask them to close their eyes and tell me the location of the nearest fire extinguisher, eyewash, and safety shower. The results, at least until word got out about what I would do, was upsetting as most hesitated, got it wrong, or admitted they did not know at least as often as they got it correct. Worse, this exercise was happening with no stress (excepts perhaps from my admittedly unnerving look I am told). In a real emergency I have read numerous incident reports that casually note the operator ran to a more distant location ignoring or forgetting a closer one due to stress. Often this has little real consequence so it is usually not highlighted (or often even mentioned) in the reports but it does point out that expecting them to remember where the fire extinguishers in Lab 107 is versus Lab 243 is problematic at best.

The other approach is to place the fire extinguishers in a more uniform location that is easier to remember where they are. A good spot for this central location is by the exit door(s). Personnel always know the door location (at least one of them or they would not have been able to get into the area). Door frames are obvious and easy to locate with even a fast glance around most areas.

More importantly, in my opinion, this placement removes the operator from the immediate vicinity of the hazard and gives (perhaps forces is a better word) them time to assess whether or not using the fire extinguisher is a prudent idea. Picking up an extinguisher and realizing that the situation may be beyond their control is one of the best decisions many operators can make in an emergency. If the central location is also close to a fire or emergency alarm it also helps remind the operator to summon help first, before responding.

Locating the fire extinguisher uniformly near the door also allows emergency responders (or even other personnel entering the space to assist or investigate) to pick up one on their way in.

I, personally prefer this approach and have used it successfully for many years.

For further information on emergency responses and pilot plant and laboratory safety please consider my course Pilot Plant and Laboratory Safety. Further information on related topics can be found in these other articles:

Laboratory and Pilot Plant Safety Audits: How to Use Them to Avoid Accidents and Improve Safety Performance, https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/laboratory-pilot-plant-safety-audits-how-use-them-avoid-palluzi

Scared Safe: The Importance of Human Error when Evaluating Research Operations for Safety, https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/scared-safe-importance-human-error-when-evaluating-research-palluzi

Laboratory Accidents, https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/laboratory-accidents-richard-palluzi

“We Are Comfortable with Our Current Safety Procedures”: How Do You Prevent Something You Don’t Recognize?, https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/we-comfortable-our-current-safety-procedures-how-do-you-palluzi

“We Didn’t Think That Through”: Emergency Response in Research Applications, https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/we-didnt-think-through-emergency-response-research-richard-palluzi

“My Laboratory is Very Safe.”: The Dangers of Myopic Looks at Laboratory Safety, https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/my-laboratory-very-safe-dangers-myopic-looks-safety-richard-palluzi