Quote Originally Posted by hemmjo View Post
EVERY occupation has good, not as good and BAD workers.

Even fire inspectors have varying views on fire extinguishers. We had them in schools 2 times each year. They ALWAYS manage to find violations to write up. One guy wanted the "inspection" tags, on each unit initialed every month. He would actually checked the tag on every extinguisher. If you missed one tag, you got written up. Funny thing is, you do not have to actually inspect anything, you just have to initial the tag.

Then we got a new inspector. He did not even look at the tags. His philosophy was, don't mess around trying to fight the fire. Just get out and call the FD. He was a much better inspector. He found things that were actually a hazard that the first guy always missed because he spent his time looking at the tags.
As of when I was last employed, OSHA required monthly inspections of fire extinguishers. And that is still the case, apparently: https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regul.../1910/1910.157 NFPA also requires the inspections of fire extinguishers for the various classes: https://www.nfpa.org/news-and-resear...nd-maintenance

I was the guy charged with inspecting the extinguishers, and getting them serviced or replaced as needed. I had to lay hands on each extinguisher in the plant (2 buildings) and make sure the hoses & nozzles were intact and usable/unblocked. Mud dauber wasps are a thing here. Check that the gage was working/pressure in the correct zone, and that the charge in the extinguisher wasn't solidified. Turn it upside down, you should feel the charge move. If it didn't, give it a good thump, and try again. If an extinguisher failed, I had to replace it with one that was good, and update my list of extinguisher numbers and locations. Also maintain and update the extinguisher map. We were an industrial laundry, used dry powder extinguishers exclusively. Had a local company contracted to pick up our failed or out-dated extinguishers and fix or replace them, and do the pressure tests as needed. For a couple of years, I had copies of all the inspections I'd done on everything... including all the fire extinguisher inspection logs I'd done.

Came in handy. I have a non-repairable/non-rechargeable fire extinguisher in the doorway to my shop/kitchen, depending on which direction you're headed. Pressure gauge went off, and when I checked it, powder charge wasn't moving anymore, was about to throw it away when I dropped it. Pressure moved back into the correct zone, and the charge moved when I tipped it. So it's back in place.

Bill