Inspection of fire extinguishers and record

[craigsg1]

Hi,

can you tell me if it is a legal requirement to record all the fire extinguisher inspection details on a label attached to each extinguisher or is it acceptable to provide a report / certificate with details as follows:

Date of inspection, result of inspection (satisfactory / faulty), remedial action taken (if any), date fault rectified (if any), signature of engineer

[Shawn Bosworth]

Hi Craigsg1,

The servicing of fire extinguishers itself is not a legal requirement; it is advisable and usually required from an insurance point of view, but it is not law.

If the extinguishers are being serviced in accordance with the British Standard (BS 5306-3:2009):

"6.2.2 Maintenance Label

The maintenance record should be indelibly marked on a durable label that is fixed firmly to the extinguisher without obscuring any of the manufacturer's markings and instructions."

A certificate of inspection should also be issued.

[Tom Sutton]

It is not a legal requirement but it is a recommendation of BS 5306 - 3 with regards to the maintenance of portable fire extinguishers. You can also follow the manufacturers' instructions.

[craigsg1]

Shawn & Tom, thanks for the information but just to clarify this point here is the scenario behind the question.

We are renting office space in someone else's building and are querying the requirements in relation to fire extinguisher inspections and records. The landlord has produced a certificate stating that the fire extinguishers were serviced (some of which were discharged and refilled) in March 2013. This information has not been recorded on the labels fixed to each extinguisher (although it had on previous years).

So I guess my question is does the landlord have to ensure this information is recorded on the labels or is the certificate sufficient evidence of the service?

Just want to make sure I fully understand the requirements.

[Safelincs]

Hi Craid

I would check through your insurance documents. If they require extinguisher maintenance in accordance to British Standards, this method would not be acceptable. The difficulty with your landlord's system is to evidence that all extinguishers have been serviced - how would you know that no extinguishers have been missed or actually been replaced with other, untested units?

Harry

[Tom Sutton]

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the Responsible Person (RP) ( the employer), to ensure the maintenance of Portable Firefighting Equipment, if he/she does not have control and the landlord has control then it is the landlord responsibility. Check out article 3, article 5 (c ), article 13 and article 17 also the terms of agreement regarding your lease.

[craigsg1]

Thanks for the information Harry and Tom. I guess the best thing all round is to work with the landlord and request that future test details are added to the individual extinguishers this will ensure that we are working to best practise as well as meeting any regs.

Thanks.

[Guest TonyB549]

How long do you need to keep service records for?

[AnthonyB]

It's not set in stone but for current active records for fire safety related stuff the minimum would usually be the last full year of PPM plus the year that is being worked through the theory being that most PPM are no less than once a year so this would always capture the latest test.

Other records need to go back longer, such as fixed wiring EICR as they are usually 3-10 years apart.

Completely binning at 24 months may be extreme - it may be worth archiving stuff outside the current active cycle for a bit longer.

[Guest THS]

Some of the fire extinguishers in our office have labels on to record inspections, but nothing is written on them. I guess this is ok if they new and the annual service isn't due yet?

[AnthonyB]

On 21/12/2022 at 11:56, Guest THS said:

Some of the fire extinguishers in our office have labels on to record inspections, but nothing is written on them. I guess this is ok if they new and the annual service isn't due yet?

If correctly installed. assembled and commissioned by a competent person they should all have completed service labels with commissioning date and weight on as well as next extended service/overhaul date (some will also have next basic service weight on too) .

If they've been bought off a catalogue then they may have no labels or blank labels and not commissioned (so possibly not ready for safe and effective use)

These labels are for the service technician to record the commissioning service, annual basic service and 5 years extended service/10 year overhaul on.

The end user is meant to check the extinguishers at least monthly visually for being in the correct location, damage, broken tamper seals, gauges (where fitted) in green - this is usually recorded in a separate paper or online log book.