Hi All,

I need a bit of advice again please. I have a sports club customer that is having real problems with kids discharging extinguishers that are located in their grandstand.

If I mounted cabinets there to put the extinguishers in is there a legal problem if I padlock them, preventing the kids tampering but allowing the responsible persons access via the grandstand keys ??

If this is illegal any other thoughts would be appreciated as always.

Thanks

Leighton

As long as they are accessible (at all material times) to the staff that are trained to use them and that suitable coverage is maintained, then placing them in locations that prevent them from being misused, tampered with or vandalised is acceptable.

As part of your training (documented) with the staff their location should be identified.

Your Fire Risk Assessor should be able to identify this for you and help implement the necessary.

Hi

I am the maintenance man at a children's care home. We have our extinguishers at the right points in the house but the young people get to them either use them as a weapon or let them off when in crisis.

My question is what is the regulation to have extinguishers locked away? If staff had keys on them at all time is this possible?

This will reduce the chance of the young people being able to get to the extinguishers willy nilly.

Please could you let me know if this is possible or if you have any ideas on this.

Thanks Andy

The legislation says non-automatic fire-fighting equipment so provided is easily accessible, simple to use and indicated by signs. You can purchase lockable cabinets with a triangle key under a perspex cover but instead each member of staff could carry one of the keys on their key ring and you could argue the extinguishers are easily accessible to those trained to use them.

These days there is no black and white rules and it is all based on risk assessment and you could put up a good argument for keeping them locked away.

http://www.safelincs.co.uk/double-fire-extinguisher-cabinets/