When Ambrose Godfrey patented the first fire extinguisher in 1723 in England and British Captain George William Manby in 1818 invented the modern fire extinguisher, it was envisioned as a great achievement towards the control of one of the most coveted inventions of man which is "fire". These fire extinguishers have been refined with time through standard improvements and one can easily define the old "generation" fire extinguishers and the modern fire extinguishers.
An old generation fire extinguisher Modern fire extinguisher
Why you need to replace your old "generation" extinguisher
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) which is charged with the world wide standardization in the fire safety industry in its 2007 edition, section 4.5.1, standard #10 - "Portable Fire Extinguishers" requires replacement at the time on internal maintenance or during hydrostatic testing of stored-pressure, dry chemical fire extinguishers manufactured prior to October 1984. Partly because prior to 1984, there were no universally recognized pictographs but instead, the person operating the fire extinguisher had to be able to read English and be able to differentiate between usage classification shapes and colors. This, to some extent, delayed the accurate fire class recognition and enabled fires to burn much longer. After 1984, therefore, the manufacturers were required to use univesal pictographs for consistency, ease and rapidity of fire class recognition.
Other reasons of interest includes the revision made to the maximum force required to remove pull pins and the minimum required to shear pull pins to ensure there would be no problems removing or shearing the pull pins, the revision of minimum area used to provide operating instruction. New markings, use, recharging and operating instructions were introduced and this rendered the old versions obsolete. Further, prior to 1984, there was no requirements for stored pressure fire extinguishers 5lb size or greater to use discharge hoses and this was to ensure the user's effectiveness as a result of optimal vertical orientation of the fire extinguisher during use. Also, new service manuals were introduced and the effectiveness rating for the fire extinguishers tested by underwriters Laboratories prior to 1984 did not equal the effectiveness ratings obtained after 1984. Thus for consistency and predictability of fire fighting effectiveness, the pre-1984 extinguisher (here referred to as old "generation" extinguishers) were made obsolete.
Way forward
Though these extinguishers are still in the Kenyan market, they will work, if properly maintained but they do not represent the current technology and user safety feature that are now required. Fire extinguishers are to be used as first line defense but when the same extinguisher posses a danger to the intended user then this cannot be the vision of Ambrose (1723) and George (1818) who envisioned fire extinguishers to control fires that are out of hand. They did their part and others have come and perfected their inventions by making fire extinguishers that are safe to use. Why would an organization stick to a fire extinguisher that was bought more than 50 years ago and still defend its strategic plan as that of embracing technology to achieving business objectives. Insurance companies should make it a priority that organization, before taking fire risk cover, do not have old "generation" fire extinguishers in place. My good professor once told me, "Dispense your thoughts in writing based on facts and you will change others".
The writer is PhD student focusing on Fire Service Delivery, JKUAT
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