Inside story of a fire extinguisher

India's standards for extinguishers still based on appearance not performance

So your place of work and the building you live in have fire extinguishers. So far so good. However, according to fire safety industry experts, your extinguisher might be outdated by almost a decade. The standards that have been followed by the European Union for over eight years now are still only on paper in India.

The legislation that ups the standards for manufacture of extinguishers was drafted in January 2009, by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). The revised standards judge the extinguishers based on performance and not appearance. However, it is yet to be implemented. Experts say authorities and manufacturers share the blame.

P M Sanjay, business head for fire fighting, Gunnebo India, a safety equipment manufacturer, said implementation was being delayed due to lack of co-operation from smaller players. "Upping the standards of manufacture means upgrading production facilities and this is not an option for smaller players.

While in the European Union, these guidelines have been in place for eight years, implementation possibilities look bleak in India," he said.

He added that the BIS has not started implementing the new standards, as they are still working out a system for inspection of cylinders. Three manufacturers have sent applications to BIS for testing as per the new standards, but the agency has not accepted any.

Pramoud Rao, president, Mumbai Chapter, Fire Safety Association of India, said, "New rules keep being made, but few are put into place. The old guidelines have been around for about 15 years."

Then and now
Said P M Sanjay, 'The current standards only specify that an extinguisher needs to be of a certain height, weight or size, but the new standards specify things like the efficacy of the material to extinguish a fire within a certain time."
Implementing the new standards will meanu00a0 manufacturers, who have not been paying attention to quality so far because they were not forced to, will now have to make sure the contents of the extinguisher are up to the mark if the want the Indian Bureau of Standards stamp.
"It lends a sense of security to people," added Sanjay.

Fire Chief speaks...
According to Mumbai fire chief PD Karguppikar, several times maintenance of fire extinguishers in buildings is superficial. I have seen so many cases where extinguishers are only cleaned on the outside. Nothing is done to check whether it works properly. A conventional extinguisher contains nine litres of water and at least 40 gms of high pressurised carbon dioxide to help expel the water. However every six months, there is the possibility of this gas leaking out of the container and, therefore, it needs to be replaced. Building societies should be aware that the maintenance charges they pay go into the actual check on essential equipment like this to prevent any tragedies, he said.
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Do's and Don'ts for users
>>u00a0Check the service card attached with every cylinder to ensure that the servicing date has not lapsed
>> Ensure that the needle on the pressure gauge of the cylinder is always in the green zone. This will ensure that the extinguisher works during an emergency
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Fire alarm
These fires escalated due to poor fire safety measures
The Sagar Sangeet building in Colaba, where Mohnish Behl used to live, saw two big fire incidents. Two bedrooms were gutted in 2001, while another blaze broke out in 2004, causing the death of Behl's father.
In September, a fire broke out on the 24th floor of a high rise at Kemps Corner. It took two hours to bring the flames under control. One person was injured.