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Fire Extinguishers, What types should be in the shop ?

Dupa3872

Stainless
Joined
May 1, 2007
Location
Boston Hyde park Ma.
Guys,

I am in need of some information on Extinguishers. I did a search and read quite a bit but it's not clear to me what types to have in the shop. Some just referred to dry or ABC.....?

We are moving into new space it's a sweet deal for us but everything needs to be 100% code. I was asked yesterday what type/types of fire extinguishers we required, how many and where they would be located on the floor plan.

Our new shop is currently being constructed on the fourth floor of a building that was originally built in the 1940's to service and supply the U.S. Navy on Bostons water front. The building is built like a brick shit house all concrete and steel construction.

We have four CNC lathes HAAS SL-20's and Hurco TM6 machines. We also have four CNC Mills HAAS VF-2SS machines. We have two ProtoTraks and two manual Hardinge lathes along with a vertical and horizontal band saws.

I was thinking we should have at least four CO2 and an equal number of dry Chemical extinguishers. My question is What type of dry Chemical extinguisher should be used in the shop ?

Thanks for the help !!

Make Chips Boys !

Ron
 
Instead of guessing and asking the crowd, have you ever thought of contacting a fire protection company to get their take on what is needed, and the best layout for most protection? You do not want dry chemical anywhere near your CNC equipment.
 
We service many fire houses and they often are looking for interesting things to do.

Part of their job is fire inspections.

Ask if they can pre-inspect before you move in as they can assist with layout for code requirements and sprinklers or other items you are not thinking about.

They can advise on what is needed where for suppression and first aid.

It often makes their day as the would rather direct on the front end than enforce on the tail end.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
Or, you might just call a fire protection company. They know the codes and can tell you what you need and where. Then, they'll come back every year to keep your tags current.
 
I presume that you will have employees and therefore will have workers compensation. A phone call to the workers compensation insurance company should get you a free inspection as well as recommendations about fire extinguishers.

By the way, how do you get your CNC machines up to the fourth floor? :rolleyes5:
 
Massachusetts. . . you will need a certificate of occupancy and this will be predicated on a fire inspection done by the local fire marshal . . . generally they have rules like the following:

FX must be placed with the handle no higher than 60 inches from floor
FX must be placed within sight (use elevated signs where necessary) visible up to 70 feet away.
FX must be within 70 feet of walking distance from any location in the shop for general use
FX must be within 30 feet of walking distance in areas designated for welding
FX must be 10 lb capacity or larger in shop areas
etc.

We just went through this in our new facility. I have a good friend in Sudbury Mass who recently retired as Fire Chief and he often told me about inspections where building tenants were completely in the dark on requirements. . . The fire marshal is the guy you need to make happy on this score.
 
We had a fire inspector come through our shop once. He wrote us up for having extinguishers mounted too high. Dad says to the guy how many are we required to have? Guy says three. Dad says how many were mounted too high? Guy says six. Dad asks how many did you find? Guy says 17! Dad says fine you can report 11 working extinguishers, those other six are wall ornaments, I collect fire extinguishers.
 
We had a fire inspector come through our shop once. He wrote us up for having extinguishers mounted too high. Dad says to the guy how many are we required to have? Guy says three. Dad says how many were mounted too high? Guy says six. Dad asks how many did you find? Guy says 17! Dad says fine you can report 11 working extinguishers, those other six are wall ornaments, I collect fire extinguishers.

Even though we have many more extinguishers than required, we found out it's not permitted to keep out-of-date ones on the premises even if they are in working condition (by out of date I mean too old for refilling/recharging). His advice was to just give them away to people to carry in the trunk—not regulated and can't hurt.
 
All ours are located adjacent to our exit doors, at the suggestion of the fire marshal, on the theory that you run to the door to get the extinguisher, and once there you can make the decision to use it or keep on going. It helps prevent going deeper into the shop and becoming trapped by the fire. All ours are ABC. If I ran enclosed CNC machining centers I would consider adding CO2 extinguishers right by the machines... if the fire is inside the enclosure the first extinguisher at hand is also the most machine friendly. If the situation gets out of hand, the grab the ABC by the door.

Dennis
 
shit, I had to re read that sentence a little more carefully

Not entirely a joke. If that building is a structural cousin to the US Navy's former "Torpedo factory" near Alexandia, VA's waterfront, it had freight elevators appropriate to its tasking from early days.

It really COULD be as simple as machinery skates and a button-push.

If over the mass limit, one schedules out-of-hours, rigs beams and cable from the top of the lift shaft, lifts the load inside the shaft space, slung independently of the cab or even UNDER the cab.

Next option requires a crane, plus roof cut out and restoral. Or similar, exterior wall.


Weirdest one I had on my plate, Marquette Building, Chicago's "loop" area, early 1980's, we had to;

- long-term lease a specific carpark slot.

- In which, a thick steel plate was grouted, spreader beams atop.

- ONTO which was raised a steel beam to a smaller steel plate grouted to the undersdide of the floor above.

All in order to prevent 5800 Avoir ++ of Mosler TRTL-30 joolry safe from dropping right through the old concrete floor upon initial installation!

Store Project Manager had been telling me for three months "No Problem!". Finally told him no Engineer sign-off, Lang wasn't moving the box outta the rigging warehouse, he couldn't open the damned store.

So he gets the right RPE's onto the site. Finally.

Calls me back.

"Engineer said I was right all along,
Put the safe there, "no problem".
It will drop straight through the f*****g floor!"
 
Not entirely a joke. If that building is a structural cousin to the US Navy's former "Torpedo factory" near Alexandia, VA's waterfront, it had freight elevators appropriate to its tasking from early days.

It really COULD be as simple as machinery skates and a button-push.
Yup, was in an older industrial multi story building.

The one elevator was a repurposed freight elevator, they had gotten rid of the "open car,
pull the door closed with a hook" set up, and it had a modern, well lit car with automatic
electric doors.

Except the capacity was retained, the chart updated from "tons" to "passengers".....85 people to be exact....:eek:
 
Yup, was in an older industrial multi story building.

The one elevator was a repurposed freight elevator, they had gotten rid of the "open car,
pull the door closed with a hook" set up, and it had a modern, well lit car with automatic
electric doors.

Except the capacity was retained, the chart updated from "tons" to "passengers".....85 people to be exact....:eek:

Here's the one locally. Built at the tail-end of War ONE. so Boston's may be newer:

Alexandria's Old Torpedo Factory — Architect of the Capital
 
Re-read the OP....and no mention of what's flammable.

Materials ?
Coolants ?
Loobs ?

Figure out what is going to burn in your shop, and then go get a extinguisher
for that.
 








 
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