Science teacher puts out burning Bunsen

Where there's smoke, there's fire. And that was the case at a Houston Hospital. Fortunately the fire was put out with an extinguisher before anyone was hurt. It's a good thing the extinguisher was acccessible and ready to use so that there was no significant damage or worse, loss of life.

In what was the third vent fire in the school this year, the dynamic duo of the principal and custodian sprung into action simultaneously with a fire extinguisher to stem the flames while sounding the alarm to get the children to safety outside of the building. This one school is proof enough that it is VITAL that all fire extinguishers must be properly maintained and montitored for presence, pressure and accessibility.

Vicksburg-Warren School District Superintendent Price estimated the district has spent $25,000 to $30,000 on vandalism-related repairs and cleanup this year. "Those dollars have to come out of the general fund," Price said. No money is set aside for potential vandalism incidents and those costs are not covered by insurance, he said. As a result, Vicksburg-Warren School District officials are stepping up security and police are increasing patrols. Read More

Reading the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment is a positive experience.  As one colleague said to me, “I felt hopeful after reading it that so many smart people are throwing the weight of their institutions behind finding the answers to climate change.”  I couldn’t agree more. 

In their commitment, they lay out their mission:

We believe colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their communities and throughout society by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions, and by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality. Campuses that address the climate challenge by reducing global warming emissions and by integrating sustainability into their curriculum will better serve their students and meet their social mandate to help create a thriving, ethical and civil society. These colleges and universities will be providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to address the critical, systemic challenges faced by the world in this new century and enable them to benefit from the economic opportunities that will arise as a result of solutions they develop.

They also commit their institutions to taking key steps and reaching targeted milestones in pursuit of achieving climate neutrality “as quickly as possible”.  One of the most effective ways for the schools to reduce emissions is by committing to ‘green’ building programs, like LEED, for new construction projects and retrofits.

While we vigorously applaud these efforts, the fact is that the carbon emissions generated by just one major fire event can eliminate all of the carbon mitigation benefits accrued via those green building projects.  FM Global calculates that fire and risk of fire increases the carbon emissions of buildings by 3% over their lifetime.  With this in mind, it is vital to take aggressive steps to minimize fire risk when implementing any carbon reduction plan.

I encourage you to read The Environmental Impact of Electronically Monitored Fire Extinguishers.  This White Paper reviews the greenhouse gas impacts of fire as well as the critical carbon mitigating effects of fire extinguishers and in particular electronically monitored extinguishers.  Some of the key findings from the report include:

• Fast and early fire suppression with fire extinguishers is the most environmentally-friendly way (carbon emitted, water use, water pollution, additional pollution) to extinguish fire
• Empty and missing fire extinguishers have been a contributing factor to large conflagrations likely contributing thousands of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere annually
• Manual inspections of fire extinguishers are a contributing  factor in greenhouse gas emissions
• Electronic monitoring of fire extinguishers can be highly beneficial in reducing carbon emissions, lowering water consumption and minimizing toxic material release 

Download this free white paper and learn about the most effective way to ensure your Climate Commitement isn’t put at risk by unneccesary fires. 

We run across these stories ALL the time.  Fire extinguishers are the first response against indoor fires. Properly functioning fire extinguishers can put out the majority of early stage fires. In order to protect the lives of those who you are responsible for it is important to ensure that your fire extinguishers are working properly. Here are 10 recent incidents in which fire extinguishers were stolen or vandalized leaving a building at risk in the case of Dickenson High or and in extreme cases like the motel fire in Hoover Alabama, resulted in loss of life.