Electronic Monitoring Fire Extinguisher

It seems to us that it has been too long since we wrote a fire extinguisher success story wrap-up. As usual, the stories aren’t hard to find.  Small fires kept from turning into large, devastating fires by quick thinking individuals using these critical life safety devices.  Here is a wrap up:

Nursing Home Employees Keep Fire From Spreading

 
Nursing home employees in Missouri used a fire extinguisher to save the Bluffs Nursing home from burning down after a food warmer caught fire.  According to an article from Connect Mid-Missouri:
 

The Columbia fire department says employees at a nursing home saved the building during an early evening fire.It happened at about 5:00pm last night at the Bluffs nursing home on Bluff Creek drive.

Firefighters found a small fire involving the plug from a food warmer and an electrical outlet that had been extinguished by employees using a fire extinguisher.  The fire caused about $4,000 worth of damage.

 
Without the use of proper fire extinguishers by the employees this accident could have been much worse.  Evacuating elderly people can be a very dangerous activity for both the firefighters and the people being evacuated.
 

Fire Extinguishers (and Good Fences) Make Good Neighbors

 A neighbor with a keen eye saved a house in New London Connecticut using a fire extinguisher to put out a blaze before fire officials would even arrive.  These actions prevented injuries and minimized the damages to the house.  According to Connecticut’s TheDay.com:
 

An alert neighbor grabbed a fire extinguisher and quickly knocked down an outside fire at 12 Home St. on Monday afternoon.  Battalion Chief Keith Nichols said fire personnel arrived around 2 p.m. to find lots of smoke with the blaze knocked down but still smoldering. No one was injured, Nichols said, and the damage was contained to the outside, porch and siding area of the multi-family home.  Firefighters pulled siding from the home and sprayed it down. One firefighter used a chainsaw to cut away burnt siding and another peeled up porch slats to make sure the fire had not spread.  Nichols did not know the cause of the fire, which remains under investigation by the fire marshal’s office.

 
 This good neighbor was prepared and ready for an accident, when it happened he reacted and saved the house.  Without the necessary equipment this small fire could’ve easily engulfed the entire house
 

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Dig Deeper:  Watch The Brief Presentation, 4 Reasons it is an Emergency When An Extinguisher is Pulled on Your Campus 

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Tenant Fights Kitchen Fire: Protects Fellow Residents, Building

 The occupant of an apartment in Ohio saved his unit as well as others’ in the apartment building when he quelled a kitchen fire using a fire extinguisher.  The article in IndieOnline.com reports:
 

According to reports, fire crews responded to 1819 Miles Ave. NW around 9:45 p.m. Fire Chief Tracy Hogue said that the occupant of the apartment where the fire started used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames and that the department needed minimal amounts of water to extinguish the fire.  Smoke from the fire filled the entire apartment and forced the residents of the adjoining apartments to evacuate.  The only damage reported was to the apartment where the fire originated. The smoke and heat damage, which was contained to the kitchen, was estimated at $5,000.

This quick thinking tenant was well prepared and potentially saved not only his unit, but also the entire building.  

Couple Uses Fire Extinguishers To Escape Aggressive Blaze

With millions of fires each year being effectively fought with fire extinguishers, it is vitally important to ensure that these silent heroes are available, accessible and working properly.  Find out more about how enGauge monitors your organization's extinguishers so they are ready when you need them.

Virtually every day, stories about vandalism in schools appear in the press, all with one consistent theme.  The vandals and criminals discharge fire extinguishers in the facilities causing substantial damage, evacuations, school closings and costly cleanup charges.  Here are some stories about schools that have been subjected to fire extinguisher vandalism in just the past few weeks.

Fire Extinguisher Vandalism Rates Increase at St. Boneventure University

According to a recent article in the school newspaper, The Bona Venture, Fire Extinguisher vandalism and misuse rates have increased dramatically campus wide in the last several weeks.  Misuse of this vital fire safety equipment has resulted in mass student evacuation from buildings and residence halls and costly cleanup projects. As Ralph Aloia, the deputy director of safety and security for the university points out:

"The cost of a fire extinguisher itself is around $70; however, the cost to the community could be their safety, welfare and health," Aloia said. "When extinguishers are taken from their intended area and discharged, the potential cost of personal-property damage and life safety from fires to others is a huge issue."

"It is only a matter of time when a fire happens again," he said. "The history of the university speaks volumes about fires here. The community needs to come together about disregarding each others' safety. How would one actually feel if they knew their actions led to someone getting severely hurt?"

We couldn't agree with Mr. Aloia more.  Fire extinguishers extinguished approximately 5.32 million fires in the US last year, and ensuring that these vital pieces of life safety equipment are where they are supposed to be, available, accessible and functioning properly is what en-Gauge was founded to accomplish.

Vermont School Vandalized for the Third Time This Year

A tiny Vermont school district has been burglarized and vandalized three times so far this academic year.  As Vermont TV station WPTZ.com reports:

Vermont State Police are investigating a burglary at the Twinfield Union School early this morning, the third break-in in the tiny district this academic year.

Superintendent Nancy Thomas said a damage estimate was not yet available but she said there was broken glass, fire extinguisher residue all over and office equipment was stolen.

The 440-student K through 12 school was closed Monday for cleanup but will reopen on Tuesday.

As a community, when a school is forced to close for a day due to fire extinguisher vandalism, what is the economic impact?  How many parents need to take a day off from work?  How much lost productivity does this result in?  The cost is a lot higher than a custodian's time to thoroughly clean a building.

Vandals Trash Special Needs School, Discharge Extinguishers

In a sad story, vandals in California broke into a special needs school and caused significant damage to the Richard Henry Dana Exceptional Needs Facility and the elementary school next door.  In each instance, there was significant damage to the facility and the locations were coated with residue from discharged extinguishers.  Watch this segment from KABC in Los Angeles to see the damage.

As you can see in the video, the police investigators don't hold out much hope that the criminals will be caught.  Another benefit of electronically monitoring fire extinguishers is that alarms can be triggered when an extinguisher is pulled, resulting in a rapid response to situations like this.

Oklahoma City School Vandalized, Thousands in Damages

According to KFOR, Channel 4 in Oklahoma City:

A metro elementary school was targeted by vandals over the weekend. Officials say the vandals caused thousands of dollars in damage and it's not the first time this school has been hit recently.

Principal Phillip Cunningham said, "Everything was on the floor, fire extinguishers discharged, a lot of equipment broken and damaged."

These types of stories are all too common.  With budgets tight and school boards struggling to stretch every dollar, losing days to cleanup or fire damage is unacceptable.  To learn more about how to ensure your school is protected with electronically monitored fire extinguishers, contact en-Gauge today.

RTLS and Life Safety Monitoring:  Reducing Risk, Lowering Costs, Improving Patient Care

As Real time location systems become more widely deployed and used to track vital equipment, especially in healthcare facilities, manufacturing plants and the hospitality industry, businesses are starting to look to integrate critical life safety equipment in their RTLS deployments. Devices such as employee distress medallions, medical oxygen tanks, fire extinguishers, AED’s (Automated External Defibrillators), IV pumps and many others are being integrated into RTLS infrastructure providing businesses with tremendous ROI through improved process and reduced inventory, as well as substantially lowered risk and improved life safety.

RTLS systems are wireless networks deployed inside of facilities, that in conjunction with RFID tags and a software layer, provide businesses with insight into exactly where on their campus each piece of tracked equipment resides at any point in time. In addition, sensors play an important role in life safety monitoring as well.

Fire Extinguishers and RTLS

Does the fire extinguisher in the northern hallway, on the 4th floor of the Green building have pressure? Has it been removed, or are there obstructions in front of it that may make it difficult or impossible to access? These sensors provide information into the “state” of the equipment, while the RTLS solution provides insight into the “Location” of each device.

This insight leads to substantial opportunities for process improvement and improved life safety. Your facility team is notified the instant an extinguisher is removed, becomes depressurized or is blocked, leading to a reduction in vandalism, rapid response to emergencies (and insight into where the extinguishers are being used), and dramatically improved maintenance and replacement cycles ensuring that these critical devices are available, accessible and ready in an emergency.

Medical Oxygen and RTLS

As another example, consider medical oxygen tanks in a hospital. Today, most organizations have a highly decentralized and inefficient system for managing their oxygen inventory. Nurses and other care providers are responsible for identifying empty cylinders and replacing them. The disorganized process leads to bloated inventory levels, unnecessary refills and life threatening emergencies when finding a full cylinder is difficult.

With RTLS systems and smart gauges, central maintenance teams are notified the moment a cylinder begins to run low and the exact location of that cylinder. They are able to ensure that there is plenty of available oxygen at each location ensuring RN’s are no longer searching for and replacing cylinders in a rush. Understanding the state of the oxygen inventory results in substantial reductions in the necessary cylinder inventory on site. Early indications are that medical oxygen monitoring utilizing an RTLS system will provide a $500 per bed / per year savings over existing processes.

Each additional type of life safety device that is brought into an RTLS system has their own compelling value proposition. To learn more about how RTLS systems and life safety monitoring systems work, contact en-Gauge today to speak with one of our experts.

At en-Gauge, we are always keeping our eyes open for Fire Extinguisher Success Stories,   We

 ran across this story earlier on FayObserver.com.....

A malfunctioning air conditioner was blamed for a fire in a second-floor office at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Ramsey Street (In Fayettville, AR) on Wednesday morning, authorities said.

The fire was reported about 11 a.m. in a file room and was put out with a fire extinguisher in about 5 minutes, said Nixon Spell, a battalion commander with the Fayetteville Fire Department.

Some people were briefly evacuated, Spell said, but no patients were affected.

The en-Gauge system is installed and monitoring fire extinguishers at a number of VA Medical Centers,  we're proud to be helping make our VAs safer.  Having extinguishers monitored 24 x 7 x 365 provides en-Gauge customers with the confidence to know that their extinguishers are where they are supposed to be, accessible and in working order when an emergency occurs.  For more information about how the en-Gauge electronic fire extinguisher monitoring system works, watch this short video.

As in most localities, police cars in Midland, Texas are equipped with Fire Extinguishers in case the officers come across a traffic fire emergency.  Unfortunately, it took a tragedy to realize that many of those extinguishers went years without an inspection and may have been non-functional for extended periods of time.  This discovery had prompted new legislation in Texas to ensure the exinguishers are inspected and maintained properly.

According to CBS7.com, whose investigation into the tragedy and the lack of fire extinguisher inspection inspired the proposed legislation:

...[following] a fiery car crash in 2009 that killed an 18-year-old Midland girl, her father discovered that some of those extinguishers went years without inspection.

"It causes great concern for me. They had non-working fire extinguishers and one was expired for at least three to four years", said her father, Richard Corley.

A CBS 7 investigation revealed that the two extinguishers that didn't work the night of the crash weren't the only extinguishers out of date.

That became apparent when talking to the company Midland contracts for inspections.

"Vehicles are kind of funny. No matter how hard we try, we cannot catch 100 percent of the trucks or 100 percent of the vehicles. That's just the nature of the beast", said James Haun of Midessa Fire Extinguishers.

Calls to local, state and national organizations soon revealed that there is no agency or organization that oversees the inspection of fire extinguishers in city vehicles.

"The city would be the entity that's responsible for making sure that those standards are upheld", explained Jerry Hagins of the State Fire Marshal’s Office in Austin.

It's a violation of law to have an expired fire extinguisher in a business, but having one in a police car is perfectly legal.

The comment that strikes us the most that by the company in charge of fire extinguisher inspections.  Vehicles are not "kind of funny", especially those used by our first responders most likely to be on the scene of a traffic fire.  These fire extinguisher have to work as they are extremly likely to be called upon in life and death situaitons. 

Apparently, at least one Texas Legislator feels the same way.  CBS7.com continues:

After our story, Representative Tom Craddick, decided to take action.

"To me it just makes sense. If you're going to compel your officials to have it in the car you ought to make sure they work", he said.

In drafting House Bill 564, Craddick hopes to require annual fire extinguisher inspections for local governments that keep fire extinguishers in their vehicles.

We couldn't agree more.  Although with fire extinguishers this vital to public safety, annual inspections probably don't go far enough.  These critical life safety devices should be subject to at least the same level of inspection as those recommended in NFPA 10 for commercial buildings - a 30-day manual inspection or electronic monitoring of those extinguishers like that provided by en-Gauge with our electronic fire extinguisher monitoring system.

Vandals continue to do thousands of dollars of damage and interrupt business and community activities by carelessly using fire extinguishers in acts of vandalism.  We continue to be amazed a how many articles come across our desk describing the damage and disruption caused by these acts of fire extinguisher vandalism.  Here are just a handful of the examples from the last few weeks.

Michigan Church Close For Over A Week Due to Fire Extinguisher Vandalism

The Eureka Christian Church in Clinton County Michigan was extensively vandalized by intruders that took delight in having a fire extinguisher fight with multiple dry chemical fire extinguishers.  According to WILX.com:

Volunteers showed up at Eureka Christian Church to help clean up, but were shocked to find more damage than they could handle. Some people snuck into the church gym and had a ball blasting three fire extinguishers.

"It's everywhere. It's on the tables, on the chairs, on the lights, and on the floor. It's just filth," said Eureka Christian Church member Karry Shears of the extinguisher residue.

"When I walked in and saw the damage my heart fell to the ground," said 43-year church member Todd Colley.

...Their insurance company estimates the job will take at least two weeks to clean, but has not determined how much the damage will cost.

The residue for the fire extinguishers is still thick in the air 3 days after the incident and has covered nearly every surface.

A long term concern the church may need to address is that the dry chemicals from extinguishers is corrosive to electronics and extremely difficult to remove from the delicate instrumentation.  The best way to discourage fire extinguisher vandalism is to know when it is taking place by using a fire extinguisher monitoring solution like that provided by en-Gauge.

Vandals Coat Spokane, WA School Gyms with Fire Extinguishers

In an all to familiar story, vandals broke into a school overnight and the staff came in to find a huge mess and a major disruption to business as ususal.

This photo from KREM.com gives an indication of just how much area a vandal can impact by discharging just a single fire extinguisher.

Former Hewlett-Packard Building Vandalized with Fire Extinguishers

In Greeley, Colorado police arrested 3 teenaged boys involved in a truly expensive act of vandalism.  According to The Greeley Tribune:

Three 16-year-old boys were arrested by Greeley police after they were found inside the old Hewlett-Packard building in west Greeley, where they were accused of causing up to $100,000 in damage.

Greeley police spokesman Sgt. Joe Tymkowych said police received a call from a watchman at the plant, in the 900 block of 71st Avenue, at about 11 a.m. Thursday. The caller said he saw three boys setting off fire extinguishers inside the building.

Police arrived minutes later and found the three boys hiding on the roof of the building.

Based on the feedback from the community regarding this story on the Tribune website, passions are running high about the amount of damage and the need to make an example of these vandals.

$10,000 of damage to Eureka, MO High School Pool due to Fire Exinguisher Vandalism

Why is it that schools get hit so hard by vandals that think it is funny to discharge these vital life safety devices as a prank.  With the vandals caught in this situation and a $10K price tag plus criminal charges pending, they probably no longer think it was a very clever idea.  According to the Eureka-Wildwood Patch:

Damage to the school's pool was deemed "extensive," and estimated to cost  more than $10,000.

Wiegand said the police report filed by Eureka police and school resource officer Michael Smith indicated the incident was reported by Eureka's athletic director Jason Green.

"(Green's) statements outlined that he found chemicals floating in the pool from fire extinguishers being sprayed there, and on the equipment of the school's aquatic sports department, which rendered the pool and items unoperable," Wiegand said.

....Monday night, Eureka High School physical education teacher and swim coach Sharon Wasson said the pool underwent extensive cleaning, but that the swimmers were happy to have it return to operational. St. Louis-based catastrophe and restoration company CATCO, handled the cleaning project.  She said they did a phenomenal job with the situation.

 

Don't be taken by surprise by vandals.  Start monitoring your fire extinguisher 24/7/365 with the en-Gauge electronic fire extinguisher monitoring system and be sure that your first line of defense against fires is where is needs to be, accessible and ready for proper use. 

 Just how important to society are fire extinguishers?  It turns out VERY IMPORTANT!  Often ignored,  even by the fire community, these overlooked life safety devices play a vital role in keeping us safe.  It is time for fire extinguishers to get the respect they deserve.
 
For most people fire extinguishers are invisible red cans on walls,  never looked at,  rarely considered.  To some they are the joke in a funny story about cooling beer in college or the laugh from the time they shot one off that drunken night.  But in more than 600 businesses and non-residential structures every day in America they are the difference between a minor fire problem and a conflagration.
 
Yes, you read that right, 600 time a day fire extinguishers put out fires in non-residential structures in the United States and many more around the globe.
 

Here are the facts.  

 
According to the most recent NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) data1, in 2008 U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 1,451,500 fires.  These fires resulted in 3,320 civilian fire fatalities, 16,705 civilian fire injuries and an estimated $15,478,000,000 in direct property loss.
 
Of these fires 112,000 were responded to in commercial or municipal buildings.  Of the over $15 Billion in property damage, more than $3.811 Billion took place in these non-residential structures.  This represents an average loss per reported incident in non-residential / commercial structures of over $34,000.
 
These facts, pure and simple, don’t tell the story of the true value of fire extinguishers to our society.
 

The Vital Role of Fire Extinguishers

To highlight the effectiveness of extinguishers in the early stage fire fighting, a 2002 UK study performed by FETA (Fire Extinguishing Trades Association) and IFEDA (Independent Fire Engineering and Distributors Association) reviewed over 2100 fire incidents and found that in 80% of the cases a portable fire extinguisher successfully extinguished the fire and in 75% of those cases, the fire department was not required to attend.

A similar survey was conducted in 2002 by EUROFEU (European Committee of the Manufacturers of Fire Protection Equipment and Fire Fighting Vehicles) in 6 European countries and it found strikingly consistent results.  In over 2600 incidents recorded it concluded that in 81.5% of cases the portable extinguisher successfully extinguished the fire and in 74.6% of the cases the fire department was not required to attend.

Extrapolating the results of these surveys to the U.S. market provides solid statistical evidence that in approximately 80% of all fire incidents a portable fire extinguisher is the only fire fighting tool needed to extinguish the fire.  Further, they indicate that in 60% of all fire incidents the fire department is not notified (and thus the event would not  appear in NFPA statistics).  If applied to the 2008 NFPA data, fire extinguishers effectively managed approximately 224,000 fires in commercial structures, 168,000 of which do not appear in NFPA statistics.  

Fire Extinguishers in Academic Settings

 
To provide some additional insight, a 2010 White Paper from Worcester Polytechnic Institute reported on the use of fire extinguishers to combat real fires in academic settings.  According to their research, fire extinguishers are used approximately 15,000 times each year in schools, colleges, universities, dormitories, fraternities, sororities and barracks.  
 
That means that fire extinguishers are called into service more that 41 times each day as the first line of fire defense in our nations schools.  What is more important than protecting the lives of our young people?

Fires in Hotels

 
According to a recent article on HotelInteractive.com, a leading web portal for hotel professionals,
 

....an estimated 3,900 fires occur each year in hotels and motels. Annually, these fires result in $76 million in property loss.

According to a recent report by the U.S. Fire Administration, 46 percent of hotel and motel fires are caused by cooking, with electrical malfunctions and heating each causing an additional 7 percent of fires. These fires occur primarily in the evening, between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. While 73 percent of fires are confined to the object of origin, 18 percent are confined to the room of fire origin and the remaining 9 percent of fires extend beyond the room of origin.

With 73 % of these fires confined to the object of origin, it is easy to see the absolutely critical role that fire extinguishers play in keeping the guests in hotels safe.  Extrapolating the prominent studies,  this indicated more than 20 fires everyday are put out by fire extinguishers in hotels.

Fire Extinguishers Protect the Environment

Fire extinguishers also play a critical role in protecting the environment by controlling fires at their very early stages.  According to a 2010 White Paper from Green Collar Research, a leading sustainability on-line research organization,

From a safety as well as from an environmental and carbon release perspective, the management of a fire with a fire extinguisher when it is in its very early stages is a best case scenario.

Green Collar Research sums up the beneficial role that fire extinguishers, and particularly electronically monitored fire extinguishers like those offered by en-Gauge, in the following manner.

Fire and fire protection plays a significant role in releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  Fire extinguishers play a crucial role in protecting the environment due to their proven ability to fight fires while they are at their very early stages.  The availability of accessible and working fire extinguishers assures that the highest possible percentage of fires will be controlled with the minimal environmental impact possible.

Replacing the inefficient and carbon-intensive manual extinguisher inspection methodology with electronically monitored extinguishers will have significant positive impacts on the environment, including:

• ·Fewer carbon emissions from fire incidents in which a missing, blocked or non-functioning fire extinguisher is a contributing factor

• Reduced embodied carbon generated via the manufacture of replacement building materials necessary to repair fire damage

• Reduced carbon emission from the burning of fossil fuels for transportation necessary for the manual inspection of extinguishers

• Reduced water use required to fight fires

• Reduced levels of persistent pollutants associated with fires and waste water run-off

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Fire Extinguishers - Society’s Silent Heroes

With all of the benefits that fire extinguishers provide for us, it is surprising that we don’t appreciate them more.  In fact, the only time we think about them is when we need them in an emergency.  The only time we hear about them is when they are unavailable, or when the are unable to do their job.  

One of the major concerns relative to fire extinguishers is that the 30-day fire extinguisher inspection required by the National Fire Protection Association in NFPA 10, is not sufficient to be sure fire extinguishers are available, accessible and functional at all times.  In order to ensure these silent heroes are ready when needed, it is crucial to have them monitored 24/7, just like all of the other, less utilized aspects of our fire protection systems.  To learn more about electronic monitoring of fire extinguishers, please visit http://www.engaugeinc.net.