Standpipe
Fire Safety Tools: Proper Care and Maintenance

Imagine this scenario: the smoke alarm sounds in your office, while trying to get out, you find a small fire in one of the rooms of the building. Thinking that you can manage to put it out, you try to look for the fire hose. After a few minutes, you find it, you attach it to the standpipe, and then you turn on the hose reel nozzle. But much to your horror and dismay, no water comes out. You desperately try to make it work but it just would not.

Fire safety equipment can surely spell the difference between minimal damage, and serious injury and loss of lives. But of course, even if your house, workplace, or business is armed with a complete set of firefighting tools and equipment such as fire extinguishers, fire hose, smoke detectors, fire sprinklers, or fire hydrant equipment, if these are not properly maintained, they hardly have any worth.

It is therefore important that after you have purchased high quality fire safety equipment to protect your home, office, or business, you do everything you can to ensure that these are properly checked and maintained. Malfunction or failure of

fire safety tools can lead to disastrous consequences such as serious damage to properties or worse, deaths of people. An extensive and thorough maintenance and inspection program is crucial to reduce such risks and to protect property and people efficiently. Here are some vital tips to care and maintain fire safety equipment properly:

1. Perform regular inspections. Inspect Fire hose, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, and all the fire equipment in your home or building regularly. Make sure you examine the parts of the equipment to see if there are any signs of deterioration or defects. Remember, this can lead to device malfunction, which is something that you never want to happen when you are in the middle of a fire emergency.

2. Attend immediately to any problem or concern. If the batteries of the smoke detector are not working anymore, replace them at once. If you see any signs of leakage on the fire extinguisher, report this to your supplier as soon as you can. If the fire hose coupling is rusty already, have this replaced right away. Never wait for a fire tragedy to occur before you take the necessary action.

3. Read manual of instructions for using and maintaining fire equipment. This is also of major importance because you will not be able to fight fire effectively if you do not know the proper way of using it. As soon as you have purchased a fire extinguisher or a fire hose, be sure to read and understand the manual so you know what to do in case of a fire.

4. Store fire equipment in safe storage places. Take the fire hose for example, you need to store this in a fire hose cover to ensure that it is well protected from dust and debris that can deteriorate its quality. Moreover, fire hose covers make it easier for people to locate the fire hose.