I agree with you there, but chances are that whatever you are trying to put out with water will not be completely isolated from any electrical path connected to it.You wouldn't use it on the welder - usually it is other stuff you set on fire when welding!
how many of them are still fullWe've got a 6L AFFF on each floor and a 2kg powder in the kitchen next to a fire blanket. Just remembered I need to test the fire alarm too.
All full but not on their hooks, we use them to prop the fire doors open.how many of them are still full
5 minutes would be excellent, in reality here it we estimate it would be closer to 15 minutes. Detect fire, wake up, realise what's going on, call fire brigade, that's at least 1 minute, they raise their internal alarm, and page their volunteers, who have to wake up, get organised and get to the station, say at least 5 minutes, kit up and get on the road, at least another couple of minutes, 5 minutes to get here, set up and start attacking fire, at least another 1 - 2 minutes. Any delays and very quickly you're at 20 minutes. During daylight hours, you could probably reduce that, perhaps even significantly, However given that in a mechancial / welding workshop, a fire from start to full blown, would develop very quickly (with all the associated materials, fuel, gas etc), with that 15 - 20 minutes reaction time there'd be little or nothing left for them to save. All they could do would be control, contain, and mitigate the spread and put it out. The workshop would already be toast.
We've been through it all, reviewed / evaluated the risks and eliminated them as far as practical, for example remove paints, lube oils, and fuel storage to exterior, all hot work activities contained to one managable area etc, and plenty of fire extinguishers to give us a fighting chance in dealing with the eventuality.
I'm not criticsing the fire service, on the contrary I know a good few of them, and they're all excellent lads doing a fantastic job, and they should all be commended. For me given our circumstances, a few fire extinguishers costs nothing in comparison to the alternative.
Have you looked at fire supression systems? I work in DataCentres a lot, and they all have things like FM200 gas which when a fire is detected will flood the area and extinguish any fire - while still being breathable enough for the workers to escape. Of course, given hot works, you'd want a manual activation for this sort of thing.
I've got a mixture of CO2 and water mist extinguishers in the house and garage/workshop - thankfully have never needed them.
Wondering if anyone has real world experience with the water mist type?
https://www.safelincs.co.uk/ultrafire-water-mist-fire-extinguishers/
Have you looked at fire supression systems? ....
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About 75k new at the time
yes and no, not gaseous based systems, as they wouldn't be practical in this case due to the building construction, amongst other things, it not being able to maintain the concentration levels (too many leaks) so not really applicable in this case. However when the fire officer did his inspection of the workshop, I suggested a fixed sprinkler based system as an option, answer - not mandatory nor required. In real terms we have done all that is reasonably practical, and you'll never eliminate all risks, but between the detections system, the numerous extinguishers, and the major risks factors eliminated or displaced, I believe that we're not that bad overall.
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About 75k new at the time
The only suitable gaseous extinguishant would be CO2, there are calculations under the standards for unenclosed areas usually used for things like industrial fryers. With CO2 you need 43%by volume in an enclosed space like a switch room, leakage can be allowed for with a simple dalculation based on the size of openings. But with the volumes involved and the asphixiant risks, youould require some kind of interlocking system to stop it going off when manned. Or you could adopt a manual only system like ships have, where multiple actions need to be completed to drop the gas.
Thats halon 1211, very good as long as not in an enclosed space. Both carcenogenic and an asphixiant. The halon for enclosed spaces was halon 1301.I wish we still had the old Halon. 1kg was the same as a 10kg CO2. They are still allowed on aircraft and military vehicles.
They weren't as dangerous as made out but were banned due to harm to the ozone layer .My guess is a burning car would do even more harm!