Most often this is the question i got, "How Many Units Of Fire Extinguisher Do I Need To Provide In My Office", or Factory, or whatever it is.
Let's not go into the theory first. Neither do i try to be technical.
Let's just look around. If those people out there have placed the extinguishers in their premises, and they are operating with a legal status, then they must be doing something right. Or close to right. Right??
I see most commercial shop lots, say, 30' X 80', will most likely provide 2 units of 9 kg ABC Powder Portable Fire Extinguisher. Maybe 1 unit in the front and another in the middle or back.
Then, if there is a upper floor office, i notice another unit placed near the main entrance and another unit either in the office or at the pantry or near the wash rooms.
Now, let's see what the Legal Requirement Says.
According to the Malaysian Building By-Law, the correct Malaysian Standards, or The Code Of Practice to follow, is the Malaysian Standards, MS1539 : Part 3 : 2003.
This document is the Specification For Portable Fire Extinguishers - Part 3.
Focusing on Selection And Installation - and it is a Code Of Practice, make sure you refer to the current version, which is the (First Revision), or any later version if any.
Many aspects are explained in very detail in this document.
Among others, i think will give us a simple understanding, are as the following:
a) Extinguisher Spacing
The fire extinguishers must be located such that, you can get to it without having to walk more than 20 meter.
b) Extinguisher Hanging Height
If the fire extinguisher is heavier than 4kg, (which i think most cases are) it must be hang such that the handle is about 1 meter from the floor
This is spelled out in MS1539 : Part 3 : 2003, clause 7.2
c) Calculation According To Floor Space
Since year 2002, Fire Extinguishers are approved by the Fire Brigade according to their capability to kill fire, and we are talking about how big a fire can be killed, or extinguished, if you don't prefer to kill.
Before this, not much emphasis on this "Size Of Fire Killed thing, or, technically refered to as "Fire Rating", but rather the size, in terms of kg of the fire extinguisher matters more.
The calculation goes like this : if you have a specific floor space, say, 1000 meter square.
Then, the required "Fire Rating" is calculated as, 1000 X 0.065.
So, what we get is, 65A of Fire Rating Required for that space.
Then what is 65A???
To know what this 65A means, and to translate it into number of fire extinguishers, we need to know the rating of each fire extinguisher. Now, take a look at the fire extinguisher near you, is there any?
Read the label printed on the fire extinguisher body, and you should see somehere printed the Fire Rating. Read the A rating number, maybe you will see something like, 27A/144B.
Now, assuming it is 27A. Now, the number of fire extinguisher required is : 65A / 27A
... and we should get an answer of 2.41
round it up, it comes to 3 units of Fire Extinguisher.
What i have shared here, is just some basic points, of course there are many-many more things to consider when making provision for fie safety. Anybody interested to know further, please puchase a copy of the Code from SIRIM for reference.
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Despite the legislation, I doubt that the vast majority of offices adhere to having as many fire extinguishers as stipulated in a law. I am always of the opinion that a common sense approach should be taken, although when lives and fire is concerned its better to have too many than too few. Of which I have purchased another Powder Fire Extinguisher which was very reasonably priced from Discount Fire Supplies to add to my office environment.
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