Portable Fire Extinguishers: Placement, Inspection, and Training

A portable fire extinguisher only helps if it is the right type, close by, charged, and in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. 29 CFR 1910.157 covers the extinguishers you provide for employee use: where they go, how they are inspected and tested, and what employees must be taught.

Who it applies to

The section applies to the placement, use, maintenance, and testing of portable fire extinguishers provided for the use of employees (1910.157(a)). The subpart it sits in applies to all employments except maritime, construction, and agriculture (1910.155(b)).

Paragraph (a) also narrows the section in two situations, and paragraph (b) adds two exemptions:

• Extinguishers outside buildings. The distribution requirements in paragraph (d) do not apply to extinguishers provided for employee use on the outside of workplace buildings or structures (1910.157(a)).
• Extinguishers not intended for employee use. Where extinguishers are provided but are not intended for employee use, and you have an emergency action plan and a fire prevention plan that meet 29 CFR 1910.38 and 1910.39, only paragraphs (e) (inspection, maintenance and testing) and (f) (hydrostatic testing) apply (1910.157(a)).
• Total evacuation exemption. You are exempt from all requirements of the section if you have established and implemented a written fire safety policy that requires the immediate and total evacuation of employees from the workplace when a fire alarm signal sounds, that policy includes an emergency action plan and a fire prevention plan meeting 29 CFR 1910.38 and 1910.39, and extinguishers are not available in the workplace. The exemption does not apply where a specific standard in Part 1910 requires that a portable fire extinguisher be provided (1910.157(b)(1)).
• Designated employee exemption. If your emergency action plan meets 1910.38, designates certain employees as the only employees authorized to use the available extinguishers, and requires all other employees in the fire area to immediately evacuate the affected work area when the fire alarm sounds, you are exempt from the distribution requirements in paragraph (d) (1910.157(b)(2)).

What the standard requires

General requirements

• You must provide portable fire extinguishers and mount, locate, and identify them so they are readily accessible to employees without subjecting the employees to possible injury (1910.157(c)(1)).
• Only approved portable fire extinguishers may be used to meet the section (1910.157(c)(2)).
• You must assure that extinguishers are maintained in a fully charged and operable condition and kept in their designated places at all times except during use (1910.157(c)(4)).

Selection and distribution

Extinguishers must be selected and distributed based on the classes of anticipated workplace fires and on the size and degree of hazard that would affect their use (1910.157(d)(1)). The travel distances are:

• Class A fires: travel distance for employees to any extinguisher of 75 feet (22.9 m) or less (1910.157(d)(2)).
• Class B fires: travel distance from the Class B hazard area to any extinguisher of 50 feet (15.2 m) or less (1910.157(d)(4)).
• Class C hazards: distribute on the basis of the appropriate pattern for the existing Class A or Class B hazards (1910.157(d)(5)).
• Class D: extinguishers or other containers of Class D extinguishing agent, placed so the travel distance from the combustible metal working area to any extinguishing agent is 75 feet (22.9 m) or less. Class D extinguishers are required in combustible metal working areas where combustible metal powders, flakes, shavings, or similarly sized products are generated at least once every two weeks (1910.157(d)(6)).

A Class A fire involves ordinary combustible materials such as paper, wood, cloth, and some rubber and plastic materials. A Class B fire involves flammable or combustible liquids, flammable gases, greases and similar materials, and some rubber and plastic materials. A Class C fire involves energized electrical equipment where safety to the employee requires the use of electrically nonconductive extinguishing media. A Class D fire involves combustible metals such as magnesium, titanium, zirconium, sodium, lithium, and potassium (1910.155(c)(8) through (c)(11)).

Instead of Class A extinguishers, you may use uniformly spaced standpipe systems or hose stations connected to a sprinkler system installed for emergency use by employees, provided the systems meet 1910.158 or 1910.159, provide total coverage of the area to be protected, and employees are trained at least annually in their use (1910.157(d)(3)).

Inspection and maintenance

• Monthly. Extinguishers, or hose used in their place under (d)(3), must be visually inspected monthly (1910.157(e)(2)).
• Annually. You must assure that extinguishers get an annual maintenance check. Stored pressure extinguishers do not require an internal examination (1910.157(e)(3)).
• Every 6 years. Stored pressure dry chemical extinguishers that require a 12 year hydrostatic test must be emptied and subjected to applicable maintenance procedures every 6 years. Dry chemical extinguishers with non-refillable disposable containers are exempt. When recharging or hydrostatic testing is performed, the 6 year requirement begins from that date (1910.157(e)(4)).

Hydrostatic testing

You must assure that hydrostatic testing is performed by trained persons with suitable testing equipment and facilities (1910.157(f)(1)). Extinguishers must be tested at the intervals in Table L-1, except under the conditions listed in (f)(2)(i) through (v), such as a unit that has been burned in a fire (1910.157(f)(2)). The table's intervals are 5 or 12 years depending on type: for example, 5 years for carbon dioxide and 12 years for stored pressure dry chemical with mild steel, brazed brass or aluminum shells.

Shells, cylinders, or cartridges that fail the test, or are not fit for testing, must be removed from service and from the workplace (1910.157(f)(14)). Paragraphs (f)(3) through (f)(15) add rules on examinations, test pressures, hose assemblies, and test equipment.

Training

• Education. Where you have provided portable fire extinguishers for employee use in the workplace, you must also provide an educational program to familiarize employees with the general principles of fire extinguisher use and the hazards involved with incipient stage fire fighting (1910.157(g)(1)). Provide it upon initial employment and at least annually thereafter (1910.157(g)(2)).
• Training for designated employees. Employees designated to use fire fighting equipment as part of an emergency action plan must be trained in the use of the appropriate equipment (1910.157(g)(3)). Provide it upon initial assignment to the designated group and at least annually thereafter (1910.157(g)(4)).

Written programs and records

The total evacuation exemption depends on a written fire safety policy (1910.157(b)(1)). The section itself requires two records:

• Annual maintenance record. You must record the annual maintenance date and retain the record for one year after the last entry or the life of the shell, whichever is less. The record must be available to the Assistant Secretary upon request (1910.157(e)(3)).
• Hydrostatic test record. You must maintain, and provide to the Assistant Secretary upon request, a certification record that includes the date of the test, the signature of the person who performed the test, and the serial number or other identifier of the extinguisher tested. Keep it until the extinguisher is hydrostatically retested at the Table L-1 interval or taken out of service, whichever comes first (1910.157(f)(16)).

Easy-to-miss requirements

• Cover the gap during servicing. You must assure that alternate equivalent protection is provided when extinguishers are removed from service for maintenance and recharging (1910.157(e)(5)).
• Banned agents. You must not provide or make available extinguishers that use carbon tetrachloride or chlorobromomethane (1910.157(c)(3)).
• Damage triggers a test. Extinguishers must be hydrostatically tested whenever they show new evidence of corrosion or mechanical injury, except under the conditions listed in (f)(2)(i) through (v) (1910.157(f)(4)).

Related guides

• Emergency action plans
• Exit routes
• Hot work

Source

This guide is based on the text of 29 CFR 1910.157 as published on osha.gov. The regulation itself always controls. States that run their own OSHA-approved State Plans may have additional or stricter rules.