Thankfully, installing basic safety measures in your home and using common sense can help you and your family to stay safe, even in the event of a fire.

Fire prevention
As with many other aspects of life, prevention is always preferable to cure. Happily, there are several things you can do to help prevent a fire in your home. First and foremost, you should get heat or smoke alarms installed, especially in your kitchen and bedrooms. You should also make sure that you have suitable fire extinguishers at hand and that everyone in your family knows how to use them. If you have small children in your home, keep items like matches and lighters well out of the reach of their curious hands.

Fire awareness
You must encourage your family to be aware of the potential fire dangers that can exist in your home. For example, you should: never overload a mains outlet or use more than one multi-plug in a socket. Make sure panhandles are facing inward when on the hob so that they do not get knocked over. Always be super-cautious with flammable liquids and make sure they remain locked up somewhere far away from your children. Keep a look out for electrical wires that have been worn out and immediately replace any that you may find. Obviously, this list is far from exhaustive – however, the important thing is to ensure you and your family are always vigilantly aware of the potential fire dangers that may occur in your home.

Fire evacuation
The most important thing to remember if you find yourself caught in a fire is not to panic. If the fire is relatively small then try to put it out with a suitable extinguisher. If the fire is large (or is spreading); call 999, get down low and use your family’s exit plan to try and get outside. If you can, cover your face with a cloth or towel so that you don’t breath in too much smoke. If you encounter a hot doorknob – do not open the door. A hot doorknob usually indicates that fire is present on the other side of the door. Instead, move away from the door and find an alternative way to exit the house.

By employing suitably preventative measures, remaining vigilantly aware and knowing exactly what to do in an emergency, you can help to ensure your family will remain as safe from the risk of fire as it is possible to be.

Explore our pages further to find out more and view our domestic fire safety products in greater detai

However, the area where people tend to get confused is with foam and powder extinguishers.

Hopefully, this brief outline of the various attributes and applications of foam and power extinguishers will help to clear up any confusion.

Foam extinguishers
Foam extinguishers are good to have in homes and offices as they are suitable for use on class A solid combustible fires (wood, paper, upholstery) and class B flammable liquid fires (petrol, liquefying plastic, paints). As a rule, foam extinguishers are not to be used on chip pan fires or gas fires.

These extinguishers work by forming a blanket of foam on the burning material, thereby starving a fire of fuel (oxygen). Indeed, the dispersed foam also penetrates deep into burning materials so that it can extinguish deep rooted embers. In addition, the water content of the foam evaporates in the heat and cools the fire down to prevent any risk of re-ignition.

Although dispersed foam presents no immediate risk regarding inhalation, it should be cleaned up as swiftly as possible after dispersal, as the AFFF foams are carcinogenic. Thankfully, the jets on foam extinguishers are able to target relatively small areas therefore most areas are usually quite easy to clean up after dispersal.

Powder extinguishers
Powder extinguishers are the most versatile extinguishers available. Indeed, as well as being suitable for use on class A and B class fires, powder extinguishers can also be used on class C fires (caused by combustion of gasses such as natural gas, propane, hydrogen) and on live electrical equipment. This versatility makes powder extinguishers well-suited to broad range of environments such as workshops, cars, boats and even some homes.

Powder fire extinguishers are more powerful than foam extinguishers; therefore, they are typically smaller than their foam counterparts. Instead of soaking into a burning material, however, powder extinguishers work by forming a crust-like blanket which is able to effectively starve a fire of fuel.

Dispersed powder can be inhaled and therefore care must be taken when it is sprayed. In addition, these types of extinguishers tend to leave a lot of residue behind so there is sometimes a degree of hesitation before powder extinguishers are used within buildings.

As well as testing that your fire alarms are working, carrying out a full fire drill will help you to check other equipment such as fire door retainers, which are usually released when a fire alarm sounds. You may wish to also check that your LED emergency lighting works effectively during the fire drill. If you have found that there are problems with your equipment, take immediate steps to replace it or get it fully checked out if it can be repaired. All of our essential fire safety equipment is covered by our free extended five year warranty and we also offer next day shipping to ensure that you get your new or replacement equipment as soon as possible.

Knowing how often to carry out a fire drill will depend on the level of risk that is present in your building, with a minimum of at least once a year. If you have customers on your premises, such as in a shop or restaurant, try and schedule your fire drill for when they are not present or at the least busy times of day, and always advise staff, neighbours and the fire service beforehand (if your alarm system is linked to the fire service).

There are five different classes of fire risks: A, B, C, D, F. Each class describes a different kind of fire and the fire extinguisher will be clearly labelled with the risk classes they are able to fight. If you are buying fire extinguishers for your property, but are unsure which one you need to install in which areas, then our extinguisher guide should provide you with everything you need to know. Our friendly staff will also be more than happy to help.

Class A: solids such as paper and wood
Class B: liquid fires such as burning petrol (not fat)
Class C: gas fires
Class D: burning metal such as magnesium
Class F: fat fires and deep fat fryer fires

The classes stated on the extinguisher also have a number next to them. The higher the number, the better the fire fighting capability of the extinguisher in this class.

Water extinguishers (colour coded red) are the most widely used and are used on solids such as paper, wood or fabrics. They should not be used on electrical equipment unless they contain an additive. Offices and reception areas are usually equipped with foam extinguishers (cream colour coding) and CO2 extinguishers (colour coded black). CO2 extinguishers will not damage the electrical equipment.

If your building has a kitchen, this will need a wet chemical or an ABF fire extinguisher to deal with fat fires. Other areas with greater fire hazards, such as laboratories, may require powder (coded blue), metal or CO2 fire extinguishers as appropriate depending on the risks involved. Powder extinguishers can be used on solids, flammable liquids or gases.

We guarantee to beat any online price for genuine Thomas Glover extinguishers, both for the PowerX and the Firepower range. And we offer free next day delivery if your order is over £70.00.

All our TG extinguishers are available either as a simple next day delivery or together with nationwide onsite commissioning by our BAFE certified extinguisher engineers. When buying the extinguishers just select your option when placing the items in the basket.

If you want to spread the costs of purchasing and installing extinguishers over a longer period, we also offer extinguisher contracts, which give you fixed yearly expenditures without nasty surprises and hidden charges.

If you are purchasing bulk volumes, please contact our friendly sales team and we will be happy to quote special prices. We also stock all spares required for TG extinguishers.

Mr Hinchcliffe was found guilty of exceeding the storage limit of waste at the site and also for having two other sites where waste was being stored but that did not have a waste storage permit.

A notice had been served on the site at Scout Hill but just days after this the fire occurred.  Fire crews and an aerial appliance attended the blaze on a daily basis for the month’s duration. It is estimated that the total costs to tax payers was in the region of £1.2m.

The company appeared in court on January 6 2012, and pleaded guilty to  a total of nine breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The restaurant, that also had living accommodation above the premises was found to have neglected its fire safety responsibilities.

The offences included not having undertaken an adequate fire risk assessment, failure to provide an adequate means of escape, failure to provide a fire warning system and fire fighting equipment. The only staircase from the upper floor lead into the commercial kitchen, should a fire have broken out in the kitchen the stairwell would have acted as a flue to draw toxic gas and smoke up to the upper floor. There was no emergency lighting and no working smoke alarms to alert occupants of the premises of a fire.

The online system enables you to quickly select the extinguishers  you require and choose the length of the rental and maintenance agreement you wish to have. The system is very clear and will immediately calculate the yearly payments.

If you do not know what extinguishers you need you can just call our service team on 0800 088 7309 and they will arrange a FREE site survey for you.

When you use the online fire extinguisher selection tool to order your extinguishers our BAFE certified engineers will carry out a free site survey to ensure that you have adequate cover under the legislation that applies to your premises.

The cost of the service includes the extinguisher provision, all basic spare parts and all maintenance activities. It also includes the environmentally safe  disposal of the extinguishers at the end of the contract. Yearly Maintenance will take place without you having to remember. We will just contact you and agree a mutually convenient time.

The rental and maintenance contract can be cancelled at any time. The final value of the extinguisher would be charged to you in this case. We like to be so clear about all charges that we even display the potential cancellation charges as you are running through your order.

The breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 were brought to the attention of the fire service whilst they attended a fire at the property in the accommodation that was situated above the restaurant in November 2009.

Mr Choudhury was fined £2,900 in addition to costs of £1,500 and a victim surcharge of £15. The offences for which he was found guilty ranged from a kitchen that was sited in an escape route, failure to have fire resistant doors installed and the failure to have smoke alarms fitted. It was also found that workers at the restaurant had not been given any fire safety training.

Red the full story: www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/safety-breaches/story-12811891-detail/story.html