Free Water Mist Extinguishers for Qwackers Pre-School

Friday 2nd March 2012

Qwackers Pre-School in Alford, Lincolnshire has been part of the life of generations of local people. It started off in a hall at the side of a babbling brook where ducks swam. The group then moved to a second-hand prefab building that was erected on the site of the John Spendluffe School.

This building has served a good purpose but with many years of wear and tear it became apparent that it was no longer viable to repair the structure any longer. After several years of campaigning Qwackers have now moved into a brand new building on their old site.

We always like to support local causes and as Qwackers is a registered charity we wanted to show our support by installing new extinguishers for them and maintaining the extinguishers on a yearly basis in the future completely free of charge.

We chose to install Water Mist extinguishers, which when deployed will leave no residue and will not cause water damage as with conventional water extinguishers. The Water Mist extinguishers are fitted with a supersonic nozzle, creating a microscopic mist curtain. The water mist removes oxygen from the fire and also cools the material that is alight, reducing the chance of re-ignition. Because the extinguisher is creating a fog rather than a jet, the water mist extinguishers are ideal for schools and nurseries, as children cannot hurt themselves, should they ever set off an extinguisher.

Water Mist extinguishers are also perfect for home, offices, shops and kitchens, and their testing credentials mean they can even be used on electrical equipment too!

What to do with old smoke alarms?

Monday 19th December 2011

Customers ask us occasionally about the recycling of smoke alarms. Here is some information relating to this.

Smoke and heat alarms fall under the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) regulations. The biggest burden, with regards to the recycling of these goods, falls on businesses manufacturing, rebranding or importing alarms or any other electrical equipment. Retailers like us have to follow a reduced set of regulations.

Retailers have to pay a fee to be allowed to recommend their domestic customers to drop their old smoke and heat alarms off at local recycling centers (Distributor Take-Back Scheme) rather than returning them to Safelincs for passing on to the manufacturers. As the directive states that the customer should in this case dispose of the old alarm themselves at the recycling centers we could in theory refuse to accept old smoke alarms back from domestic customers. However, we allow customers to send us their old units as a courtesy when they purchase from us.

Ideally, as stated above, domestic customers should drop their old alarms off at their local recycling centers, however, they can also dispose small numbers of alarms in their normal refuse. Quite often customers are concerned that the crossed-out wheelie bin on the back of the alarm means that they must not place the unit in a normal waste bin. This is a mis-understanding, the crossed-out wheelie bin just means that this product falls under the WEEE regulations and ideally should be recycled. Nevertheless, small numbers of smoke alarms are permitted in the household waste. There is currently no differentiation in this respect between the ionisation and other smoke alarms despite the ionisation alarms containing small amounts of radio-activity.

There are WEEE rules that differ for domestic customers and businesses. Business smoke alarm users can drop small numbers of old alarms off at the recycling centre, where the cost for recycling will be passed on to the manufacturers. Business customers can also pass the smoke alarms on to us. We then pass them on to the manufacturers. This is only the case if they buy new smoke alarms from us at the same time or if they bought the units from us in the first place (there are some detailed rules relating to this regulation, which have been left out for simplicity).

P50 self-maintenance extinguishers installed in our local primary school

Tuesday 1st November 2011

Alford Primary School, local to our Safelincs headquarters based in Lincolnshire has installed our Britannia P50 self-maintenance fire extinguishers. These extinguishers carry a 10 year guarantee and do not need a service engineer to carry out the yearly inspection.

Having a 10 year guarantee and not requiring a refill after 5 years or any engineer servicing visits for the life span of the extinguishers is a huge cost saving for schools. As budgets are always under scrutiny and with the government looking for additional cuts, the savings achieved by changing to P50 make great sense.

When we installed the P50 extinguishers in the Alford Primary School, training was given to school representatives to be able to carry out the simple yearly inspection themselves. P50 extinguishers are accepted by most insurance companies.

There is a video available to demonstrate how easy the extinguishers are to self-maintain. The extinguishers, which have an inner core of Kevlar (the same material used in bullet proof vests), are corrosion-free and are suitable for all outdoor applications as well as indoors.

For more information please contact us tel: 0800 612 6717 or visit the website https://www.safelincs.co.uk/britannia/

Intumescent Pipe Collars – A Guide

Monday 17th October 2011

We recently introduced a new range of Astroflame pipe collars. As we receive many questions about the use of pipe collars we felt that a write-up about these collars might be helpful.

What are pipe collars?

Where plastic soil and water pipes pass through fire compartment walls and floors, fire could spread between these building compartments as the pipes melt. Pipe collars are used in these situations to stop the spread of fire. They are fitted around the pipe and on exposure to heat from a fire they rapidly expand inwards to squeeze the collapsing plastic pipe until the aperture is completely sealed. Astroflame pipe collars can be used on UPVC, ABS, MDPE, HDPE and PP pipes up to 225mm diameter. They are rated at 4 hours fire resistance and are tested to BS476: Part 20: 1987 and EN1366-3. They also come with NHBC Type Approval.

What are pipe collars made of?

Intumescent pipe collars are made from intumescent material (based on heat reactive graphite ) bonded to the inside of a steel sleeve. The steel sleeve is powder coated and can be opened and fitted around the pipe. They are closed with a toggle clasp.

How are pipe collars fitted?

Our collars are designed for surface mounting, with the option to fully or semi-cast into masonry floors or walls. The fixing brackets provided can be used for securing the sleeve with non-combustible screws or bolts, or to assist ‘keying-in’ if collars are for recessed installations.

For horizontal installations the collar may be surface mounted or recessed and should be located on one or both sides according to the direction of risk.

Fitting to Masonry/Block Walls

1) Attach the Astro Collar to the pipe so that the integral mounting lugs are pressed tight to the surface of the wall.

2) Mark the position of the bolt slots in the mounting lugs onto the surface of the wall with a marker pen.

3) Rotate the collar slightly (or if access is restricted remove from pipe) and drill holes at the pre-marked positions to suit the anchor bolts being used.

4) If the surface of the wall is very uneven, it is recommended to bed the collar onto a bead of Astroflame Intumescent Mastic to improve the smoke seal efficiency.

5) Insert the anchor bolts and tap home. Relocate the collar in position ensuring that the toggle clasp is snapped closed and that the bolt heads are protruding through the slots in the mounting lugs. Tighten the nuts onto the bolts.

6) NOTE Where there is a fire risk on both sides of the wall, or the direction of fire risk has not been determined, then an Astro Collar should be fitted to both sides of the wall.

7) The collar can also be semi or fully cast into the masonry wall using Astro FM Compound fire resistant mortar.

Fitting under concrete floor slabs

1) Attach the Astro collar to the pipe so that the integral mounting lugs are pressed tight to the soffit (underside) of the concrete floor.

2) Mark the position of the bolt slots in the mounting lugs onto the concrete surface with a marker pen.

3) Drill the bolt holes at the pre-marked positions to suit the anchor bolts being used, (the minimum recommended size of non-combustible anchor bolt is 6mm dia. x 25mm long).

4) If the soffit (underside) of the concrete is very uneven, it is recommended to bed the collar onto a bead of Astroflame Intumescent Mastic to improve the smoke seal efficiency.

6) The collar can also be semi or fully cast into the soffit using Astro FM Compound fire resistant mortar.

Fitting to metal stud partition walls

Fit to both sides of the wall!

1) Attach the Astro Collar to the pipe so that the integral mounting lugs are pressed tight to the surface of the partition wall.

2) Mark the position of the bolt slots in the mounting lugs onto the surface of the wall with a marker pen.

3) Rotate the collar slightly (or if access is restricted remove from pipe) and drill holes at the pre-marked positions to suit the fixings used.

4) If the surface of the wall is very uneven, it is recommended to bed the collar onto a bead of Astroflame Intumescent Mastic to improve the smoke seal efficiency.

5) Insert the non-combustible fixings. Relocate the collar in position ensuring that the toggle clasp is snapped closed and that the bolt heads are protruding through the slots in the mounting lugs. Tighten the nuts onto the fixings.

Should you have further queries you can contact us and we are happy to help.

Camping deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning

Thursday 18th August 2011

During July and August this year there have been several deaths reported due to carbon monoxide poisoning in tents. One particular tragic death was that of a 35 year old woman, who was found dead next to her children aged seven and four and her husband. The children and husband were taken to hospital where they were later released, but it was said that they only just escaped with their lives. It is believed that the CO poisoning was due to carbon monoxide fumes entering the tent as a result of the barbecue being moved to the tent entrance to provide some warmth for the family.

These devastating incidents could be avoided if the dangers of carbon monoxide were more widely known.

This summer the temperatures have not been very high and many campers are finding themselves unusually cold at night in their tents. As there are no extra blankets available, many campers have started to bring camping BBQs or gas stoves into the tent to warm it up before going to sleep. Campers have also started to bring their BBQs into their tents to continue cooking due to it starting to rain.

Bringing gas or coal fired cooking appliances inside tents and caravans fills the space quickly with carbon monoxide gas, a byproduct when burning a fossil fuel. The gas then renders the occupants unconscious and death can occur as a result.

Under no circumstances should gas or charcoal appliances be brought in or close to a tent. The carbon monoxide gas can linger inside the tent long after the appliance has been moved away. As the gas is odorless and colourless there is no way to detect if the gas is present. The gas makes the occupant drowsy and once in this state unable to respond to other warning signs such as headaches and nausea.

To read more on these tragic deaths: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2026321/Mother-dies-camping-tragedy-Gyrn-Goch.html

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9156602.Warning_after_man_dies_in_gas_barbecue_tragedy/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-14051333

Reviewing domestic fire safety in the light of the recent riots

Friday 12th August 2011

Now that the rioting seems to have come to an end it is worth considering how to be prepared for similar occurrences in the future. Most of the physical damage, excluding the massive damage to lives and communities, was caused by arson attacks and many people were put at risk by being trapped in their houses by fire.
There are a few precautions one can take to avoid being trapped by fire and to reduce the risk from arson.

Make arson attacks more difficult

It is easy for rioters to pour petrol through a letterbox and to throw a match after it. The impact is devastating. The fire races through the house and the main exit is blocked by fire. However, you can protect yourself by installing an anti-arson letterbox. These fire protection bags sit behind the letter slot and normally just catch your mail. However, they also will contain any flammable liquid poured through the letter opening and automatically extinguish any fire in the letterbox with a small automatic extinguisher or intumescent materials built into the anti-arson letterbox.

Stop your soft furnishing catching fire

You can reduce the flammability of curtains, carpets and soft furnishing in entrance areas by treating them with fire retardant spray. These sprays make fabrics less flammable and thus reduce the impact of a fire bomb thrown into a building.

Protect your most valuable documents from fire

Place your most valuable and personal items in a fireproof box. These

fireproof boxes are ideal for valuable

photos, passports, certificates etc. Special fireproof boxes for electronic data protection will protect your familiy videos and electronically stored data/photos. Some of the boxes are also water tight, which is important in case the fire brigade have to douse the flames with water and foam.

Ensure you have a second route of escape

Do you have a second escape route if the hallway is in flames? Make sure you can open upstairs windows to escape. If they do not open, keep a hammer or a dedicated emergency escape hammer near the windows. If the fire brigade cannot easily reach an upstairs window, consider a fire escape ladder which can be hooked over a window sill in an emergency.

Don’t suffocate from the smoke

Smoke from house fires is extremely toxic. A few breaths will overwhelm you and render you unconscious. If the house is filled with smoke, crawl along the floor towards the nearest exit. Wrap a wet cloth over your face if you have to run through smoke or fire, however, you must not breathe in the smoke due to the extreme tocicity! Consider having a fire escape hood in the house. These hoods cover your head and filter the fumes of the fire. This gives you valuable time to escape through smoke.

Make sure you can extinguish small fires yourself

During the riot the fire brigades were stretched by the number of fires. As a result their response time will not have

been as fast as usual. Make sure you can tackle small fires yourself by having buckets of water at the ready or equip yourself with fire extinguishers

Make sure you can extinguish a person on fire

Keep a non-flammable blanket or large fire blanket at the ready to wrap around a person or roll the person on the floor to extinguish the flames. Have a bucket of water placed in a suitable place or ensure that you have a water fire extinguisher.

Fire Drill

Ensure that you know how you will escape from your home if a fire blocked the main exit. If you have children talk to them in a calm manner about what to do if there is a fire. If the child is particularly clingy to one parent, get that parent to lead the way out of the building. The child will be more willing to leave the building that way.

Ensure that you have working smoke alarms fitted to alert you to a fire, and a carbon monoxide alarm in every room where you burn solid fuel, such as a gas boiler, gas or open fire, gas cooker. Make sure you check that they are working on a regular basis and that they are never left without a battery in them.

For help and advice call 0800 612 6537 or email support@safelincs.co.uk

Care home fire safety ruling

Friday 12th August 2011

After the recent BBC investigation about London care homes not meeting fire safety regulations there has been an important court ruling that will hopefully change the behavior of care home owners and increase the safety of the residents.

The issue regarding resident bedroom doors, which must be fitted with self closing fire doors, and the risk of these fire doors being wedged open in an illegal manner was addressed. Fire doors are generally heavy and when fitted with a self closing device very hard for an elderly person to open. In the case of care homes fitting bedroom doors with these devices will restrict the mobility and independence of residents. The fear was that care home owners will then wedge the doors open to allow residents to freely move in and out of their bedrooms. This practice is illegal and the judicial ruling now stipulates that self-closing fire doors must be fitted with a device that will hold the door open and which releases the door when a fire alarm is triggered, allowing the fire door to be closed with the door closer to prevent the spread of fire.

This is ruling is paramount in ensuring the safety of vulnerable residents. The solution to this new ruling need not result in having a new system wired into the premises but can be resolved with wireless devices such as Dorgard or Freedor. Both devices are wireless and can be fitted retrospectively to fire doors without the need of an electrician.

The Dorgard can be fitted to any door with a self closing device and will hold the door open until the fire alarm sounds. At this point the door retainer will lift the plunger and the fire door will close. The Freedor works in a similar way but it acts not only as a door holder but also as a door closer, incorporating the two devices in one. This device can hold the fire door open at any angle required and will then release and close the fire door on the sounding of the fire alarm.

Both fire door retainers have a night time closing feature and have adjustable sensitivity. As the Dorgard and Freedor are both wireless products they can be fitted by a handy man rather than a costly electrician. The Dorgard has a 5 year warranty, which is only available from Safelincs Ltd.

For more information on fire door retainers and door holders please visit our website https://www.safelincs.co.uk/dorgard-and-other-fire-door-retainers/

More information about the judicial ruling can be found at http://www.cpbsonline.eu/pressrelease/pressrelease.aspx?companyname=Fireco&title=Court+Makes+Important+Care+Home+Fire+Safety+Ruling

New 10 Year Extinguishers without any Maintenance Costs!

Wednesday 6th July 2011

We can now offer our customers a new type of fire extinguisher that will help them save hundreds of pounds!!! Safelincs have become the exclusive online retail partner for Britannia Fire, distributing their new P50 extinguisher, a 10 year guaranteed fire extinguisher that does not require servicing, hence saving substantial amounts of money year on year.

Britannia Fire, based in Norwich, is a long standing manufacturer of fire extinguishers in the UK and has been supplying the MOD, the public sector and the fire safety industry since the 1970s.

The extinguisher is durable and light, using Kevlar (usually associated with bullet-proof vests) to manufacture the extinguishers inner core. The steel cylinder of traditional fire extinguishers has been replaced with a composite polyethylene plastic shell, providing UV protection, preventing corrosion and providing substantially better durability in comparison. This plastic shell is then used to protect the Kevlar core from the elements and allows the P50 extinguisher to be confidently installed in external locations.

The extinguisher has taken 5 years to develop and has gone through the most rigorous testing to ensure that it meets and even exceeds all standards for a fire extinguisher. The extinguishers are certified to the EN3 standard and have a ten year manufacturer’s guarantee as well as a ten year service-free life. The extinguishers durability is tested by pressurising the canisters with 25 bar pressure over 12,000 times! They then have to withstand being crushed flat by a blade before being filled again with over 55 bar without being allowed to burst. Britannia’s P50 extinguishers are made to last!

This P50 extinguisher range does not require an annual service call-out from an extinguisher engineer and refilling or replacing after five years. All that is required for these extinguishers is for the business owner or the chosen competent person to carry out the manufacturer’s simple 3 step self-maintenance check. The checks are then recorded in the fire log book and on each extinguisher.

The Britannia P50 extinguishers are also covered by a ‘free after fire replacement’ should the extinguisher ever be used to tackle a fire or get damaged in a fire Safelincs will replace the unit within 7 days free of charge.

Safelincs offers free delivery, a free site survey and free installation with the extinguishers to ensure that our customers install the extinguishers in the correct quantities and in the best locations.

This revolutionary service-free fire extinguisher is only available online from Safelincs Ltd.

False Fire Alarms Waking You Up?

Friday 17th June 2011

This post was written in 2011. Please read our new guide to troubleshooting beeping smoke alarms.

A common complaint we hear about are smoke alarms that go off in the middle of the night. There are a number of reasons and steps you can take to minimise the possibility of nuisance alarms waking you up.

Smoke alarms with low batteries will emit a beeping sound to indicate that the batteries require replacement. Batteries are at their weakest at night when it is cooler and you can therefore get low battery warnings which can wake you up. If it is a low battery warning sound (every few minutes or so), change your batteries. Make sure you use good quality batteries, as cheap batteries may not be strong enough to power the alarm and again cause the alarm to bleep during the night .

The issue of low batteries may also apply if you have mains powered smoke alarms, as most mains powered alarms contain a backup battery to power the alarm in case of power failure.

If a mains powered smoke alarm gives an irregular warning sound, it might also indicate that the mains power supply is interrupted. Some smoke alarms have a green LED light on the outer case to show that the smoke alarm is connected to the mains power. If the green LED is not lit it can be an indication that there has been an interruption in the mains power supply and that the alarm will be using the back up battery as the power source.

Should the alarm emit a continuous sound, check first of all that there are no signs of a fire. False alarms can be caused by condensation or insects finding their way into the alarm. To eradicate this type of false alarm try to vacuum out the inside of the smoke alarm as thoroughly as possible and ventilate the room to reduce the condensation present.

When a smoke alarm has reached the end of its life it might also start to sound an intermittent beep as and when the alarm starts to become faulty. Check the manufacturing date of the smoke alarm. Smoke alarms need replacing after ten years.

In all cases of nuisance beeping or false alarms do not disconnect your alarm or leave the alarm without batteries fitted. This would leave you unprotected in the event of a fire and you would not receive any warning to evacuate the building.

To ensure that you have done everything possible to minimise the chances of false alarms and nuisance beeping take advantage of our free reminder service to alert you to replace batteries or replace the smoke alarm unit.

Emergency lighting guide

Saturday 28th May 2011

This post was written in 2011 and a more recent version exists. Please read our new guide: what you need to know about emergency lighting.

Planning your emergency lighting can be quite daunting and appear very complicated. We have developed an emergency lighting guide to help with all the issues of planning where to install your emergency lights.

The guide has been developed through answering customer questions on emergency lighting installation, ensuring that we are answering the questions you want to ask. The guide covers topics such as planning, location, types of lights, signs and testing your emergency lights.

The emergency lighting planning section goes through six steps to ensure that you comply to the most update legislation, including the Health & Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996, and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The guide is designed to help proprietors or people responsible for emergency lighting provisions to think about the many aspects of evacuation and escape.

The section on where to locate your emergency lighting covers every day areas such as corridors and junctions, where there may be a change in direction to stairways, steps and ramps as well as exits and fire and first aid points. There is also a section for areas that are not so common, covering large open areas, generators or heavy machinery, escalators and lifts. Each of the sections gives a comprehensive guide to which compliant emergency light is available, giving you the overview and possibility to choose the correct lighting not only for location but also in accordance with your budget.

Emergency lighting is only one section of this guide. The guide also covers the installation of safety signs, again giving advice in accordance with the Health & Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996, and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It covers the requirement of externally illuminated signs or internally illuminated fire exit signs.

Once the type of emergency lighting has been selected and the correct emergency exit or fire exit signs have been purchased it is critical to have some knowledge of the testing requirements as set down in the British Standard BS 5266-1:1999.

The emergency lighting guide looks at monthly testing, half yearly testing and testing of appliances that are three years old. It is the role of the designated responsible person to ensure that the emergency lighting, once it is installed, is working according to the legislation. When purchasing emergency lighting from Safelincs you can choose to register for a reminder at the end of the checkout process and we will automatically send you reminders to test your emergency lighting when the lighting is coming up for testing.

For recording your emergency lighting tests you can also download our free fire safety log book.

To make your assessment and planning of your emergency lighting as problem free as possible view the comprehensive guide