In today’s hectic world, keeping yourself and your property safe is often overlooked, particularly, when looking at fire extinguishers.

I speak from personal experience about the devastation that is caused by a fire and the upheaval it can cause.

10 years ago, my dishwasher burst into flames, luckily nobody was in at the time. However the smoke and fire damage was extensive, and we were out of the house for 6 months, including over the Christmas period.

It forced me to look at what would have happened if we had all been in bed when the fire took hold, would I have been able to get my family to safety?

Extinguishers in the house may seem a bit excessive, but believe me, I have them now and I ensure that they are serviced every year because I want to be confident that they will work if I need them!

I would advise anybody who has home extinguishers to ensure they are kept in service by a reputable company, after all, you will only ever need them in an emergency.

There are no regulations for home extinguishers unless you are a landlord, then you’re into a whole different realm of regulations.

Both landlords and work premises should all have extinguishers in situ, these require servicing/testing every year. Under several regulations, it is highlighted for the servicing to be done.

The Health and Safety at Work Act and the Regulatory Reform Order 2005 (RRO) are the two main regulations that apply to the extinguishers.

The RRO replaced the old fire certificates originally issued by the fire brigade and the RRO will advise regarding having your extinguishers serviced regularly.

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