What is your true Fire Risk?

Do you have a fire risk assessment and if you do have you studied it and considered it properly? If you are reading this paper, think about where you are for a moment,

If you are in a building, consider which room and what are the risks in the room. If you are in an office, a hotel foyer, a restaurant or pub, a hospital or even at home you may have an AFFF Foam extinguisher.

You may have combined it with a carbon dioxide one too on a fire point stand or on your wall. Ask yourself why we have the Foam extinguisher, and do we really need it?

In many day-to-day indoor settings, the answer to this question would be NO.

It isn’t necessary because there may be little or no flammable liquid risk present in the setting that we are in at all. If your class B risk is small you could use a carbon dioxide extinguisher as this is also tested to extinguish small class B flammable liquid fires, but they are not user friendly and using a CO² in indoor confined spaces with poor ventilation is not safe and must be avoided.

Despite this AFFF Foam extinguishers are everywhere and along with a CO² extinguisher, the 61 foam is by far the most popular extinguisher on the market.

Now we have a problem. The chemicals in the foam, some additives in water and wet chemical extinguishers too have been found to be harmful. The EU/UK are in discussions to ban PFAS and this will mean the end of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foams and many water with additive and wet chemical extinguishers.

Moreover, during the transition period to whatever comes next, we are now all having to pay someone to have the contents of these extinguishers incinerated to comply with tougher environmental laws. Water companies are under increasing pressure too to clean up the water and so it is not clear if Fluorine Free Foams now in use will be allowed to be put down the drains. We believe that they won’t be exempt and will also need to be incinerated.

Back to basics with Fire Ratings?

We have fire extinguishers to protect our means of escape when there is a fire. That’s right, isn’t it? There may be a narrow window of opportunity before a small fire turns into a larger one for us to use the extinguisher and extinguish the fire.

The fire ratings indicate the size of fire that extinguishers can put out. These ratings are tested on very large fires. They are witnessed by third party approval bodies under controlled conditions with the firefighters covered from top to bottom with PPE and using appropriate breathing apparatus to stay safe. We have witnessed some of these tests and can categorically say that human beings should not even get close or attempt to extinguish these larger fires if they occur in a real setting.

Think about the speed dial on your car. Do you ever push the pedal to 200mph?

What about the volume button on your Music System or TV do you ever have it at the maximum level?

So, have we as manufacturers lost sight of this central objective in our pursuit of better fire ratings? Almost certainly it feels that way.

Have most of us been adding chemicals to water to help us achieve higher fire ratings? Was this done to demonstrate superior extinguishing performance amongst manufacturers, whilst reassuring you the public, that you can be safer in a real fire situation with the extra firefighting performance capability THAT YOU DON’T REALLY NEED AND ARE UNLIKELY TO EVER USE?

If you believe this statement, then you should be cautious about what comes next.

I say this because the chemicals that are now going into these alternative products are achieving fire ratings to an equivalent or even higher level than the ones containing PFAS we are being told to remove.

Manufacturers are now selling Fluorine Free, Environmentally or Eco Free Foams in place as an alternative. Ask yourself if we really need these foams and how do we know we will not be back in a similar position in 10 years’ time with the same kind of problems we now have with AFFF Foams.

In summary most of this rhetoric continues to deflect our thoughts away from using an extinguisher on small fires to protect our means of escape. It’s not real, is it?

Only trained professional firefighters wear PPE, don’t they?

In this era of protecting our planet we have an opportunity to reset and get back to basics, to re affirm that plain water with NO CHEMICALS or ANY OTHER ADDITIVE, delivered using new technologies, in the form of millions of tiny droplets is the best medium for fighting small fires and keeping all of us safer while better protecting our properties and livelihoods. ITS TIME FOR WATER MIST.

Change to One Multi Risk Extinguisher. De-Mystifying the Myths.

Traditionally as stated previously fire points have consisted of a CO² extinguisher combined with a foam or a water based additive extinguisher or with just plain water. In kitchens the first choice has usually been a wet chemical extinguisher.

It doesn’t have to be this way any longer. One Jewel water mist extinguisher that has also passed the electrical conductivity test can now replace the two that were there before in most everyday indoor scenarios. Jewels water mist extinguishers have been tested on Class B fires previously covered by AFFF foams. They are also suitable for Kitchen environments because they have leading Class F ratings so there is no need to combine a wet chemical extinguisher with a CO² as both risks are covered with one extinguisher.

There has been much written about the dangers of using water on electrical equipment and on fat fires. Third party approval bodies are more than happy to endorse products to EN3-7 that have passed the electrical conductivity test for electrical risks and similarly for class F tests that they have witnessed.

Let’s be very clear about this, if the products are tested and approved, with the appropriate training undertaken there are no safety issues with using water mist extinguishers on either class of fire.

Approaches to effecting change are sometimes referred to as top down or bottom up. Sticking with the status quo for reasons of conformity can be a fallback position and is probably the biggest stumbling block to meaningful change.

Ultimately success will always depend on the perception of the user and the practical difficulties experienced in adopting changing behaviours or practices.

When we at Jewel Fire Group developed our groundbreaking E Series water mist extinguisher range, we had this attitude to change at the forefront of our development.

We asked what do you want from a fire extinguisher?

We had two clear goals. To make a product that was Totally Green without additives and safer in every way than using conventional extinguishers, and to make a truly Multi Risk extinguisher to ensure that the user would not have to think about which type of fire it can be discharged onto when you pick it up to use it.

Water Mist v Water Spray what’s the difference?

Water Sprays, Hydro Sprays, Aqua Sprays are these not the same as water mist, we hear you ask? The short answer is no.

These types of extinguishers will most likely include additives to secure better fire ratings. While most have usually passed the electrical conductivity test, many are not tested for class B or class F fires.

There is a more important difference however, that is the size of the water droplet upon discharge which influences the ability to clear smoke and improves the extinguishers cooling capabilities making it suitable for class F fires.

Jewel Fire Groups water mist extinguishers produce a droplet size of 25-50 microns. Micron sizes for water sprays typically range from 350 to 500 microns.

A smoke particle is between 0.1 and 1.0 micron so the lower the micron size of the water droplet the better it will be for the extinguisher to clear smoke and most people who die in fires do so because of smoke inhalation rather than getting burnt.

New E Series Water Mist Development.

We are delighted to announce that we can now offer a 21 water mist product with fire ratings 8A, 8B, 25F. A very powerful multi risk smaller extinguisher that is ideal for domestic use at home as well as many other everyday indoor commercial settings where space is at a premium.

We are also now able to offer our fantastic 61 water mist product with the same fire ratings 13A, 21B, 75F but in a more familiar and smaller 61 cylinder making it lighter than our original 61 water mist in a 91 cylinder.

The fire industry is entering into a period where changes to environmental legislation and concerns for the planet are continuing to increase and will shape the demand for portable fire extinguishers going forward.

Jewel is at the forefront of this change with its new range of water mist extinguishers continuing to lead. Aqueous Firefighting Foams will soon fade away, alternatives with other chemicals will soon be available to take their place but, further down the line, they may bring with them the same problems that AFFF extinguishers have left us with now.

Let’s take this opportunity and make a positive change to make it safer for us all and for the environment. It’s a time for change; it’s a time for less is more.

It’s time for a safer, cleaner and a truly greener alternative. ITS TIME FOR WATER MIST.