The amount of times we’ve seen people shutting off their fire alarms in their home or apartment just because it goes off when they cook food without turning on the fan over the stove is rather staggering. But it’s even worse when we see how many people just don’t even have fire suppression systems at all. At the very least if you are going to turn off your fire alarms, which is never recommended, you should have a fire extinguisher or sprinkler system in your rooms.
Of course then it’s a matter of determining how many fire extinguishers you should be running, or what about all the damage that would done from a sprinkler system going off! Well sprinkler systems going off are pretty rare unless there is actually a fire. They aren’t just triggered from smoke like smoke alarms are, they are based from getting actual heat, smoke and fire. So you won’t get a false alarm, unless you have one right above your stove or in your bathroom, which neither is recommended.
As for fire extinguishers, the best number for these in the house comes down to whether you can reach them quickly or not. The average family home would do well to have at least two, but factors like whether you have an upstairs or downstairs would insist you have a few more than that. If you have more than three bedrooms you probably want around three, if you have an upstairs and downstairs then four is recommended, one for each side of the house on both floors.
If you aren’t a home, then you most certainly need to have fire suppression in your business or wherever else you are. Generally, you actually need both sprinklers and fire extinguishers in a business, as the sprinklers are for all over fires and the extinguisher is for concentrated areas. Plus generally, with a business you have far more people than you ever would for a home, but if you are running your business out of the home, think of it the same way in terms of fire safety and suppression.
Remember, it is always better to be on the safer side when it comes to fire. That’s what we say at W & M Fire Protection!
