Extinguishers that are bolted onto moving equipment, such as forklifts or bulldozers, should be inspected more frequently for wear and tear.

The following information was sent to JB Safety & Rescue Services by Carla Andrews, a safety compliance officer at OSHA Arizona, who received it from a global mining company in Australia.

“A fire extinguisher located on a dozer exploded, throwing the extinguisher approx 20 meters from the machine. The brackets attached to the dozer had bolts protruding enough to induce wear and fatigue cracks on the cylinder itself which resulted in a catastrophic failure in the cylinder body. When installing the brackets to the machine, care should be taken to ensure that no part of the cylinder is touching an area that may cause rubbing and wear on the cylinder body.”

Fortunately in this instance, no one was injured….or worse.  But don’t wait for catastrophe to strike your jobsite.  Check all vehicular mounted extinguishers immediately and schedule them for frequent safety wear and tear inspections.  Ms. Andrews reports that her office recently found a similar situation on an extinguisher that was mounted on a jobsite forklift.

Remember:  fire extinguishers are small pressure vessels and exploding extinguishers can be deadly.

Contact JB Safety & Rescue Services to schedule professional fire extinguisher inspections.