Extinguishers in blocks of flats

[Tom Sutton]

To quote G. K. Chesterton " There are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics".

Beware of quoting http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/lies.htm.   

[stevew]

Kurnel

I am surprised that you took the time to answer the point on hose reels.

[AnthonyB]

Hose reels were very popular up until the late 70's early 80's and since then they have rapidly declined in popularity.

They haven't been put in new builds for a considerable number of years now and in the buildings where they were put in during the 60's/70's the vast majority have been drained off or removed completely and this withdrawal continues over time in a pretty painless way as most buildings have extinguisher provision that discounts the hose reels so no extras are required.

The pros and cons have been done to death in several threads in this forum so I won't repeat them (again).

Although fiction 'The Towering Inferno' illustrates early on one of the flaws of hose reels in normal buildings - the users in this case would have long since evacuated safely if they had only messed around for 15 seconds with the US mainstay of the 5lb ABC Powder extinguisher

[Steven N]

I wish every extinguisher person was as sensible & trustworthy as Anthony, its a real pleasure to hear such good sense

[nearlythere]

An interesting one in the data was the use of a DP in student housing. A recipe for a mess or not?

[AnthonyB]

Literally! But more use in the untrained hand than a water or water and CO2 combination - although the secondary damage is notable and the respiratory effects a bit throat catching it isn't outright dangerous on most fires the students would encounter.