Fire Blankets BS6575

[Keith Tarbuck]

Can I have some feed back regading the inspection of Fire Blankets? who should carry out the inspection and how often? do you have to use an out side accredited company?

[AnthonyB]

Fire Blanket maintenance is usually annual & your extinguisher servicing company should automatically do this, ideally at a lower unit cost (wishful thinking), & affix a service label.

what do you look for?:
- Fraying, tears, delamination, bobbling, disintgration, stifening of fabric showing effects of environment & age which wouldrisk blanket failure of fail to drape
- missing or damaged pull/grab tapes
- fabric being coated or soaked in grease or other contaminant (common in kitchens where the container is open or has the lid missing)
- evidence of use on a fire

Any of these will fail a blanket and require a new one. Also look for

- location (easy to get too, not above the risk)
- still adequate for risk (have fryers over 300mm or 15  litres been introduced - provide wet chemical as well; is it a 3' x 3' blanket when the risk includes welding and the need to cover a person)

BS6575 is obsolete, as is the even older fabric test to BS475 on older blankets, BS 1869 is the current spec, however older standard blankets whilst they pass inspection may still be used, although beware on intense Class B or F fires they (particularly the old BS475 ones) have a lesser performance.

It is rare, but not impossible to still find asbestos blankets (I always seem too!!). Under no circumstances remove from container, but bag and seal container, add hazard markings and arrange specialist disposal

[Ken Taylor]

Some of the containers for these don't seem very good. The plastic seems to deform allowing the 'bottom plug' holding the blanket to come out, etc. I've come across inspecting officers wanting to sell replacement blankets for faults of this type - like those that used to condemn the blankets supplied in plastic bag holders because the bags were dirty.

[BikerJohn]

Have we answered his last part of the question? do you need to use an acredited company etc?

Any opinions on this guys? i have to say my line of thinking is the BS will just say you need to be comeptent person e.g. knowledge and experience. Cant really see a Fire Authority not accepting a common sense annual check of the blanket by the onsite maintenance engineer if he checks it as per the BS.

[AnthonyB]

Competent is the name of the game and could be done by persons without certified training without as much risk as extinguishers - if you have extinguishers you might as well have the blankets included in the service for what it costs and thus have the back up & liability shift from using certfied competent persons ideally from a third party accredited supplier.

If the only thing that you would be paying out for is blanket inspections & no extinguishers (which this case may be) there is an arguement for competent in house inspection.

Problem is there is no BS for blanket maintenance - the blanket standards are manufacture only & BS 5306-3 is only portable extinguishers, so if you are not in the job you don't know what to look for and are not competent....unless they use the list I provided above !

[Keith Tarbuck]

Many thanks for your response