Fire suppression

[DavidR8]

Hi all, I'm not sure how many of you have multi-purpose shops. I do some welding and a ton more grinding and am only now thinking about fire suppression.
What do you have for extinguishers in your shops? Where are they mounted?

 

[eugene13]

I have one dry chemical ex that I got from costco, it's mounted by the sink. Fire prevention is more important then fire suppression, I take out the trash every day and never allow fire hazards to develop, sparks from welding or grinding are always directed in a safe direction, and flammable liquids are kept in a special cabinet. A clean shop is a safe shop.

 

[pontiac428]

I have ABC extinguishers in every corner, and keep a fresh bucket of water nearby when I weld that doubles as a quench. I am preparing to sheet the interior walls in my new shop, and will be putting a hardie board skin over the finished walls in the corner where the welding and grinding hot work stuff goes. Drywall would work equally well, but the hardie is cheaper. A fire would be devastating, especially if it hits the oxygen bottles or stoddard solvent tank (I cover the latter with a fire retardant sheet to prevent spark entry). Stoddard is hard to light, but once it's lit it is fuel. I also have a flammables locker. The most important part of my fire prevention scheme is being 400' from the fire station...

 

[Bob Korves]

The best places for fire extinguishers is near the doors. Your first thought should be your personal safety. When you get to the extinguisher, you can choose to grab it and fight the fire, or to get the hell out of there...

 

[francist]

Two 5-pound dry chems, one at the bottom of the stairs to go up and out, and one by the exterior door to get straight out. Two smoke detectors, one on each side of a partial glass partition wall. My shop is in my basement. I have all-round vinyl curtains that I can magnet to the ceiling for when I weld, but I try to avoid serious grinding indoors if I can.

-frank

 

[f350ca]

I've seriously considered installing a sprinkler system in the shops. I keep the building heated and have a water line running from the house, so its doable. Haven't thought about it for a while, but when I looked into it the sprinkler heads aren't that expensive.

Greg

 

[Superburban]

I have over a dozen 20 LB CO2 fire extinguishers, a few smaller ones, and for backup, several dry chems.I have them located outside every door of the house, and shop. One in the kitchen, and several located strategically throughout the shop. Every year, I pick an old CO2 ext, and use it for training everybody in the house on its use, and give them all a chance to use it. then I get it tested, and refilled.

 

[Nutfarmer]

House keeping is the most important thing to do. In the shop hot work and rags can be a problem. Fire extinguisher is every helpful. A small fire by the time the fire department arrives is a big fire. Be careful with fire sprinklers. Water damage can be worse than the fire damage. Most of house fires I have been to have been kitchen fires ,wood stoves not properly installed,or the home looks like a hoarder lives there. One thing a lot of people forget is the outside defensable area. Keep a hundred foot area around your house clear of dry grass or other flash fuel. Here in California in the summer home are more at risk from wild fire than from a fire starting inside. I have been on strike teams sent out to protect homes. If there are twenty or thirty homes in the fires path and only one fire engine you are going to try and save as many homes as you can. The sad truth is there are times if a house is already on fire or has dry brush or grass right up to it

 

[Aaron_W]

I have a 5lb ABC mounted by the door, there is a second ABC and a 2-1/2 gallon pressurized "water can" that will be mounted on my welding cart when it is done. I do all welding outside the shop, so I like the extinguishers to follow the welder.

I have a basement shop so I added a smoke detector in a location under the living room / dining room with the hope that it might be heard up stairs.

Since there is only one exit from the shop I'm thinking about mounting a second extinguisher near the back just in case, and now that they have "smart detectors" I'm looking at adding another smoke detector that will send an alarm to my phone.


I try to be really good about shop housekeeping, at least in regards to combustibles / flammables storage and disposal. When I'm doing something that could potentially leave hot stuff hidden away, I make a point to hang out for a bit in the shop to hopefully catch anything that got where it shouldn't have got. I covered over the crummy (and more combustible) particle board wall covering with 5/8 sheet rock. Not only more appealing to look at, but also more fire resistant. Flammable liquids cabinets are very expensive, so I haven't done that, but I do keep them stored in in one area where they don't get exposed to potential ignition sources and it would be obvious if they were leaking.

In addition to the fire extinguishers there is the fire engine in the driveway... what doesn't everyone keep a fire engine by their shop?


As a retired firefighter, a fire would not only be devastating, but also professionally embarrassing.

Fire prevention is more important then fire suppression,

Absolutely, and it is a boring chore that seems an utter waste of time and money when it works (and no fires occur).

 

[Boswell]

I am getting ready to rework some of my shop and want to use 3/4 Plywood as the wall covering. Any suggestions on how to make it more fire-retardant? Is there a fire retardant paint that can be used?