Fire Extinguisher Cabinets with Acrylic Full Front Windows

[Karin Roskam]

Just wondering how everyone is handling these since they seem to be they majority of what is being installed these days.  Looking on manufactuers website they are described as non-breakable.  BTW have you tried breaking one?  I have, unsuccessfully. It also appears the code does not support acrylic windows only scored glass.

What say You ? 🙂

6.2.1.3. (1) Portable extinguishers shall be located so that they are easily seen and shall be accessible at all times, except as permitted in Sentences (2) and (3).

(2) A lockable, break-front glazed cabinet may be used for security purposes to store portable extinguishers and where portable extinguishers are located in a fire hose cabinet, an approved lockable, scored glass break-front cabinet may be used.

[Joseph Gardiner]

Hello Karin,

I have seen these before and requested the owners replaced them with something their fire safety suppliers recommend. Most of the time this non-breakable transparent shield is installed by the owner who doesn’t know any better.

Hopefully this helps,

JoeG

[Karin Roskam]

Hello Joe,

Intersting while I was researching through one manufacturer, they had 215 styles of cabinets and only one of them had a glass window. All others were acrylic.

This makes it very hard for owners to actually comply with the code, and in the owners defense since the manufactuer is selling them this way the owner would believe they meet the fire code.

[John Wilson]

Karin, where did you copy that code reference from? It indicates two defined terms (the italics) but neither my hard copy Code nor the e-laws one has them as defined. It would be interesting to see what those definitions are.

Although the tail end of sentence clearly states ‘glass’, that appears specific to hose cabinets. If it’s a cabinet for only an extinguisher, then the scored acrylic should be fine. In reality, I’ve never seen an actual ‘glass’ one, only plastic.

[Karin Roskam]

Hi Jon

This was taken directly from the fire code on e-laws. However for the purposes of emphasis, I italicized the specific words in question, so you are correct they are not defined terms.

This specfic article applies to cabinets for fire extinguishers, not hose cabinets. Believe it or not they used to be glass with a metal striker attached to break the glass. Yes they existed like that, showing my age!

I took the challenge on to try and break the acryclic and as the manufactuers states, it is none breakable.  I even got my arm kind of trapped in there trying to pull the acrylic window off 🙂

I agree with you though the code clearly states glass.

 

 

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