Indiana Fire Extinguisher Requirements for Evansville Businesses

Indiana starts with NFPA 10 and makes its own changes

NFPA 10 is the national extinguisher standard, and it's the starting point almost everywhere. Indiana writes NFPA 10 into its own fire code with some changes of its own. Two of those changes matter most to a business owner. The yearly service has to be done by qualified people, and the number of extinguishers you need and where they go is set by the Indiana Fire Code.

What that means in plain terms is that an Evansville building is held to Indiana's version, not Kentucky's, even when the company doing the work is from Kentucky. It's also why we don't try to answer "how many do I need" with a rule of thumb from somewhere else. We match the extinguisher to the hazard, and the inspector has the final say on count and placement.

What "qualified" means for the yearly work

The yearly service isn't a walk down the hallway with a clipboard. A qualified tech handles every extinguisher, checks it inside and out, weighs the ones without a gauge, and makes sure each one fits what's around it. Some years there's more to it. Every six years, stored-pressure dry chemical extinguishers are discharged and get an internal examination before they're recharged, and cylinders come due for a hydro test on their own schedule.

When you look at the extinguishers on your walls, it's fair to ask, how do you know the work actually got done? After six-year work or a recharge, a new verification collar ring goes on under the valve, and that ring only goes on with the valve off. When the yearly work comes due, that's our fire extinguisher service in Evansville.

The workplace side of it

Indiana also runs its own workplace safety program, called IOSHA, and if you have employees, it has a say too. IOSHA expects the extinguishers you provide for your employees to get a monthly check and a yearly maintenance check. The monthly check is something your own people can do. It's a quick look to make sure each extinguisher is where it belongs, charged, and easy to get to. The yearly one is ours.

Employees get extinguisher training when they start and every year after that, so the people on the floor know where the extinguishers are and how to use one. That training is something we can do for you on site.

How long to keep the records

Indiana wants extinguisher inspection records kept on the premises, and the rule we've seen says for at least two years. Keep your monthly log and your yearly reports together in the building, somewhere the next manager can find them. We leave a report. That report is what you show the inspector when they ask whether the yearly work has been done.

What the Evansville Fire Department does

The Evansville Fire Department has a code enforcement side, and its goal is to inspect commercial, educational, and medical buildings every year. The fire department may also ask for extinguisher inspection reports to be filed with it after service. If you've gotten a letter or an email about that, give us a call and we'll help you sort out what they're asking for.

When the inspector walks your building, extinguishers are one of the easy things to look at. They'll want to see one where it should be, with nothing stacked in front of it, and the right kind for the room. In a restaurant, they'll spend some time on the cook line. The ABC extinguishers around the building work on grease, but a commercial cook line also gets a Class K. The hood system over the line is serviced every six months, and our techs can work while the kitchen is cooking. Dry chemical systems are serviced every six months as well. If you've got sprinklers, we handle those through a sprinkler company we work with.

Getting it done from Princeton

We work Evansville out of our Princeton, Indiana shop at 213 S Hall St, and our Princeton trucks are in Evansville more than once a week. The techs are ICC certified and factory trained, and they come in a company truck and in uniform. We're licensed and fully insured. Your doors stay open while we inspect. We recharge on site when we can. Our trucks carry loaners. If an extinguisher has to come back to the shop, a loaner goes up in its place until yours is back. We keep up with the date. The Evansville page has everything else we do in town.