If you run a plant, a warehouse, a store, a school, or an office around Princeton, sooner or later somebody asks the question. Does OSHA make us train people on fire extinguishers? A safety lead asks it after an audit. An HR manager asks it while building a new-hire checklist. An owner asks it after a small fire in the break room that turned out fine but could have gone the other way.
The short answer is yes, if you’ve put extinguishers out for your people to use. Here’s how it works, laid out the way we’d explain it at the counter in our shop.
It starts with one question about your building
OSHA doesn’t start by asking how many employees you have. It starts by asking what you expect your people to do when a fire starts.
If you’ve hung extinguishers on the wall and you expect your people to grab one, then you owe them training. That’s the case for a lot of shops, plants, and stores. The extinguishers are there for employees, so the employees have to know how to use them.
Some workplaces go the other way. Their plan says pull the alarm and get out, and nobody fights a fire. If that’s your building, and you have a written emergency plan and fire prevention plan that say so, the federal training rules for extinguishers look different. But think about this. What if the fire is between your people and the door? Somebody may need to grab an extinguisher and knock it down enough to get out. That’s why we think everybody should know how to use a fire extinguisher the right way, whatever your plan says.
The rest of this article is about workplaces where people are expected to pick up an extinguisher.
When the training is due
Training is due at hire and every year after that. That’s it. A new person gets it when they start, and everybody gets it again each year.
The same goes for anybody you move onto a fire team. They get trained when they’re assigned, and then every year. People forget what they don’t practice, and a year is a long time to go without holding an extinguisher.
Who has to be trained
This is where employers get tripped up. If you’ve put extinguishers out for your people to use, the training is for all of your employees, not just a few.
Some places also pick a handful of folks per shift to be a fire team. Those folks need hands-on training with the equipment they’ll actually use. But that doesn’t let everybody else off the hook. Everybody needs the basics. What an extinguisher does, how you use one, and the risks of fighting a fire that’s just getting started.
At a typical Princeton-area plant, we train everyone. A fire doesn’t wait for the right person to walk by.
What the training has to cover
OSHA doesn’t hand you a script. It asks that your people understand the general principles of using an extinguisher and the hazards of fighting a fire in its early minutes. In plain terms, that’s two things.
One is the how. Which extinguisher fits which fire, how far back to stand, where to aim, and how long the thing actually sprays. It’s shorter than most people think.
The other is the when. A small trash can fire is one thing. A fire that’s climbing the wall, filling the room with smoke, or sitting between you and the door is another. Your people need to know when to fight and when to leave and call 911. If you want that decision laid out step by step, read in case of fire, just remember the 3 A’s.
Does a certificate count?
Here’s a fair question to ask about any training you’re paying for. When your people walk out, have they actually put out a fire? A slideshow and a printed certificate aren’t the same thing as having done it. When a fire starts on the floor, the paper on the wall doesn’t help anybody’s hands.
That’s why we do it live. Our live-fire extinguisher training article covers what that looks like.
Training isn’t the same as extinguisher service
One more thing people mix up. Training is for your people. The extinguishers on your walls still need to be inspected and serviced every year, and a class doesn’t change that. We handle both, and you can read about the service side on our fire extinguishers page.
Getting it done from Princeton
You don’t have to send anybody anywhere. Classes come to your property. You pick the spot, and we bring everything. Your people train on the same kind of extinguisher they’d grab on the job, and we stay until everybody who needs it has done it.
We work the Princeton area out of our Princeton, Indiana shop at 213 S Hall St. That shop also covers Evansville, Vincennes, Washington, and Mount Carmel. Our techs are ICC certified, factory trained, and they show up in a white company truck and in uniform.
To set up a class, see our fire safety training page, or call 1-800-348-9604 and tell us where you want it and how many people need to go through.
Princeton training questions
- Does OSHA require fire extinguisher training?
- If you provide extinguishers for your people to use, yes. They need it when they’re hired and every year after that.
- How often is fire extinguisher training required?
- At hire, or when someone joins a fire team, and then every year.
- Do you come to us?
- Yes. We do the class on your property.
- Does training replace our yearly extinguisher service?
- No. You need both.