Andy Spence, Joint Managing Director at Britannia Fire, explains how composite fire extinguishers are changing the face of fire suppression.
“Launched 15 years ago, Britannia Fire’s innovative P50 composite fire extinguishers have revolutionised the market. With demand growing, we have ceased our metal fire extinguisher production and re-focussed our entire business on composite models.
Composite fire extinguishers are made from a unique combination of durable plastic and aramid fibres. As a result, they are strong, lightweight and don’t corrode. Crucially, composite models don’t need an annual service, just a simple visual check by a responsible member of staff and a refurbishment after 10 years. Today, we have a raft of customers undergoing their first refurbishments, with sales continuing to outstrip supply.
So why are facilities managers making the switch? They are principally driven by three types of savings: cost-savings due to vastly reduced servicing needs and number of units required; time-savings thanks to simpler checks and maintenance; and finally significant carbon-savings to help meet sustainability targets.
An end to costly servicing
Historically, the fire extinguisher market has been dominated by metal products manufactured cheaply in China. The problem with metal is that the casing can rust and seals can degrade, causing leaks or faults. For safety reasons, annual servicing is recommended, coming at a significant cost and inconvenience to the customer.
Composite designs don’t corrode, so have totally changed servicing timescales. P50s just need an annual visual check carried out by a competent member of staff. They have a life-span of 20 years, and only need a full service and refurbishment once during this time, after 10 years.
Anglian Water has been using P50s for the last decade. Many of its extinguishers are located in isolated plants and hard to reach sites, which made annual servicing difficult before they made the switch, as Michelle Ketley explained at the time:
“It was a logistical nightmare for us to bring them in, get them serviced and then get them back out to remote sites, whilst all the time leaving us vulnerable to fire whilst they were away from site. It has been a massive cost and time saving for Anglian Water.”
Fewer extinguishers
As well as saving on servicing costs, P50s have the added benefit that they are multi-purpose. Both the water mist and fluorine-free foam versions are suitable for Class A and electrical fires up to 1000V, with the P50 ECO foam additionally suitable for Class B and Class F fires. This means that one or the other is suitable in most locations, and that CO2 extinguishers for suppressing electrical or class B fires, are often no longer required. Many of our new customers can reduce the number of extinguishers they need by half, saving costs.
The University of Brighton has a community of 2500 staff and 20,000 students, many of whom live on site, so fire safety is a top priority. Fire Safety Manager, Nick Greenwood, comments:
“The P50 is suitable for a multitude of fires, including electrical fires, meaning we only needed one at every fire point rather than two. The cost savings were huge. We cut the number of fire extinguishers needed by half and have not had to fork out for expensive third-party servicing over the last 10 years, saving over £200,000.”
London’s Heathrow Airport is another customer that has benefitted from replacing its multiple sets of two extinguishers with single P50 Foam multi-purpose units. This, along with reduced servicing costs, has saved the airport more than £1m.
A sustainable solution
Finally, over and above the cost, time and convenience factors, composite fire extinguishers are also much kinder to the environment. They have a 20 year life-span, are easy to recycle, and require less energy to produce. Our P50 production process emits 22% less carbon than metal alternatives and is partially powered by solar energy.
Our entire P50 range is also free from harmful PFAS chemicals, which are typically found in traditional foam extinguishers. These ‘forever chemicals’ don’t break down in the environment and can be toxic. Europe has already announced a ban on firefighting foams containing PFAS and the UK is expected to follow suit in the coming months.
We’re proud to have disrupted the market with a product that delivers far-reaching benefits. We’ve proved it’s possible to provide affordable, convenient, high-quality fire safety, while minimising impact on the environment.”
