Most workplaces have fire extinguishers on the wall. Fewer have thought about why they are there, who is expected to use them, and what the employer has to do to keep that choice lawful. In California the answer sits in Title 8, section 6151, and it is more specific than the red cylinder by the door suggests.
Who the section covers
Subsection (a) says the requirements apply to “the placement, use, maintenance, and testing of portable fire extinguishers provided for the use of employees.” The key words are the last five. The section is triggered by a decision to put extinguishers in employees’ hands, not by the mere presence of a fire hazard.
The evacuate-only option, and its limit
Subsection (b)(1) gives an employer a real alternative. Where the employer has a written fire safety policy that requires the immediate and total evacuation of employees when the fire alarm sounds, backed by an emergency action plan and a fire prevention plan meeting sections 3220 and 3221, and extinguishers are not available in the workplace, the employer is exempt from section 6151.
The exemption closes with a clause that is easy to miss: it does not apply where “a specific Section in Title 8 requires that a portable fire extinguisher be provided.” Other orders, for work such as hot work, fuel dispensing or certain construction operations, carry their own extinguisher requirements. An evacuate-only policy does not switch those off. Before relying on (b)(1), check every operation on the site against the orders that govern it.
The exemption also only works if the policy is real. If employees are in fact expected to grab an extinguisher, or extinguishers are hanging on the walls, the evacuate-only claim will not hold up.
Placement and travel distance
Subsection (c)(1) requires the employer to “mount, locate and identify” extinguishers so that they are readily accessible to employees “without subjecting the employees to possible injury.” An extinguisher behind pallets, in a locked room or past the hazard it is meant to address does not meet that test.
Subsection (d) sets maximum travel distances by class of fire:
- Class A (ordinary combustibles): 75 feet or less to any extinguisher, under (d)(2).
- Class B (flammable liquids): 50 feet or less from the Class B hazard area, under (d)(4).
- Class D (combustible metals): 75 feet or less from the combustible metal working area to the extinguishing agent, under (d)(6).
These are travel distances, not straight-line distances. Walk the route an employee would actually take, around racking and through doors, and measure that.
Monthly and annual checks
Subsection (e)(2) requires a visual inspection of each portable extinguisher monthly. Subsection (e)(3) adds an annual maintenance check, and it attaches a record: the employer “shall record the annual maintenance date and retain this record for one year after the last entry or the life of the shell, whichever is less,” and the record must be available to the Chief on request.
In practice the monthly look is often done and the annual record is the one that goes missing. A tag on the extinguisher is only useful if someone can produce the history behind it.
Hydrostatic testing
Subsection (f) governs periodic hydrostatic testing of the shell. The employer must assure that the testing “is performed by trained persons with suitable testing equipment and facilities.” That is a service vendor function for most employers, but the obligation to see that it is done stays with the employer.
Training: two separate duties
Subsection (g) is where many programs fall short, because it contains two different requirements.
- Under (g)(1) and (g)(2), where extinguishers are provided for employee use, the employer must provide an educational program on “the general principles of fire extinguisher use and the hazards involved with incipient stage fire fighting,” at initial employment and at least annually after that. This applies to the workforce generally.
- Under (g)(3) and (g)(4), employees designated to use fire fighting equipment as part of the emergency action plan must be trained in the use of the appropriate equipment, on initial assignment and at least annually after that.
An annual slide on the PASS method may satisfy neither if it never addresses when not to fight a fire, and it certainly does not cover the designated responders who are expected to act.
A short checklist
- Decide, in writing, whether employees will use extinguishers or evacuate. Make the emergency action plan and fire prevention plan match that decision.
- If relying on evacuate-only, confirm no other Title 8 order requires an extinguisher for an operation on site.
- Walk the travel distances by class of hazard, including Class B and Class D areas.
- Keep the monthly inspections and the annual maintenance record, and know where the record is.
- Deliver the general education annually, and separately train the designated responders named in the emergency action plan.
Michael Karl McNeil, M.S., REP, RIH, EPP, QSD, is a former Fire Battalion Chief and the principal of McNeil Safety Consulting. He writes emergency action and fire prevention plans for employers across California and twelve more Western states.
This article is general information, not legal advice. The text of the regulation controls.
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