Don’t Get Burned by Misleading Fire Extinguisher Maintenance Calls

Before authorizing life-safety work, know who is responsible, who is approved, and what has already been done.

“We’re your fire extinguisher company. We’d like to schedule your annual inspection. Would tomorrow be convenient?”

It sounds legitimate, so the office manager schedules the inspection. The technician arrives, inspects the extinguishers, attaches new inspection tags and sends an invoice.

Two months later, another company calls about the same inspection.

Then the building engineer arrives with the landlord’s fire extinguisher contractor to perform it again.

One extinguisher can end up being inspected multiple times simply because nobody verified who was responsible for the work or whether it was actually due.

Before You Schedule the Inspection

A few simple controls can prevent the problem:

• Check the lease. Determine whether fire extinguisher maintenance is the landlord’s or tenant’s responsibility.
• Know the authorized vendor. Staff should know which company is approved to perform the work.
• Check the inspection tag. Confirm when the extinguisher was last serviced and when the next inspection is due.
• Verify before authorizing. Don’t schedule work based solely on an unsolicited phone call.

Fire extinguishers are life-safety equipment, which is exactly why an unexpected service call can sound urgent and legitimate.

Leadership Takeaway: Know who owns the responsibility, who is authorized to perform the work, and how to verify that the service is actually due.