This Safety Alert serves as a reminder to vessel owners/operators and fire safety equipment servicing companies to use caution when replacing components on hand portable fire extinguishers. While examining the activities surrounding a fire onboard a vessel, Coast Guard investigators from Sector Hampton Roads learned of the failure of a hand portable 15 pound (lb) Carbon Dioxide (CO2) extinguisher. During a fire-fighting event, a crewmember attempted to use a 15 lb CO2 extinguisher, but the extinguisher failed to properly discharge and only seeped from the neck of the extinguisher. The fire was extinguished by another crewmember using a dry-chemical fire extinguisher. The investigators had the extinguisher examined at a fire-fighting equipment service center. They determined that the hose and discharge horn had been replaced at an earlier time. The end of the hose screws on to a diffuser on the side of the discharge valve/handle assembly of the extinguisher. The diffuser is a ported protrusion on the male end of a ninety degree fitting. On the side of the protrusion are orifices through which the CO2 flows. The examination revealed that the spherical end of the protrusion, which contains no orifices, bottomed out against the orifice in the connection fitting that leads to the hose and horn assembly. The flow of CO2 was thus completely blocked. CLICK HERE for this Safety Alert from the U.S. Coast Guard.
