This article dives into what the fire safety standard, NFPA 10 covers, how to maintain compliance, and how technology can help.
What is the NFPA?
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating death, injury, and loss related to fire and electrical hazards. Established in 1896, the NFPA promotes research, training, education, and outreach regarding fire safety. Additionally, the NFPA is known for having more than 300 codes and safety standards published in an effort to accomplish their mission. This article will provide a deep dive into one of these safety standards, NFPA 10, explaining what it is, why it is significant, and how it can be followed.
What is NFPA 10?
Each of the National Fire Protection Association’s codes begin with “NFPA” and are followed by a number or number-letter combination that is a standard for a specific item related to safety.
NFPA 10 provides the minimum requirements for portable fire extinguishers to ensure they are maintained and are ready to be used to extinguish small fires. The NFPA 10 provisions apply to the selection, installation, inspection, maintenance, recharging, and testing of portable fire extinguishers and Class D extinguishing agents.
How Do I Stay Compliant With NFPA 10?
The requirements of NFPA 10 are broken down into multiple sections on inspection, maintenance, and testing, and in each section there are sub-requirements that stipulate mandatory procedures, necessary qualifications for those performing the work, the frequency of inspection and maintenance, and how to document what was done. Because the NFPA 10 standards require that all inspection and maintenance activities take place at predetermined intervals, it can be a lot of work to guarantee that the requirements relating to NFPA 10 are completed correctly and on time.
How Does InspectNTrack Software Help Me Maintain Compliance?
How Does InspectNTrack Software Help Me Maintain Compliance?
With InspectNTrack, the inspection and maintenance schedules are prebuilt and include forms and questions that are intended to ensure your compliance. All you have to do is add your portable fire extinguishers into the system through upload or mobile field setup and the system will tell you what to do and when to do it. The InspectNTrack software will keep you on top of all the requirements relating to the procedures, frequency, maintenance, and documentation of your portable fire extinguishers. Additionally, InspectNTrack stores inspection data and can print on-demand compliance reports in the event of an audit.
NFPA 10 is a valuable standard relating to portable fire extinguishers that, if followed, will help to protect your organization in the event of a small fire or electrical hazard. Making sure you are keeping up with NFPA 10 requirements can prove to be a confusing and costly task if you are not using life safety inspection software such as InspectNTrack. InspectNTrack does the work for you and will ensure your NFPA 10 compliance is as easy as possible, keeping you safe without the headache.
Conclusion
NFPA 10 is a fire safety standard that has been established by the National Fire Protection Association. Its purpose is to detail safety measures for the instillation, maintenance, and inspections of portable fire extinguishers. By following the guidelines outlined in NFPA 10, companies and organizations can best maintain their fire safety equipment and promote a safe environment. Keeping track of the locations of extinguishers along with their maintenance schedules can be tricky. To help with this, InspectNTrack simplifies fire extinguisher testing and offers many features and benefits that aid in compliance. For more information on how INT software can be a tool in your fire safety program, request a demo!
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