Frequently Asked Questions

Halon/BCF extinguishers, typically recognized by their yellow cylinders, have been not been manufactured or serviced in New Zealand since the1990s due to their catastrophic ozone depleting effects.  However, once they could no longer be serviced, many were moved from workplaces to barns, workshops, homes, baches, caravans, boats and small aircraft.

We're pleased to inform you that the Fire Protection Association NZ, in collaboration with its members, is organizing an export scheme for safe and legal disposal of these units.

This voluntary disposal scheme, which has occurred previously, will be the final organized disposal. Following this shipment, the fire protection industry will no longer handle Halon withdrawal, necessitating individual arrangements for disposal. 

While exact pricing is TBA, we are assured this will be the most cost-effective disposal option in the foreseeable future.  If you possess Halon extinguishers for disposal, send us photos of the cylinders and any identifying numbers. We'll contact you with pricing details once available. Disposal is scheduled for sometime in the last four months of 2024.

There is a next generation product available. The new product is 96% less ozone depleting, but is still heavily regulated.  If you require a product with similar characteristics to Halon for an aircraft, get in touch as we can supply this next generation product in certain circumstances and where the regulatory requirements are met. 

In most circumstances, yes. Fire service data shows that in New Zealand the vast majority of fires are extinguished without fire service intervention with extinguishers, safely, with minimal property loss and no risk exposure to firefighters.

Because of this most building types are required by law to keep their equipment maintained. Additionally, insurance requirements and health and safety law often oblige business owners to keep their extinguishers serviced by a qualified professional.

Servicing is like a regular check-up that ensures your equipment is ready for emergency use. Fire extinguishers are pressurised cylinders and therefore vulnerable to changes that may not be noticeable just by looking at them, but can render them inoperable. Valuable time is then wasted in an emergency if attempts are being made to put out fires with non-functioning extinguishers.

The most common reasons for non-function are:

• rough treatment, horseplay or tampering has resulted in loss of propellant and/or extinguishant
• product faults or aging head assembly have allowed loss of propellant and/or extinguishant
•  bent or jammed handles
•  blocked or missing hoses
•  poor quality manufacturing rendering extinguishers inoperable
•  extinguishers missing altogether as a result of being moved or borrowed

Servicing will pick up on all these issues, and more. Many of them are easily remedied by repairs, or efforts to relocate missing equipment. Servicing will also pick up other issues, such as missing signage, obstructed extinguishers, or changes in hazards.

Have a look at what makes us your best choice for servicing your equipment, or get in touch to make an enquiry.

For most businesses the answer is yes. Some reasons include:

• Hazardous Substances: Many businesses handling even small quantities of flammable or hazardous substances, such as petrol, are required to have extinguishers by regulation.
• Insurance Requirements: Insurance companies recognise the importance of functional equipment in managing risk. As such, most commercial insurance agreements will require fire extinguishers to be installed and maintained to NZS 4503.
• Health and Safety Law: H&S law requires risks to people are minimised and equipment is provided for first aid in emergencies. Fire extinguishers have been proven internationally to be a key way to minimise the risk of fire to your staff, the public, and emergency responders, and are considered a vital piece of first aid fire equipment.

Want to know more? Get in contact and see what we can do for you.

Extinguishers have internationally demonstrated themselves as the safest way for people to deal with a fire that has just ignited - and in many situations on a vehicle this can be the difference between life and death. Common reasons for installing extinguishers on work vehicles are:

• Health and Safety: Under New Zealand health and safety law, work vehicles are a work place, and the same obligations for managing risk to people and providing first aid equipment apply. Extinguishers are a proven way to manage the risk of fire in vehicles.
• Specific Requirements: Many vehicle types are required by law or industry codes of practice to carry extinguishers, particularly if they carry passengers, or work with hazardous substances.
• Preventing Fire Spread: In many environments and vehicle types, an uncontained fire could be cause significant environmental or business loss that business don't want to be liable for. Extinguishers are the first step in managing that risk.

Want to know more? Get in touch today and let us help you.

Regulations state:

As part of the health and safety obligations of an employer, staff have adequate training or experience for the equipment and risks in the workplace. This includes first aid firefighting equipment.

What this looks like will vary depending on the risks and experience of your team and doesn't necessarily mean a lengthy or expensive training program.

Fire training is not a huge obstacle – it can be brief, affordable, and does not have to be repeated on any regular cycle for compliance. To help you keep your team doing what they do best, not stuck in training, we offer a full range of training solutions, from toolbox talks to live fire training at your site.

The emphasis is on equipping your staff practically to deal with fire in your workplace, while fitting in with your schedules and reducing downtime.

Completing an NZQA qualification is also not compulsory. However, for those who specifically wish to gain this qualification, we can point you in the direction of quality local providers who can arrange this for you.

Unfortunately we come across clients who have had Health and Safety audits and have been told that they can avoid training by taking out their extinguishers. This is incorrect, as the PCBU is now potentiall exposed to liability under the Health & Safety Regulations by increasing the risk to staff and first responders,Hazardous Substances Regulations and Insurance Obligations.

Let us take the pain out of fire training. Have a look at our options or contact us to learn more.

Any serviced extinguisher (or hose reel, or fire blanket) will have a yellow Service Record tag attached and it will have been punched with the numbers 1-5, depending on the service class it has received. This can tell us when the extinguisher last had an annual or six-monthly inspection, was refilled, or had a five-yearly pressure test.

If your tag only has permanent marker dots, round hole punch or nail punch holes, your extinguisher as not been inspected to the NZ Standard and is not compliant. This has been done by someone falsifying a service record.

If it has a metal, plastic or paper tag that has not been punched, it has not been inspected. These are factory issue tags attached at the point of manufacture. When an extinguisher is installed in New Zealand it has to be commissioned under the New Zealand Standard, and this will be reflected by the appropriate number for the class of inspection being punched in the tag reflecting the commissioning date.

Upon commissioning we remove all sharp-edged metal tags and replace them with recyclable polypropylene tags that are appropriate under the New Zealand Standard and will not cause injury to the user.

You are welcome to send us a picture of your tag if you are unsure and need help with interpretation.

The legal requirements for routine servicing do not apply to domestic users.

However many of our domestic customers, especially those in rural locations, choose to have fire extinguishers in their home. This is the recommendation of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand, as the majority of fires can be safely stopped in their incipient stages with the right equipment. This prevents damage to your property, and that of your neighbours.

For properties tenanted as part of employment, the health and safety obligations of a workplace may still apply, so get in touch with us to make sure your staff are safe.

Tenanted properties also have strict requirements for smoke alarms, which we can also help with!

Just as in a business situation, regular annual servicing is the best way to ensure they are ready for use when called upon.

Firewatch has been market leaders in environmentally friendly fluorine free foam extinguishers for many years now. This type of foam is not known to be toxic or environmentally persistent.

The substances of concern are a group of chemicals called PFAS, sometimes called forever chemicals. The two specific chemicals most implicated in environmental and health concerns are PFOS and PFOA.

PFOS was primarily used in a specific foam brand which has never been used in Firewatch foam extinguishers.

PFOA was used as an ingredient and manufacturing byproduct in foams which have long since been phased out. As some older foams break down they can also create small amounts of PFOA. This type of foam has not been used in Firewatch products since at least 2008, likely earlier.

As the industry realised the problems with PFOA, a new type of foam was developed that couldn't break down into PFOA, called C6 AFFF. The active ingredients in this foam are not known to have long term toxicity, be bioaccumulative, or carcinogenic and could be excreted from exposed persons quickly. Because of these reasons, C6 was the gold standard for environmentally friendly foam.

Due to environmental effects continued discharge of foams containing PFOS and PFOA at sites like airports and refineries, environmental regulators worldwide looked to phase out all fluorinated foam including C6 AFFF, and the industry again moved towards fluorine free foam that contains no PFAS, the new gold standard.

This represented a significant engineering challenge for equipment manufacturers, but Firewatch has proudly been front footing this transition since 2018, with most of our customers already completed with their transition to fluorine free foam extinguishers.

All remaining C6 AFFF in service will require an EPA permit after December 2025.

Need held with the transition? Get in touch today.

The fire rating of an extinguisher represents the size of the test fire the extinguisher could put out during product certification. These fires take place on purpose built test grounds and are of a very specific design for replicability, and are generally much, much larger than any fire that should be attempted to be extinguished with a portable extinguisher in the real world.

These ratings aren't perfect as the tests are often carried out outdoors (meaning environment plays a huge role), don't take into account the ease or difficulty of use of different extinguisher types, the advantages of extinguishers types, and the testers are professionals wearing fire-proof suits to allow them to get as close as possible to the fire.

As such it is best to get professional advice when selecting extinguishers to make sure all your risks are covered and the installation complies with NZS 4503:2005 and relevant regulations.