At Safelincs, we provide a wide range of fire safety signs, including fire exit signs, fire extinguisher signs and no smoking signs. These signs are essential in every commercial and industrial building.
- Fire exit signs can inform everyone on your premises exactly where the designated fire exits are located. We can supply your business with photo-luminescent escape route marking and fire door signs which highlight the precise route for exiting the building.
- Fire extinguisher signs are various types of fire extinguisher, which are suitable for tackling different kinds of fires. Fire extinguisher signs can be mounted alongside a fire extinguisher to indicate which type it is, and help you to tackle a fire more safely and efficiently.
- No smoking signs and designated smoking area signs can contribute to your fire safety strategy. Whilst they cannot assist with escape route planning, these signs can remind people of the law and prevent the likelihood of a fire starting due to a lit cigarette.
For more information on our selection of fire safety signs or to place an order, please visit the fire safety signs section of our website.

The carbon monoxide poisoning is believed to have originated from the smouldering embers of a disposable BBQ, which was seen in the porch of their tent. Carbon monoxide can not be seen or smelt. It is paramount that in order to prevent tragic deaths like this, campers are made aware of the dangers of taking cooking equipment into tents for either cooking food or for warmth.

Camping in the UK is slowly changing, as the temperatures are remaining low longer and dropping at night. Anyone planning a camping holiday at this time of year should ensure that they have adequate bedding to keep warm at night and hat they have some form of outside cover to enable them to use BBQs and cookers a safe distance away from the tent, even when it is raining.

Taking a BBQ or cooker into a tent can cause the carbon monoxide to accumulate and linger even once the appliance has been removed. This can then render the occupants unconscious or even cause their death once they go to bed.

Our safety tips are simple: NEVER take a cooker or BBQ into your tent to cook food or as a source of warmth. ALWAYS cook a safe distance away from your tent to prevent any CO from being blown into your tent space.

Be aware of the symptoms of CO poisoning, such as headache, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness and irregular heart rate. If you or any person in your tent has these symptoms, seek medical advice.

For more information about carbon monoxide visit www.carbonmonoxideinfo.co.uk

When deciding where to install emergency lighting, take into account any hazards that there may be along the evacuation route, such as corners, stairways or uneven flooring. You must also ensure that exit signs, fire alarm call points and equipment used for fire fighting, such as extinguishers or fire blankets, are adequately illuminated to be easily seen or located. Fire exit signs and emergency lighting from Ringtail are one of the best ways of ensuring that the fire exit is as visible as possible.

As with all fire safety equipment, regular testing of your emergency lighting must be carried out to ensure that it is working correctly. You should test that the lights are triggered when the mains supply is cut, and also that all the lights are illuminated as they should be. You will need to test your lighting once a month and do a full discharge test once a year. Log the results as any other fire safety equipment tests.

More information can be found in our emergency lighting guide.

Fireproof anti-arson letterboxes offer the solution. They enclose the letter slot and catch all the post but also any burning objects or liquids  thrown through the letter opening. Some are also equipped with automatic fire extinguishers which suffocate any flames.

All our metal anti-arson mailboxes are lockable and all our mailboxes and mailbags come with a five-year warranty; so you can rest assured that they will last for many years to come.
The letterboxes are easy to install and offer essential protection for homes, businesses, educational establishments, religious buildings and many more organisations. All of our fireproof letterboxes have been tested by Warrington Fire Research; so you can relax in the knowledge that they will protect you when you need them to.

Blankets
A fire blanket is an excellent extinguisher for small fires that break out on hobs and in pans and should be present in every kitchen. A fire blanket excludes air from the fire, thereby starving it of fuel and extinguishing it. If a pan catches fire in your kitchen, turn off the heat (where possible without risk to you) and cover it entirely with the fire blanket. Always leave the fire blanket on the source of fire until everything has cooled down to room temperature! Do not be tempted to remove the fire blanket before cooling down fully, as hot fat might re-ignite.

Extinguishers
Another good fire extinguisher option for a small kitchen is an ABF rated foam fire extinguisher as it is ideal for tackling fires where fats are present. Larger kitchens will most likely require the specialist wet chemical fire extinguishers designed to deal with larger pan fires and industrial deep fat fryer fires. Another alternative are dry water mist fire extinguishers. These are excellent on fat fires but can also be used on almost all other fire risks found in a building and are entirely non-toxic, which is important in industrial kitchens. If you have expensive electrical items in your kitchen you might also like to consider buying a CO2 fire extinguisher as well as it will reduce any potential damage to your electrical appliances. CO2 extinguishers only contain an inert gas and do not leave any residues. Please note that CO2 fire extinguishers might still damage sensitive electronic equipment through thermal or electrostatic shock.

Alarms
If you enjoy cooking, you will know just how quickly a normal smoke alarm goes off when your kitchen fills up with steam and smoke or smoke billows into adjoining rooms. It is for this reason that kitchens should only be fitted with heat alarms. A heat alarm only triggers an alarm when the temperature rises above 50 to 60°Celsius or if the temperature rises rapidly, so you can rest assured that it will only sound when there is an actual fire. Rooms and hallways close to kitchens should be fitted with optical smoke alarms rather than ionisation alarms, as they are less prone to false alarms.

If you are unsure about the best fire safety for your property, please contact us and we will be happy to help.

AFFF extinguishers are painted red with a cream panel and are widely considered to be one of the best all-round units available. AFFF foam extinguishes and smothers flames when it is initially sprayed onto a fire. After this, it seals in combustible vapours under the film of foam and penetrates any absorbent materials, cooling the fire as the water in the foam evaporates. The spray nozzle on foam extinguishers allows a fire to be coated quickly and evenly. Furthermore, the spray of a foam fire extinguisher is non-conductive, therefore an AFFF extinguisher can be safely used near (but not directly on) live electrical equipment.

Foam is particularly effective on Class A fires (those involving paper, wood, etc) so they are a very good choice for offices or similar environments which contain a lot of fabrics. When used on flammable liquid fires (Class B), AFFF foam forms a film that prevents re-ignition of the flammable liquids by sealing the liquids off from oxygen. Class B fires also include man-made fibres which might liquefy in the heat of a fire.

1) wet chemical extinguishers

2) fire blankets

3) dry water mist extinguishers

4) ABF fire extinguishers

5) Foam Aerosols

Wet chemical extinguishers

Wet chemical fire extinguishers are usually supplied with a long lance which helps to safely deploy the foam. The wet chemical forms a thick soapy foam-like blanket over the surface of the burning oil/fat which stops oxygen from reaching the fire and smothers the flames. This process is known as saponification, which is an endothermic process that not only ensures that the additive penetrates the fat/oil and creates a seal, but also cools it to below the ignition temperature, thus preventing the oil/fat from re-igniting

Fire blankets

Fire blankets are spread over the burning pot or pan and exclude oxygen which suffocates the fire. It is crucial to leave the fire blanket on top of the container even when the flames have gone, as the hot fat would re-ignite again should the blanket be removed.

Dry Water mist extinguishers

Portable dry water mist extinguishers create a microscopic mist with low pressure which settles onto the surface of the fire without sinking in. As the water droplets evaporate above the surface, the fire cools and oxygen is excluded. Dry water mist also protects the user from the flames, as the mist forms a heat barrier.

ABF fire extinguishers

These extinguishers resemble a normal fire extinguisher and contain a foam suitable for burning fat.

Aerosols

Whilst formally not classified as extinguishers, these foams are a low cost solution for domestic kitchens with cooking oil.

Most schools are very good at carrying out fire drills on a regular basis but do the drills go far enough to be useful to highlight any difficulties that may occur in the event of a real fire? The usual procedure for a fire drill is to set off the alarm system and evacuate the children out of the building as quickly as possible. This is good practice and familiarises both pupils and staff with the routine but where is the fire situated from which they are evacuating?

These common fire drills do not take into account that one or more exits may be blocked in the event of a real fire and that an alternative route may need to be used. Teachers who have always used the same exit door in a drill may panic if this exit is blocked by a real fire and may not be able to lead the pupils to safety.  It is essential that different exits are blocked in a drill to ensure that it is second nature for the teachers and pupils to use an alternative route.

A fire drill where an exit is blocked may highlight that in actual fact there is only one escape route and that a window may then need to be utilised as exit point. If the window is double glazed and does not open fully it may be necessary to have an emergency escape hammer fitted near the window. If the room is not on the ground floor there may be a need to install an external fire escape ladder.

Increase the scope of your next fire drill and simulate a fire blocking an exit point. It can be as simple as someone standing at the exit door waving their arms saying “this exit is blocked by fire”.

Luckily, there is an easy solution available. Heat alarms or heat detectors work by detecting either rapidly rising temperatures or trigger when a certain temperature is reached. Heat detectors do not get set off by steam or smoke or the normal cooking tempreatures. The thermistor in the heat detector head only detects the temperature changes mentioned above and ignores all other influences.

To notify the rest of the house of a fire in the kitchen you do not need to rely solely on the siren in the heat detector. You can interconnect the heat detectors with other smoke alarms in the house either with wire or through radio-frequency. The latter avoids you having to lay cables between alarms.

Heat detectors are also installed in garages and other areas where smoke or gases are present (with exception of bathrooms).

More information about the workings of heat detectors and other smoke alarms can be found in our smoke alarm guide.