SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20150310-2B195-1472756. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Kidde Model 30CUA10. Source model text: PRO 5 TCM-8. Incident: The department responded to a report of an outside fire at a retail grocery store. The Ambulance was the first unit to arrive and found bailed waste cardboard on fire against the exterior of the store. The staff on the Ambulance deployed the fire extinguisher from the Ambulance in an attempt to extinguish, if not at least slow the fire until the arrivial of the Engine Co. The firefighter pilled the pin, removed the hose and squeezed the handle. After some what of a brief delay the the powder "dribbled" out the end of the hose. She looked at the gauge which was still showing in the green. She again squeezed the handle and the agent slowly left the hose. She attempted to shake the hose towards the flames to get any powder to be useful. By this time the Engine Co. arrived and intiated suppresion, ultimately mitigating the incident. Our concern is we use extinguishers fairly often, obviously more than the general public. We inspect them frequently and store them in proper brackets, out of the weather. This situation ended without injury or major property damnage but easily could have ended differently should it occurred in a structure or confined space, or trapped occuopants.