Fire protection for auto shops, salons & small business

What you are required to do

The hazards behind the counter

• Auto shops — fuel, oil, solvents, oxy-acetylene, battery charging and welding. Class B coverage at short travel distance, positioned at the bay rather than by the office door.
• Salons and barbers — aerosols, alcohol-based products, and a lot of heat-producing equipment left plugged in. Small but real, and usually under-covered.
• Nail salons — acetone and monomer in quantity. Genuinely flammable, and frequently stored next to the equipment that would ignite it.
• Dry cleaners — solvents, boilers and pressing equipment in a small footprint.
• Bakeries and food prep — ovens, fryers and grease. Anything under a hood puts you on the six-month suppression cycle.
• Trade and workshop units — dust, timber, finishes and hot work, all in the same room.

The monthly check applies to you too

OSHA does not exempt small employers. A two-person shop still has to inspect its extinguishers monthly and keep the record, and a missing log is a finding on its own. It genuinely takes thirty seconds per unit — is it there, is it visible, is the pin and seal intact, is the gauge in the green, is the tag current.

We set the log up at the annual visit and show you what you are looking at, so it is a routine rather than a thing to remember.

Landlord or tenant?

In a small leased unit this is the argument that surfaces during an inspection rather than before it. Common areas and building systems are usually the landlord's; the equipment inside your unit is usually yours. Check your lease, and if it is not clear, assume it is yours — an inspector writes up the occupant.