Some fire extinguishers I've seen in France

EDIT: It seems the attachments were broken during the migration to Discourse, I’ll eventually see if I can find the files that I had posted and I’ll try to put them back.

I thought I’d share some pictures of fire extinguishers that I have seen a few weeks ago. Let me begin with some explanations:
[list]

  • [*]In France, water-filled fire extinguishers are often labeled as "AB-class" ("Eau Pulvérisée avec Additif" litt. Pulverized water with additive) as they contain an additive for B-class fires. Though A-only extinguishers (known as "Eau Pure" or pure water) do exist but for very specific applications.
  • there's also BC-class and ABC-class powder extinguishers but more on that later..
  • [*]There are two types of extinguisher mechanisms recognized in France: Pression Permanente (PP = "Permanant Pressure" and Pression Auxiliaire (PA = Auxiliary Pressure)

    “Permanant Pressure” extinguishers are constantly under pressure and often have a pressure gauge. Once you push the handle, they activate immediately.

    “Auxiliary Pressure” extinguishers need to be pressurized first by pushing the handle down (or striking a “button” down on some models), upon the handle being pushed down, a cartridge inside the extinguisher will pressurize the unit, after doing that you may use the second “trigger” on the extinguisher’s hose.

    Auxiliary pressure extinguishers don’t have a gauge, have a second “trigger” on the hose and often can be dismantled for filling and maintenance.

  • [*] Sometimes you can find extinguishers from a known manufacturer relabeled by the company who installed them (ROT and Andrieu does that commonly)
  • [*] AB-class extinguishers can be either "Prémélange" (where the additive is mixed into the water) or have a canister with the additive agent inside that will rupture upon the extinguisher being pressurized. One manufacturer (Andrieu) uses a special Co2 pressurization cartridge that contains CO2 and the additive agent inside, this is known as a "Sparklet Zeon™️"
  • [*] Extinguishers in France comes in two major sizes: 6 lites or 9 litres for water (known as E6 and E9), 6kg and 9kg for ABC/BC powder (known as P6 and P9). Uncommon sizes include P50 (50 kilos powder), P4 (4kg powder) and P2 (2kg). For water extinguishers I've never seen anything but E6 and E9.
  • [/list]

    Ahem, so let’s begin!

    First we got an Eurofeu Eurotech, this one is actually in my collection (yes I started collecting fire extinguishers), it’s a E6 dated from 2015. Funnily enough, I found this extinguisher discarded in a dumpster:

    Then there is this Sicli Eclipse P2 that I got from my uncle, this extinguisher is probably the oldest I have in my collection. Note the “France Télécom” logo on it, it’s a special serigraphy:

    Last but not least, a small E6 Parflam that I have seen somewhere in Chambly, I do not know if it’s a rebadged unit or if Parflam made it themselves:

    Next is this Andrieu ProBloc (one of Andrieu’s defunct lineups), rebadged by Geppi (I presume it is a long defunct company, I cannot find anything about it):

    This Geppi is a E9, and is dated from 2002.

    Now we have an Andrieu EuroBZ (rebadged by Sifrrap, which is a now defunct fire safety equipment installer) and an Andrieu Sofadex (virtually speaking, Andrieu’s extinguishers all share the same tank assemblies, just that each model have a different head assembly and labeling) again rebadged by Protect Sécurité.

    EuroBZ:

    Here’s the Sofadex, note the different handle:

    1 Like

    Two more, an Andrieu Evolite and a Isogard Design (yes, Isogard just called this lineup “Design”… Quite odd).

    Here’s the Evolite:

    And the Isogard Design, this unit has an unusual mounting system. It mounts into a plastic case that is screwed into the wall. Normally there’s a plastic band around the top part to keep it secured in but in this instance it is not present:

    Just for fun, here is also a ABC powder extinguisher that I found in my grandparents’ RV:

    EDIT: That ABC Powder Extinguisher is a Delta from 1994 or so, the first extinguisher I ever got was a similar Delta (although it was a BC Powder one and was relabeled by Dieteren!) These Delta extinguishers aren’t anything to write home about, they’re auxiliary pressure units (just like my Eclipse P2) but these are prone to sunfading (as in, the labelling fades over time and rubs off easily, my Dieteren and this Delta are no exception)

    Another, this time a 2003 General Incendie MAIP Astral, which is basically a reskinned Sicli Silice E6A (E=Water, 6A=6 litres of water with additive. It is the only water-based extinguisher I have in my collection (the Eurofeu was long scrapped because the tank had started corroding away)…

    Now, General Incendie and Sicli were more or less the same company (as in, Sicli bought out General Incendie, before General Incendie ceased to exist as a brand in 2005)

    Detail of the handle and hose, the hose handle hooks onto the main handle… The yellow thing on the back is the wall mount hook.

    This one was manufactured on the 25th of September 2003 (the date is in DD/MM/YY format)


    Down the line, I’ll probably mount it to a wall… Like in a real installation.

    Nice extinguisher and interesting design. Looks quite similar to an agricultural pesticide spray bottle.

    Thanks :slight_smile: I’ve got two others I have to picture, both of them work on the same principle, just need to dig them out of storage and take some nice pictures of them, it’s as you said very similar to these agricultural spray bottle things, just instead of having to manually build up pressure using a pump, you just need to pop a Co2 cartridge and it’ll instantly pressurize the whole tank.

    I’ve just opened it up to clean it, I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but the mechanism itself isn’t that complicated, it’s just a Co2 cartridge that does all the magic of pressuring the tank. How the cartridge is popped open is very similar to how a Halon 1301 bottle actuator (the mechanical kind, not the ones that rely on a small pyrotechnic charge) works, except it’s manual and not automatic.