Homes and businesses alike may have flammable liquids that need to be properly contained. Whether you deal with liquid gas, cleaning chemicals, or any other high-hazard flammable material, you should keep them away from heat and locked in a place where they can be contained. Most industrial areas have a safety cabinet for flammable liquids, and commercial and residential areas can take advantage of such a measure as well.
Where to Buy Safety Cabinets
You can purchase a flammable storage cabinet in most locations that sell related fire equipment and services. Flammable cabinets are made to exact specifications to help mitigate heat inside. This reduces the risk that the liquids contained inside the cabinet will ignite or explode if a fire breaks out. Some of the precautions include thick steel walls and doors, flame arrestors to make it difficult for fire to spread if it does break out inside the cabinet, and limited space for air to help suffocate flames. Should the interior of the cabinet ignite, the study construction of flammable safety storage cabinets helps to make sure that the fire is contained and smothered inside, rather than feeding the flames outside.
Making the Cabinets Stand Out
Like most other fire equipment, safety cabinets are often brightly colored in red or yellow with reflective paint that allows them to be seen even when there is smoke about. You should make sure not to paint or mark over the surface of any safety cabinets for flammables, as doing so can reduce their visibility in the case of an emergency. In fact, you may want to go the opposite way and make these cabinets even more visible. Reflective signs and clear presentation can allow people to find the flammable cabinet quickly in case of emergency or steer clear of it if they know an emergency may be in progress. Always make your fire protection equipment and storage easy to see at a moment’s notice.
Locking the Doors
Because flammable liquid storage cabinets include potential hazards, they should be locked whenever you are not putting something into them or taking something out of them. The majority of cabinets that you purchase have locks specially designed to ensure that a bang or a jostle won’t damage the locking mechanism. If you repurpose another storage cabinet to store flammables, make sure that it has a three-point locking system. This means that when the cabinet is locked, both the top and the bottom of the door is immobilized. You should keep the key securely stored with keys to other fire safety equipment and ensure that only those who need to enter the cabinet have access to it.
Fire safety is more than just a matter of putting up a smoke alarm; it is a combination of things. If your building uses flammable liquids, you need to make sure they are properly stored. This means investing in safety cabinets, marking them clearly, and ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to the storage cabinet on a day to day basis.