Video: Missouri Fire Extinguishers

Rob

OK, let’s talk about fire extinguishers. What do people need to know about them?

Officer Green

The main thing about a fire extinguisher is they need to be secured in an accessible location in case you do have a fire on board the vessel. You wouldn’t want it mounted back in the engine compartment. You want to have it mounted somewhere where you can get to it or the operator can get to it quickly. The passengers need to be aware of how to use it. And also, in Missouri, there’s different types of fire extinguishers for different lengths of vessels.

Rob

But it’s required for all boats?

Officer Green

Right. For any boat—any boat that carries a flammable liquid in Missouri in a closed container, like a fuel tank for example, needs to have a fire extinguisher on board. If you’re a Class A or Class 1 boat, which is any boat less than 26 feet in length, you need to have a Class 1, a B-I fire extinguisher. The B stands for the chemical, the one is for the size. Right. Just like that. If you have a longer boat, 26 to 40 feet long, it needs to have a B-II on board, which is a bigger fire extinguisher, like this. As the boat gets bigger, like over 40 feet in length, there are more requirements. You have to have more fire extinguishers.

Rob

Even PWCs, they require little tiny ones like that.

Officer Green

Personal watercraft still has fuel on board, flammable liquid obviously, in the fuel tank, so they’re required to have a fire extinguisher on board, too. A lot of them look like this. You just push the white button to disperse it. To check it and make sure it’s full, push the green pin in. If it comes back out, you know it’s ready to go.

Rob

Gotcha. So just make sure you have them in case you have a problem and you need to fix it quickly.

Officer Green

That’s right.

Rob

Awesome. Thanks.