When there's a fire, people generally do three things: 1) Call the fire dept, and 2) Grab an extinguisher and start spraying, or 3) Start screaming in panic
Wouldn't it be great if these things could be combined (except for the screaming)? So, I propose a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall, with a signalling device in the mounting bracket, which is powered from the grid. This transmitter activates as soon as the bottle is pulled off the mount. It then proceedes to send a wad of data (containing address of the emergency and the time of activation) on a reserved frequency. The community fire station (and possibly the police) has a receiver tuned to the same frequency, and some way of displaying the data received. Then a team is sent to that address. the time part is important for punishment of misuse, and perhaps also for insurance purposes. Also, as an added bonus, this system is useful in the case of a burglary or similar, as ripping the extinguisher off the wall is quicker and easier than calling the police.-- Aegis, Dec 01 2003 Various security monitoring companies offer this service as part of their monitoring package ... for a nominal fee, of course-- Letsbuildafort, Dec 01 2003 This is okay in a commercial sense, but most commercial properties have to conform to a more strict fire code to begin with and so have sprinklers installed. I'm afraid this would be too expensive for home use. What constitutes "misuse"?-- phoenix, Dec 01 2003 I would define misuse as anything that the system wasn't meant to be used for, i.e. "prank calls" to the fire departement, modifications to the device, using the CO2 fire extinguisher to refill your paintball gun,... Also, the same idea could be used in sprinkler systems: when water starts flowing, it closes the circuit for the transmitter, or something like that.-- Aegis, Dec 01 2003 For burglary, you could have a baseball bat mounted on the wall which would activate the alarm when pulled. (it might be hard to remember to get a fire extinguisher when you hear burglars downstairs.)-- phundug, Dec 01 2003 I would prefer not to have such a thing in my home because it might make me hesitate to grab the extinguisher at the first sign of trouble (smoking toaster or something like that.)
Anyway, this is thoroughly baked in commercial buildings.-- AO, Dec 01 2003 [AO] - The main concept would only apply to residential buildings, without sprinklers and such. And perhaps a shutoff switch in an out-of-the-way location to disarm for small things like toasters-- Aegis, Dec 02 2003 Well, OK, I’ll rescind my MFD. But it’s not a very original idea if the only thing that would distinguish it from existing extinguishers-connected-to-alarms is that it’s installed in a home rather than a public building.-- AO, Dec 02 2003 [AO] I just checked several fire extinguishers here at work. None of them has this feature. Instead I have to remember some odd phone number (not 911) to call the security guard. I also have to know where I am in the building; exact location, not by some nick name ("I'm at the trash tickler" "Duhh?" "Oh, that's ANS building level 4 room 3, bay 2A5"). It would be great if removing a fire extinguisher would notify the guard with location. [Aegis] is on to something.-- kbecker, Dec 02 2003 random, halfbakery