I don't know what Fire Marshalls expect where you are, Alan; but we had to flush and have inspected the entire sprinkler system twice a year for three whole city blocks of warehousing and offices, and I know darn well what is involved with extinguishers. Ironically, just after I retired they had an indoor fire, probably caused by an overloaded outlet strip, and nearly all the damage was due to the sprinkler system ruining millions of dollars of inventory. It was really the product packaging that was most damaged, so the insurance company bought all of that inventory and batch sold it to liquidators, and by now the building involved has been beautifully remodeled. But they sure didn't get a bargain replacing us cranky old timers with cheaper help. I would have given em hell over using outlet strips at all. We used to hard wire everything, never had a fire. But nearly two entire adjacent blocks - one on each side - burned down while I was still there - a stoner art colony on one side, and an idiot,oily-rag furniture maker on the other. Then there was the illegal wax candle factory in a warehouse loft a few years before - when that burned it sure was the brightest candle anywhere. It could be seen for 50 miles. But I don't believe something just because it's UL labeled. There's tons of fraud in that racket. I've opened up UL listed outlet strips where the wiring was connected with masking tape. Some of these UL labs put million of dangerous products made in China straight through without even checking them. It's called bribes. Then extremely safe German gear gets put on the backburner, sometimes for years, because they refuse to bribe. I know that game inside out. Fraudulent labeling is also rampant. What can I say in this case? Just don't buy a conspicuously cheap extinguisher, which even looks like a toy.
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