Fire blankets and NFPA’s classification
NFPA, works for the protection against fires (Fire Protection)
From its foundation in 1896, NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), has been creating, developing, supervising and maintaining the regulations and minimum requisites for prevention against fires and, subsequently, reduce the risks of effects of fire. The content of 300 standard codes, created by NFPA, are revised and updated every five years, taking into consideration the development of new technologies of protection against fires.
An example of the detailed work of NFPA has been discontinued old fire blankets that were created with asbestos fiber, due to the potential risk implying the inhalation of this fiber for human health, so this blankets had been completely withdrawn from market and its use is forbidden because they don't meet NFPA classification.
It is very important to know that in order for a fire blanket to be used as a fast actuation element before first fire connotes, is required by legislation in many states to meet the correspondent test reports, as well as the regulations written by NFPA, which mention that asbestos fibers couldn't be contained in blankets and for its commercialization in Europe, is required that the blankets have been tested under European Union Regulations (UNE EN 1869/1997), that evaluates blanket's effectiveness to extinct small fires; this regulation tests blankets in two tests to evaluate:
- Fire extinction effectiveness.
- Electrical behavior.
- Including also, confection and product's presentation requisites.
In addition, the aforementioned, is transcendental to know that each area, state or region has non-equivalent regulations between them, each one has very specific and different test methods, this fabrication, commercialization of fire blankets, must be designed according to test reports that must meet according to the regulation:
- European: UNE EN 1869. Fire blanket
- Australian: AS/NZS 3504:2006. Fire blankets.
- American: ASTM F 1989-05. Standard specification for cooking suppression blankets.
