Does your home have a fire extinguisher? And if so, when was the last time you checked it? 

"Typical of what people are going to buy would be a store pressured fire extinguisher," shared Fire Chief, Dale Feser. "You're going to see a pressure gauge system on the exterior of the fire extinguisher."

"When you do those checks, you want to make sure the pin is in the green. That tells you that it's in the correct operating pressure. If it's anything below that, it tells you that it needs to be recharged or replaced."

"If it's over-pressured, that's also an indication that you want to bring it in for a service or discard it and replace it as well."

"As long as that indicator arrow is in the green, it should be good to go."

Fire extinguishers typically have a ten to fifteen year life span, however, checking the pressure gauge is still the best way to ensure your extinguisher is ready should you need it.

 "Transport Canada dictates service and lifespan of fire extinguishers. Some of them have to go in for what is called a hydro-static testing which is a non-destructive test to make sure that materials used in the construction of the fire extinguisher are going to be able to withstand the operating pressures."n

"When in doubt, you'll want to take it to a local service vendor whether it be a safety company like TS&M Fire and Safety or Carson Safety and they'll take a look over the extinguisher ad they'll tell you whether or not it requires a hydro-static test or not."