Office of Information and Public Affairs	Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 27, 2000 Release # 00-188	BRK Recall Hotline: (866) 669-2736 CPSC Consumer Hotline: (800) 638-2772 CPSC Media Contact: Yolanda Fultz-Morris (301) 504-7066

CPSC, BRK Announce Recall of First Alert Fire Extinguishers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), BRK Brands Inc., of Aurora, IL., is voluntarily recalling about 600,000 First Alert® household fire extinguishers. The extinguishers can fail to discharge when the trigger is activated failing to put out a fire, which puts consumers at risk of fire-related injuries.

CPSC and BRK have received five reports from consumers of the fire extinguishers failing to discharge when activated. No injuries have been reported.

Only First Alert model FE1A10G with serial numbers beginning with: RH, RK, RL, RP, RT, RU, or RW are included in this recall. The serial number is located on the extinguisher's label, above the model number in a rectangular box. "First Alert" is written on the units' label and pressure gauge. The fire extinguishers are either red or white. Home centers, mass merchandisers, and hardware stores nationwide sold the fire extinguishers from September 1999 through September 2000 for between $9 and $15.

Consumers with recalled fire extinguishers should immediately contact First Alert at (866) 669-2736 anytime or visit the First Alert web site at www.firstalert.com/more_information to receive a coupon for a new extinguisher.

First Alert fire extinguishers with a "100% Quality Tested" sticker attached to the fire extinguisher label are not included in the recall, regardless of the serial number.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $700 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC's hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC's teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270, or visit CPSC's web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. To join a CPSC email subscription list, please go to www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.asp. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.

< back to top

Over the past ten years, improvements and modifications have been made in cooking equipment, cooking media and methodology. Many of these changes have made the hazard even more difficult to extinguish should a fire occur. For these reasons, liquid agent systems came to the forefront and the UL300 specification was born, developed and is now the standard of the land. We at Ansul agree that liquid agent systems offer the best protection over commercial cooking hazards. Therefore, we began our formal withdrawl from the dry chemical systems business by discontinuing the sale of new dry chemical systems effective February 1995.

It is now appropriate for us to take the next step by discontinuing the service parts used in R-101 dry chemical systems.

Effective January 1, 1999 Ansul will no longer sell service parts or support the sale or servicing of R-1001 Dry Chemical Restaurant Fire Suppression Systems.

Ansul and the rest of the Fire Protection Industry have developed faster and more effective means of extinguishing the difficult and dangerous fires associated with commercial cooking equipment. Extensive testing was done in an ongoing effort to improve our coverages and increase the overall protection capabilities of restaurant systems. Ansul recently introduced the Piranha Restaurant System featuring a new agent-plus-water technology and continues to provide enhancements to the R-102.

As always, providing optimum products and services to you and the restaurant owner will remain a high priority at Ansul.

< back to top