People do however end up with the govenment that they deserve.

arthur Brumstein, London, England

Dateline... Birmingham.

The Risk Assessors are at it again. In no small part due to the extreme amount of break-ins, the RAs have decided to test a new pilot program; to remove all locks from doors in a two block test.

"We have found that in an emergency, locked doors can be a hindrance to fleeing individuals." said Norvin Mcpiddlepants, he, of the Queen's Removal of All Things Dangerous to Sheep Department. "We believe this will give the home occupier a chance to escape in case of a fire, a burglary or in case of an invasion of fire ants" he explained.

The critic of the plan, Sir Edwin Elderly, had this to say. " I remember when England was a great power, when we, as a nation,?" took on evil and Destroyed it. Why do we let.....ummmm, what was I saying". He then took a nap.

Other bonuses to the plan include burglars having a much easier time with their chosen career and we expect rapists to be pleased as well. We asked Mr Mcpiddlepants what the next steps were down at QRATDSD. He explained that they were working on a Nerf car... They are also looking at what temperature is needed to make books burn.

Shawn Shipley, Longmont, Colorado

You Brits are in a sorry state, first your guns now your fire extinguishers. Whats gonna be next, electronic implants?
What happened to the guys who won the Battle of Britain or El Alamein? Oh, they are dead now.

Josh, DAYTON, Ohio

So, basically, instead of someone being able to put out a small grease fire on the stove, or similar minor problem, now the entire building will burn down because no one can extinguish the fire. How exactly does this make anyone *safer*?

Bergman, Seattle, Washington, USA

a) - Compensation culture - introduced by lawyer Blair and co. A deliberate act, the problems were well documented.

b) All emergency services are moving to a "regional" communication system. i.e. - calls dealt with by people with no local knowlege and no maps. The G.P.S. is God. Oh dear.

c) Whilst fighting the Cornish hotel fire, crews had to try three times for a hydrant that wasn't silted up. They used to be checked by the Fire Brigade. Now, in our area at least, it's a different organisation. I know from personal experience that they will say they're coming to sort out hydrant problems but never turn up.

So... fire crews having problems finding you, more than a passing possibilty of a water shortage when they get to you. Problems covered up, as usual.

I've got extinguishers and it's money well spent to find out how to use them and to get them serviced. By the way - it might cost an arm and a leg for a tower block but for a house it's not too bad at at all.

Jack Tomlinson, Huntingdon,

This has happened before and is usually a disguised way to save money as extinguisher companies charge an arm and a leg to maintain them.
If they buy their extinguishers on the internet, they'll save a fortune and then it won't be an issue.
As for training, what's hard about pulling a pin out, holding a hose and squeezing the handles.
Can anyone find any evidence of a person being injured by using the wrong extinguisher on a fire inside a building?

John, Dartford, Kent

A better solution would be to provide training for the residents - this could be done when the company that services the extinguisher is on site (usually once a year) or perhaps this would be a useful PR role for the Fire Service.
I feel that this is more about cost saving than personal safety and is not the first time that I have heard the suggestion. A Risk Assessment should look at historical data and it would be interesting to know what data was considered, if any.

Alan Cox, Sutton Coldfield, UK

Instead of lashing out at H&S as usual. why don't some of you take the time to think about this and read the information a little more in depth. this is not a blanket policy for all common areas, it depends on the risk assessment for that building whether it would be a good idea to not have the extinguishers in place or not. there are numerous factors to consider as with all complex risk scenarios. i am in agreement with this stance in the right buildings (i.e. well built / managed, good fire protection and detection with clear escape routes) and think that it is best for most people to try and escape as quickly as possible. there are potential problems with untrained people trying to put out a fire and the integrity of the extinguishers cannot always be gauranteed. What if you had ran down the corridor to get the extinguisher, returned to your flat to use it, only to find that it had been discharged during a drunken party the night before?

Harry Bond, Bradford,

Health & Safety Dennis, Health & Safety :/

Phill, The Wirral, England

I would speak to MFS extiguishers for their information. All fire extinguishers are now red. The colour coding system was changed again by the EU. Try talking to your fire officer they should know

John, London,

Helpful of the Times to tell us the colour of the fire extinguishers - However EU regs mean that all fire extinguishers are now RED, with small bands to denote what they contain e.g. a black band for CO2.

Mike, Nottingham,

The dumbing-down of Britain...assume that everyone is an idiot, and just in case they are not, let's patronise them instead.

Martin Baldwin-Edwards, Athens, Greece

You just couldn't make it up !!

There is a 'risk' that the Sun will go Nova tomorrow. Since the 'risk' is rather small and has never occurred in the past, it is quite safe to ignore it.

BP Vallance, Corfu, Greece

Another brainless bureaucratic scheme thought up by H&S. Whatever next?

Jack, Bradford,

"in a letter from their managing agents that “unless all residents are trained to operate the fire extinguishers, there is no legal requirement to maintain these in communal areas of residential blocks”

There is also no legal requirement to assist people collapsed in the street. but most would, with very little int the way of "formal training". Indeed, There is no legal requirement to inform the fire service of a fire, but still people do, again with very little "formal training"

My point?..This seems to be an excuse to remove the financial burden of maintaining extinguishers, rather than providing instruction and familiarisation in the use of them.

This seems to me to be an excuse, underpinned by legislation designed to increase peoples safety, to unload the financial burden of safety equipment through the dubious use of risk assessment.

I would ask if the residents of these properties are going to recieve a reduction in their maintenance bills as a result of this action?

Steve, Poole, England

While the Private Hields of this world constantly show us the meaning of bravery, the rest of us must, by regulation, scuttle around with our arms protecting our heads.

Another instance of the nanny state de-risking life!

Alan, Northants,

As someone who works for a fire risk assessment company, the idea is not ludicrous at all. If there is a fire in the building, the last thing anyone should be doing is trying to tackle it, they should be getting out fast! As for a 103 year old lady, well she may be able to work out how to use the extinguisher but I doubt she could lift it. The ban would only be for fire extinguishers in the common areas, if a resident wants to, they can keep a fire extinguisher in their flat. As for fires being above the eighth floor, a lot of provisions are put into place to ensure people aren't trapped and if they are, that they are safe. A residents door must be completely fire proof- giving them at least 30-minutes to wait for help! The door is fitted with intumescent products to ensure smoke doesn't get into the flat.
Training is important with the use of extinguishers, so if you want them in your block of flats, would you be willing to pay to be trained in their use?

M. Elliott, Devon, UK

As far as I'm aware, all fire extinguishers are red, with a different coloured panel to distinguish the type. They used to be different colours, but presumably that was too simple.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

What has gone wrong, Dennis of Oregon, is that Britain has inherited the US compensation culture. So anything that could conceivably result in injury - no matter how minor - has to be done away with.

Personal responsibility is a thing of the past.

Mike Poulsen, Reading, Berkshire

Ludicrous -

but good of the Times to explain what all the different types do, just when they are going to be removed.

Clive Wilson, Southampton,

What's gone wrong?" health n safety... that's what...

paulc, gloucester,

Excuse me. Are these the very same Britons who tackled incindiary bombs with buckets of sand and with small streams of water from handpumps?

What's gone wrong?

Dennis, Portland OR, US