Should You Provide A Fire Extinguisher At Your Rental Property?

jeremy raglin Portland Rental News and Tips May 24, 2022 | 0

Besides having landlord insurance, having a fire extinguisher at your rental property is one of the most important things you can do to protect your best interests while also protecting the lives of your tenants.

If you’re on the fence about investing in a fire extinguisher for your property, here are several reasons why you shouldn’t hesitate to make that invest in your property.

355,000 Residential Fires Occur Every Year

One thing is true about fire, they don’t always start in the kitchen; residential fires can start anywhere in a home, especially if it’s an older property that was built before the 1990s.

Thanks to recent statistics from the National Fire Protection Association, we know that there are roughly 355,000 residential house fires in the United States each year, totaling $6.9 billion in property damage.

Having a fire extinguisher in your Oregon rental property ensures that no lives are lost and the fire will be able to be extinguished without causing major damage to the property.

Residential Fires Are Responsible For 2,600 Deaths Annually

Sadly, residential house fires are also responsible for 2,600 deaths each year and 11,000 injuries.

As a property owner, you can do your part to ensure your tenant’s safety and that’s something that will also help to build good rapport because it will show them that you care for more than just the rent that they pay every month.

Besides installing a fire extinguisher at your rental property, you should also install smoke and carbon dioxide detectors as well.

Thankfully, you can easily add multiple fire extinguishers to your rental property for as little as $100, if you purchase them online.

Tips for choosing a fire extinguisher:

The higher the number, the greater the effectiveness (and likely the higher the price). So, an extinguisher with a 4-A rating is more effective on ordinary combustibles than a 2-A one. The C designation carries no number; it just means the extinguisher’s chemicals won’t conduct electricity.