The curious tale of the free fire extinguisher

Do you keep a fire extinguisher in the house? Well we have one but we were somewhat alarmed to be told by the local Fire Brigade that in an event of fire we should not try to use it because unless we were experienced we would be putting ourselves at risk.

Instead we should ring them and make a speedy exist.

Yet for the past 25 years we have kept this one .

It was a curious gift from my partner’s former employer, a multinational company, now defunct, in Grangemouth, to all employees after the company had passed a million man hours without an accident.

Today the company has gone and the extinguisher, of doubtful use, a memento of our once buoyant industrial past.