COMPLIANCE STACK
Where AS 2444 Sits in the Compliance Stack
The standard covers two things: choosing extinguishers and blankets to match the hazards on your site, and positioning them so they work when someone needs them. Everything either side of that belongs to a different document. Servicing sits under AS 1851, manufacture under AS/NZS 1841 via the ACCC mandatory standard, and the full text of AS 2444-2001 is available through Standards Australia.
RATING DECODER
How to Read a Rating
Every compliant extinguisher carries a rating on its label, and most people walk past it for years without decoding it. Take 2A:40B:E. The letters are the fire classes the unit passed testing for. Ratings matter because AS 2444 works in ratings, not kilograms. Two extinguishers of identical weight can carry different ratings, and the standard’s coverage requirements are written against the rating. When you compare units, compare the rating first and the weight second.
SELECTION
Matching Extinguishers to the Hazards You Have
Timber, packaging and general waste: water or ABE powder
Flammable liquids and solvents: foam or ABE powder
Flammable gas work: check the unit’s label, since not every powder extinguisher carries a C rating.
Combustible metals: specialist Class D powder units matched to the metal involved, since water, foam and standard ABE are unsuitable
Energised electrical equipment: CO2 first, ABE where residue is tolerable
Commercial cooking oils and fats: wet chemical, with a fire blanket in reach
Class D risks are rare outside fabrication and specialised industrial work, but where they exist, nothing else on this list substitutes. The band colour identifies what’s inside each unit at a glance. Our fire extinguisher colour code guide covers all five Australian bands, and we supply AS 2444 compliant extinguishers across the range through our Commander extinguisher range.
What Changes by Site Type
AS 2444 distributes Class A extinguishers by hazard level, not by industry name. A light hazard site such as an office carries a lower minimum rating requirement per extinguisher than an ordinary or high hazard site such as a warehouse or fabrication floor, and the maximum floor area each unit can cover shrinks as the hazard level climbs. The same extinguisher protects a larger area in an office than it does in a warehouse. In practice, a construction site or industrial floor runs more units at higher ratings than an office of the same footprint, and the mix shifts with the work: more ABE and CO2 near temporary electrical, wet chemical and blankets wherever there’s a cookline.
PLACEMENT RULES
Distance, Height and Spacing Rules
Travel distance for Class A risks
no more than 15 metres from any point on the floor to the nearest extinguisher, measured along the path a person would walk, not through walls
Mounting height
the base clear of the floor by at least 100mm, and the top of the handle no higher than 1,200mm
Kitchens
the Class F extinguisher positioned between 2 and 20 metres from the cooking equipment, far enough to reach safely, close enough to matter
Switchboards
a suitable extinguisher within the same 2 to 20 metre band from the hazard
No stacking
several smaller units can’t be combined to stand in for one unit of the required rating
Fifteen metres sounds generous until you route it around racking, hoarding, or a floor plate that changes every fortnight. On construction sites, placement is a recurring task, not a set-and-forget one.
If nobody has walked your site with a tape measure and the floor plan, that’s worth a morning of someone’s time. We can be that someone.
MORE TO KNOW
Signage Is Part of the Requirement
An extinguisher nobody can find fails at its one job. AS 2444 requires compliant identification signage above each unit so the type and its suitable fire classes are readable on approach, mounted at around 2 to 2.5 metres. The detail on sign types, sizes and placement lives in our fire extinguisher signage guide, and it’s worth reading before your next audit rather than after.
Fire Blankets Sit Under the Same Standard
AS 2444 covers blanket selection and location alongside extinguishers, which is why a commercial kitchen assessment should place both, not one or the other. Manufacture sits separately under AS/NZS 3504. Our fire blanket range covers sizes from home kitchens through to workshop formats.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Still measuring up?
Put Your Site Against the Standard
Reading the requirements is one thing. Walking your site with them is another, and that’s the version an inspector performs. We supply, install and position first-responder fire equipment against AS 2444 for construction, industrial and commercial sites across Australia. Book a site review, and we’ll map your extinguisher and blanket coverage against the standard before someone with a clipboard does.