Fire extinguishers are being removed from Tauranga City Council owned properties as part of a change in approach to fire safety.

Council property manager Anthony Averill says the change has come about after the council recently tendered a new building compliance monitoring contract for council owned buildings.

Tauranga City Council is removing fire extinguishers from its council buildings.

He says during the process council took the opportunity to rationalise the number of fire extinguishers in many council buildings, reducing operating costs across the portfolio.

'We have a building compliance contract which covers all our inspections and servicing and everything.

'When we went through that process we were advised that legally we no longer needed to have fire extinguishers in our buildings,” says Anthony.

'And when we had a look at that, various other things came into play.”

The locations of many of the fire extinguishers were across from the site of an expected fire, says Anthony and people may have been encouraged to try to use the fire extinguisher, instead of evacuating the building.

The council has also had an instance where a fire extinguisher at one of the community halls was discharged and thrown outside.

He says the council doesn't go out and train the occupiers and users of its buildings in how to use fire extinguishers and sometimes people do not use the right extinguisher for the right fire.

'The advice we had was this is a better way to deal with it.

'You don't get a fire extinguisher for wood and spray it on a gas fire, you have got to have the right sort of extinguisher.”

Anthony says council is making improvements to exit routes and safety features in its public buildings.

'So what we have done is we put some fire blankets in the kitchens, which is a high risk area,” says Anthony.

Tauranga Fire Brigade senior station officer Nigel Liddicoat says people also need to be trained in the proper use of fire blankets.

'The important thing is life. Buildings can be replaced, life can't,” says Nigel.

'From a fire service point of view, the importance is on early detection, so people can get out.

'We would only promote the use of extinguishers and fire blankets if the fire is very much in its early stage and people are confident in doing it.

'The last thing you want is a delay or causing a delay in our response and potentially putting their lives at risk because they are lingering behind to have a go. It doesn't work.”

Nigel says there needs to be some training for the use of fire blankets also.

For example if a pot on a stove is covered in a fire blanket it will exclude the oxygen, but unless the pot is removed from the heat it will reignite.

'If you had a blanket sitting next to an oven you can't just assume everybody knows how to use a blanket. It's not just a matter of putting a blanket on and walking away there are a number of other things people should be doing as well.

'Don't try and pick up a pot of hot oil just because you have put a blanket on it. Put a blanket on it, remove it from the heat and evacuate the building. There's some training required in that as well.”

In event of a fire people should evacuate the premises and call the fire service instead of attempting to fight the fire themselves.

'It's probably just a fresh look at an old situation, I'm not aware of any law changes that have brought this about, but that's the advice we had,” says Anthony.