Fire Extinguisher

A wall-mounted fire extinguisher at White Bay Power Station sits in one of the corridors of the plant, the cylindrical brass-bodied unit hanging from a wall bracket at chest height. The brass has darkened with patina; the painted lettering on the side of the cylinder identifies the contents and the date of last service. A red-painted operating handle is fitted at the top of the cylinder, with the safety pin still in place. A length of rubber hose hangs from the side connection. The wall behind the extinguisher is painted in the standard institutional cream of the plant, scuffed at the level a passing trolley would clip.

Fire extinguishers of this kind were the standard wall-mounted equipment in industrial buildings of White Bay's era, with a unit at every change of corridor and at every workshop entrance. The extinguishers were regularly serviced by a contractor and the service tag on the side recorded each inspection. White Bay's extinguishers ran across the working life of the plant from 1917 to Christmas Eve 1983. After closure the service stopped. The cylinder in this photograph still has its safety pin in place and its hose attached, suggesting that nobody has discharged it in the four decades since.