Fire extinguishers service: the guide

Service is crucial for a fire extinguishing system. It’s the only way to check its full functionality and to be sure it will work in the unfortunate eventuality it has to be used.

The maintenance of an OMP racing car fire extinguisher has a small and simple set of rules to follow in order to keep it operative and, at the same time, to prevent sanctions from race officials.
Basically, the servicing of all FIA homologated extinguishing systems can be done exclusively only by the manufacturers and by those dealer/importers/servicing points certificated and authorized directly from the manufacturer (as stated in the FIA rules). This is a fundamental point: due to the complexity of the device, not every service is allowed to service racing car fire extinguishers: any service performed by an unauthorized point is invalid: it doesn’t guarantee efficiency at all, and from a sporting point of view, can result in disqualification.

Once the service is done, there has to be put an official sticker with the service date. The official sticker is the only way to prove the service has been regularly done. From this moment the extinguishing system is in compliance for the following 2 years; once the expiry date has been achieved and the system wasn’t used, the extinguishing system has to be serviced once again. In case the extinguishing system has been used and released before that moment it has obviously  to be serviced all over again.

In the gallery, we show you the three official service labels, each one for specific FIA homologations.