I guess a fire extinguisher is still the first thing most people would reach for in the event of a fire in the home or in the office.
But fires aren’t everyday occurrences — so how would these beautiful items fare in a dramatic real fire situation? Would newcomers to a home or office space instantly know what they were, find them, pick them up and know how to use them?
Here are a few thoughts. Fires constitute the kind of physical danger we’re just not used to these days. They can and do however provoke a very ancient fight or flight response.
Fight or flight is an automatic physiological reaction. A perceived threat activates the sympathetic nervous system and triggers an acute stress response that prepares the body to fight or try to escape natural or human dangers.
A flood of hormones is suddenly released. Your body prepares by increasing heart rate, raising blood pressure and supercharging your energy levels.
And in this state, we have to make split-second decisions with life or death consequences.
So, here’s my first law for fire extinguisher designers: the law of colour.
It is perhaps no surprise that we humans tend to use the same colours that nature does to signify danger: red, yellow, black and white. Time and again these colours warn potential predators in the wild that something is toxic, foul-tasting or aggressive and dangerous. This natural advertising is known as aposematism. For me a cool grey — unless it carries appropriate and prominent signage (see immediately below) to help it stand out — would not cut it in a real fire.
Now for my second law for extinguisher designers: the law of shape.
I offer two remarks on this point. The first concerns signage shape around or on the extinguisher itself. Recent studies in China (Wang et al 2008) suggest that the inverted triangle is one of the more powerful shapes for attracting our attention, especially coupled with a warning word. When, however, natural warning colour and shape are combined, the impact on our attention dramatically increases.
My second thought about shape concerns the fire extinguisher body itself. While the function of the extinguisher in holding a reservoir of fire suppressant and a dispersal mechanism will determine much of the form, I see that some designers are making extinguishers resemble very different household objects — or animalesque sculptures even. The cross-cultural reference does produce a beguiling object. I only ask: when it really matters would we know what these objects are really for?
That brings me onto my third law for fire extinguisher designers: the important law of social convention
Some conventions are not just life-enhancing or there to be challenged but are life-saving — police uniforms/insignia, the sign for the international red cross are examples — especially if you want a human being to act instantly on the convention in the most challenging circumstances. Knowing that a fire extinguisher instantly for what it is, is important.
None of the above should stop designers pushing the envelope out on other forms of fire mitigation — especially those measures which do not require a human being to call the shots. But that is for my next post.
