London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Britannia Fire’s composite fire extinguishers help organisations worldwide to reduce costs, meet stringent waste and carbon reduction targets and simplify fire safety. For those with multiple sites in different countries, having a trusted expert that can deliver is critical.

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’s (LSHTM) mission is to improve health and health equity worldwide. It researches diseases and health issues, trains professionals and postgraduate students and advises on policy and practice to improve health systems and responses.

When it was time to replace fire extinguishers on its main campus and at its research facility in Bloomsbury, central London in 2021, it had two key considerations – cost and convenience.

© LSHTM

Up until this point, the site had two traditional metal fire extinguishers (foam and CO₂) at most of its fire points. Rod Harrison is a Fire Safety Advisor responsible for fire safety across all of LSHTM’s sites, and considered all viable options for the upgrade, finally opting for Britannia Fire’s P50 Eco fire extinguishers.

Made from a unique combination of durable plastic and aramid fibres, Britannia Fire’s P50s are strong, don’t corrode and last 20 years. They are free from harmful ‘forever chemicals’, recyclable and do not require annual servicing.

Used worldwide, they conform to all required regulations and standards and have passed BS EN3-7 tests, demonstrating safety across various fire types, including Class A and B fires, as well as electrical fires, meaning often only one is required at a fire point rather than two.

Rod explains why the P50-ECO stood out:

“Opting for the P50 Eco, removed the need for annual servicing and associated costs. Another advantage was we only needed one extinguisher at each fire point. We were able to reduce the number of fire extinguishers from approximately 150 to just 60, which not only saved money but also simplified fire safety for the end user, removing the need for them to have to choose between extinguishers and increasing the likelihood of them taking action in a fire.”

After a successful rollout across its sites in London, LSHTM prioritised its two Medical Research Council Units in Uganda and The Gambia.

Fire extinguishers here were over 20 years old and needed replacing. With two extinguishers (CO₂ and water) at each fire point, LSHTM also wanted to reduce this to just one.

© MRC Unit, The Gambia at LSHTM

Rod explains: “We’ve been really impressed with Britannia’s product and customer service to date and as a trusted partner with the expertise and capabilities to supply worldwide, their P50s were the obvious choice when it came to upgrading our fire extinguisher stock at our overseas sites.”

Again, LSHTM only needed one fire extinguisher at each fire point in the two overseas sites. Even with seven additional fire points added, we were still able to reduce the total number of extinguishers from approximately 400 to 300.

“By switching all sites (UK & Africa) to the P50 Eco, we could save over £2,000 per annum and £20,000 over the lifetime of the P50. This was mainly due to the fact that the P50 does not need annual servicing, which is very costly.” continued Rod.

“At our sites in Africa, it was very difficult to find trained service engineers to carry out annual servicing, but opting for the P50 completely took away that issue. We can now do regular checks internally, logging all data on Britannia’s handy app that guides trained personnel through the checks and stores all information for auditing and quality purposes.

“Despite the logistics, Britannia made the whole upgrade really easy. Its customer service extends far beyond the UK. Shipping and installation went smoothly, and their aftercare service has been excellent, with any issues quickly resolved and without question.”