“I’m sorry the guy died but a police car is not an ambulance and policemen are not EMTs.”
Starting in 1980, every company I worked for ran training programs to teach CPR and how to use the fire extinguisher. I took the opportunity at each company to get the practice. They also trained us on how to use defibrillators. One day I see the maintenance guys hauling a pallet of fire extinguishers out the building. I asked why. The company lawyers had decided the liability of someone staying to fight a fire was too high. (Incidentally, several of the companies I worked at over the years had small fires that could have turned into major disasters that were put out by fast-acting employees.) They also forbade CPR and removed the defibrillators. Same reason. I don’t know how common this is now. But if one Fortune 500 company is doing it, it is probably common.
Interesting. Just the opposite here - the Fire Marshall insists we have fire extinguishers every 50 feet or so. And they check the tags they need to be inspected/tagged/renewed every year, or, you can buy a new one every year yourself and tape the receipt on the outside so the Marshall can see it’s within the 1 year rule.
Whether you want to use it to fight fires, well, that’s up to you. But if you don’t want a fine you have to have them installed in conspicuous places and near exits.
“The company lawyers had decided the liability of someone staying to fight a fire was too high.”
I worked in a shipyard. If we even allowed employees to fight fires we had to have a designated fire team. The OSHA requirements for such a team were such that they had to be basically trained firemen in addition to performing their jobs. It was ridiculously burdensome. Our official policy was was to evacuate.