Board Members:

Chairman
Robert Stearns

Vice-Chair
Bill Calkins

Yvonne Lewis
Director

Michele Elliott
Director

(No photo available)
Lauri Bettencourt

Chief Dave Ebert

Fire Inspections for business owners in our District are a necessity.  Make your inspection a positive experience by being prepared!  Click here for the Business Owner Fire and Life Checklist and BE HAPPY when the the fire department comes to visit - they work to protect you and your customers.

I would have presumed that screw base, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were always safer than incandescent bulbs because they operate so much cooler, which should minimize the chance of combustible material igniting should it touch the bulb. However I received a report by a consumer who used a 14 Watt Luminus brand CFL purchased at Costco which went defective & started to smoke, here is what he said. "There was no actual flame, but it filled the globe (sealed light fixture) with very acrid smoke and then the smoke began to fill the hall. We were moving about in the hall at that particular moment and discovered the problem almost immediately. Whether the bulb will actually flame if left in a socket I don't know. It was powerful hot in that globe when I took it out and still actively belching smoke..."  This was the potential first fire hazard incident I had heard of with CFLs, but it illustrates that a problem can occur. I have heard of fires caused by incandescent bulbs that were too high Wattage for the fixture they were installed in, or where they came in contact with combustible material (drapes, covers & lampshades, etc). Besides problems with some Luminus brand CFLs, some Pricemark bulbs can be a hazard too. Note any bulbs listed below as having a safety hazard in red. CFLs that belch smoke, usually do so from the white base that contains electronic components (ballast). General Electric formerly had on their web site an explanation of "End Of Life" sensing protection that can prevent smoke, something all CFLs should incorporate. As a general rule, a CFL bulb that smokes does not catch fire because it is contained within the white ballast, but it sometimes scares consumers enough that they don't want to use CFLs.

The Electrical Safety Authority has issued a warning about the way CFLs expire at the end of their life.  The Ontario Fire Marshal's Office also looks into CFL safety. If you have the FCC ID number from the base of the CFL, you can go to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission site & often see pictures of the parts used on the inside of these CFLs. Another organization to complain to if you are a U.S. citizen & have a CFL safety issue is the U.S. Product Safety Commission.

Some CFLs packaging indicates that the bulb contains mercury, which should be disposed of according to your locals laws, or call Lamp Recycle at 1-800-555-0050 or 1-800-435-4448. The mercury is contained in the sealed glass tube & presumably is not a safety hazard unless the glass gets broken (in which case don't breath near the tube). The amount of mercury is extremely small, but the bulb should not be disposed of with regular household garbage.

Some "Fieldbreeze" brand CFLs sold in dollar stores are not safety rated & are an extreme safety hazard. One model of Globe brand CFL has a UL stamp of safety approval, but UL says the bulb is NOT approved & is a potential safety hazard. If you have a CFL that you believe is a safety hazard & if it is CSA approved, send it to CSA Group, 178 Rexdale Blvd., Toronto Ontario, M9W 1R3 or Phone (416) 747-4277.

All CFLs should have either the CSA (Canadian Standards Association) or UL or cUL (Underwriter's Labs) logo of safety approval & if they do not have a safety rating as noted by the CSA or UL logo, then don't buy them. In Ontario & probably other Canadian provinces, ANY electrical device that operates on 32 Volts or more, must have either the CSA or UL logo, or be approved by the ESA (Electrical Safety Authority) as long as there is a standard for the product (which there is for CFLs), presumably states in the U.S.A. have similar laws.

Screw base, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) at a warm color temperature of about 2700° Kelvin have an advertised life of 6000 - 10,000 hours (250 - 417 days on constantly, or 4.7 - 7.8 years at 3.5 hours per day) which is substantially more than incandescent bulbs which are usually rated for 770 - 2000 hours (32-83 days on constantly, or 0.6 - 1.56 years at 3.5 hours per day). Having used CFLs for some time now,I am quite skeptical of some manufacturers claims for number of hours. Indeed, how would any typical consumer even know how long a bulb actually lasted unless they left it on constantly & took note of when they installed it & when it burned out. My own limited experience using at least 45 screw base compact fluorescent bulbs (as of 2003) in intermittent use (only occasionally turned on) in the last 18 months, is that 5 of them have burned out way too early (that's at least a 11.1% early failure rate using this small sampling & is likely to be higher). One person has reported to me that 19 of 21 Luminus 20 Watt CFLs purchased at Costco have burned out significantly prematurely. Another reported most 14 Watt Luminus CFLs burned out prematurely. At least one manufacturer has tried to convince me that less than 1% of CFLs fail prematurely, but I don't believe it, so keep your bill so you can return any bulb that burns our prematurely. In particular I've found that Sylvania brand CFLs routinely don't last very long. I've heard one report of Pur-lite bulbs burning out in a month or two. I received a report on poor customer service regarding Globe Electric Co. I have observed that using a florescent bulb in a pull chain fixture might shorten their life, possible because of the vibration. CFLs used in totally enclosed fixtures or florescent floods will also result in shortened life, probably because of heat build up in the sealed fixture. Bulbs routinely turned on in sub freezing temperatures (below -23°C or -10°F) may also shorten bulb life expectancy. Even if the manufacturers claims of life expectancy for CFLs is only half of what they claim, I still feel they are excellent value because of the huge cost in electricity they save.

Additional reading at http://members.shaw.ca/wiggie/Compact_Flourescent_Lights.html