Prepared Hero recalled 31,000 fire spray canisters. Check the date code on the base.

If you keep a Hero Fire Spray canister in the rig, turn it over and read the base. The Consumer Product Safety Commission published recall 26755 on September 10, 2026, and the affected batch carries the date code 09/2024. About 31,000 canisters are covered.

The failure mode is the one that matters. CPSC’s hazard statement says the canister “can deteriorate overtime, causing it to rupture and fail to operate during a fire.” Prepared Hero has reported nine cases of a canister exploding or deteriorating while in storage. No injuries so far. Read the two halves of that sentence separately: it can burst sitting in a cabinet, and it can be dead when you reach for it.

Storage is where this bites a camper harder than a homeowner. A canister in a kitchen cupboard lives at room temperature. One in a truck bed box or a van cabinet spends July at whatever the inside of a closed vehicle in the sun reaches, cools overnight, and does it again the next day.

What the recall covers

The canisters are red and blue or plain red, with HERO Fire Spray on the front panel and a black plastic release tab on top. Each holds 20 fluid ounces, measures about 2.6 inches across and 11.4 inches tall, and weighs about 1.8 pounds. They sold on PreparedHero.com and Amazon from October 2024 through January 2026 for $18 to $30. The date code on the base settles whether yours is in the batch.

Disposal is a town errand, not a trash bag

The remedy is a free replacement unit through the recall page on the company’s site. CPSC is specific about the old one, because it is pressurized: box it, label the box “RECALLED”, and take it to a municipal household hazardous waste collection center. Do not put it in the trash or in curbside recycling, and call the center first to ask whether it accepts pressurized canisters, because not all of them do. Plan that around a town stop, not a travel day.

The question this raises

Plenty of people carry one of these as their fire extinguisher. Whether that satisfies a land manager is a separate matter, and the answer is not printed on the can.

Under Stage 2 fire restrictions, BLM Colorado’s Upper Colorado River District prohibits running a chainsaw “without an approved spark arrestor, and without a chemical pressurized fire extinguisher and a round-point shovel with an overall length of at least 35 inches.” The Northwest District page carries the same sentence. Both read September 28, 2026.

Notice the asymmetry. The order pins the shovel down to the inch and says nothing about the extinguisher past “chemical pressurized.” No size, no rating, no standard. So we cannot tell you whether a 20-ounce aerosol spray counts, and neither can that page. If you plan to cut firewood under a Stage 2 order, call the field office and ask what they accept before you drive out. The same page puts a fire prevention order violation at a fine of not more than $1,000, imprisonment of not more than 12 months, or both.

What we can tell you is narrower and more useful. If your canister carries the 09/2024 code, replace it. A suppression device that may already have ruptured in the heat is worse than carrying nothing, because you planned around it.

Our fire restrictions guide covers how the stages differ and why the order, not the label, is the document to read. For the generator and chainsaw side of Stage 2, see what Stage 2 actually restricts.