Measures in Fire Protection - Essay Example

Heading: Measures in Fire Protection Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Abstract Fire prevention is necessary in all organizations in order to mitigate deaths and injuries caused by fires in buildings. Basically, there should be a precautionary unit which will ensure that fire occurrence chances are decreased significantly in order to reduce the number of deaths as a result of a fire breakout. The other consideration is the emergency procedures necessary in the event of a fire which essentially addresses the behavior of the buildings occupancies in the event of a fire breakout. The structure of fire protection in the organization works as a system of ensuring that the administration mandated the responsibility of formulating policies and budget for the fire prevention process is well executed. Another notable consideration taken by this analysis is the strategy which addresses the sensitive needs of the people with disability. This is important both to the disabled people occupying the premises and the visitors to the premises. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 Precautionary measures 4 Procedures during emergency 5 Structure of the fire protection organization 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction Fire protection organizations are unquestionably the most important in any country or state. Failure or success of these organizations depends on the management of the whole. Risks do exist and therefore these organizations have the mandate to manage risks. Effective management of these organizations will imply reduced fire cases. There is need for disaster planning, employment of qualified personnel and acquisition of reliable machinery for fire fighting. The planning process must be followed by formulation and implementation process. These organizations prevent fire from occurring and definitely prevent loss of lives or perform the role of law enforcement to ensure that residential and industrial areas are fitted with precautionary measures so that people can escape from the premises without injuries in the event of a fire. This report seeks to explain measures and ways of curbing fire occurrence in an organization setting. Precautionary measures A successful fire protection organization has safety measures in place in the event of fire rather than waiting until fire occurs. In essence it is very imperative for any organization to have well organized and instituted measures of preventing fire occurrence. Organizations must put in place both active and passive precautionary measures. It is the legal responsibility of those in the top management to develop fire safety strategy which will protect the lives of those who occupy the premises at the time of outbreak of fire. Active precautionary measures will imply the kind of measures like alarm systems which detect the presence of smoke and fire, firefighting equipment, emergency lighting and detection in the event of outbreak of fire. This is the mandate of the management to prescribe them during construction. Passive precautionary measures include buildings structure where exits and escape routes are constructed. Also clear access around all the premises (Klinoff, 2011). According to Garry (2008) a fire protection organization should have all the resources enough for fire fighting, free flowing water with enough engine pump capacity. Also the fire station location should be considered such that the response time is short enough so as not to allow flames to erupt. Employees should be provided with protective for the eyes, ears, respiratory system, head, foot and hands. They should also be trained on these precautionary measures. Based on the past fire occurrences, it has been established that despite the well planned strategies of fire prevention and emergency exit, most people occupying the premises have no or less knowledge of using fire fighting equipments and hence the genesis of increased deaths in the event of fire breakout. Procedures during emergency In the event of fire outbreak all the people at that time should be able to respond to the emergency on time. The organization should therefore come up with a plan of action for example; raising an alarm, who to call the brigade, where the occupants should gather for purposes of roll call. Fundamentally the following procedures are imperative in the event of a fire emergency breakout (Cote, 2008). i. Any staff member of the organization who discovers the fire should initiate the alarm at the next or nearest fire alarm unit. ii. All people occupying the premises should know the numbers of call and also be in a position to give the detailed location of the fire n the buildings such as which floor or room. iii. When the fire alarm is set, all the employees should be in a position to escape using the nearest designed fire escape way. They should evacuate the building as soon as possible and NOT get back to pick their personal belongings as this may increase the confusion and cause delays and hence increasing the chances of deaths. All the occupancies MUST NOT USE LIFTS to evacuate the building since they may end up being trapped (Cote, 2004). iv. As one of the fire fighting rules, any fire fighting action should always be left to the trained professionals. Any attempt by untrained person to fight a fire should be authorized in the event that the fire was of a small nature or preventing the exit route. v. Upon the evacuation process, all the occupancies of the buildings should gathered at the Fire Assembly Point as advised by the notices present in all fire notices in the building. It is also imperative for the evacuated people to move away from the building entrance in order to prevent people from going back to the building or hindering fire fighting personnel from accessing the building. vi. It is also important for all the staff members to ensure that they follow the instruction given by the fire prevention unit such as the fire wardens and security officers. vii. All the occupants of the building should at no time re-enter the building after the alarms go off until advised to do so by the Fire Convener/Unit. Structure of the fire protection organization A fire protection organization has a structure which works as a system and includes: administration charged with the responsibility of preparing the budget, formation of policies, human resource management and even employee supervision, trainers charged with the responsibility of educating new employees to be skilled in their work and even firefighting abilities, research team whose responsibility is to implement new technologies in the organization, maintenance whose responsibility is to observe wearing and tearing of machinery then work on them, volunteers who really help in time of emergency and support team who are charged with the responsibility to organize all the resources of the fire department both those within and those outside the organization (Lawrence v. City of Texarkana, 2011). Proper management of the various parts of the organization is essential in the performance of the whole organization such that the response time in the event of outbreak of fire is greatly minimized before fire erupts into uncontrollable flames. Legislations and acts have to be adhered to in the sense that every activity and step taken by the fire protection organizations is in accordance with the law. All employees in the organization must obey the rules and regulations set out by their chiefs and that have been adopted by the governing body (Cork City Fire Brigade, 2012). Another imperative measure that the organization should ensure it the consideration of the disabled people in the event of a fire breakout, this should include both the permanent occupancies such as employees and visitors who are considered disabled. A unit dealing with these people should be created in order to ensure that they are always served and protected in the event of a fire breakout. Conclusion Every organization has and needs to employ better strategies of fire prevention and emergency precautions. This is mandated by the law and the need for every organization to be safe in the event of a fire breakout. It is however worth noting that a proper preventive measure will minimize the chances of a fire occurrence and thus minimizing the number of casualties of a fire breakout. This analysis has focused on the precautionary measures of preventing fire occurrences; it has also focused on the emergency need in the event of a fire in the building. By maximizing he preventing and emergency needs of the organization, the chances of fire calamities are also reduced significantly. Consideration of the disabled people has also been put into focus in this analysis because of the need to prevent all the occupancies including visitors and regular residence of the premises. An effective structure of fire protection will thus play a major role in ensuring that every occupant of the premises is well protected from any fire incident. The recommended future explorations that can help in reducing fire occurrence is a proper analysis of the stipulated measures in the legal system, consideration of the current measures recommended for fire prevention and fire emergency steps. This will help in discovering the current weaknesses and thus allowing the fire prevention and emergency unit to work on better ways of handling fire issues in the future. References Cork City Fire Brigade. (2012). Fire Safety Management for your Organisation. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from http://www.corkcityfirebrigade.ie/fireprevention/firesafetymanagementforyourorganisatio n/ Cote, A. E. (2004). Fundamentals of Fire Protection. New York, NY: NationalFireProtectionAssoc. Cote, A. E. (2008). Fire Protection Handbook. New York, NY: NationalFireProtectionAssoc. Gary. L. W. (2008). Fire protection management report and recommendations, Retrieved April 22, 2012 from http://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/Knowledgebase.nsf/0/AF94E41900CD58188525742E00 48044D/$FILE/Fire%20Protection%20Management%20Report%20and%20Recommend ations.pdf Klinoff, W.R. (2011). Introduction to Fire Protection. New Jersey, NJ: Cengage Learning. Lawrence v. City of Texarkana, 2011 Ark. 42 (2011) Clarifying Statutes Regarding Regulations f or Fire and Police Departments: When Does the City Board of Directors Need to Adopt the Rule Retrieved on April 22, 2012 from http://lawreview.law.uark.edu/clarifying- statutes-regarding-rules-for-fire-and-police-departments-when-does-the-city-board-of- directors-need-to-adopt.html Read More