Fire Safety
Discuss about the Fire Prevention for Fire Safety and Management.
Fire safety management is a planned procedure that tells about the arrangements for controls, implementation, and reassessing the fire safety standards those are already maintained. Fire safety management was presented years ago by Amphora in 1987. There, it was reported that the first relevant document on fire safety management seemed to be the Fire grading report prepared in 1952 in UK.
Fire safety should be worked out by management by deciding about infrastructure of the premises and the occupancy ratio in it. Effective efficient fire safety management should comprise the staff training in a best possible way because when any type of fire hazards situation happen the occupants evacuated safely. Fire safety management comprises the management responsibility, commissioning and hand over of fire safety manual. The security personnel should also be trained in that way they will able to fighting the fire and evacuate premises as fast as possible.
Fire safety management meant by actions with those we can prevent fire or reduce damage like economical, health or any other due to fire hazards. Main aim of the fire safety or fire preventing methods is to prevent the occurrence of fire or if fire occurs in process plant then techniques to control it so as to prevent and serious damage. In these papers it contains the description about fire safety and fire safety management that how to can plan and act to control the fire hazards. Fire prevention and alarming system by mean of which we can alert the personnel about fire hazards and can control the fire hazard by mean of fire safety drill in which personnel are trained to control the fire is also explained. At the end few techniques and equipments used to control the fire hazards are listed.
Fire safety is set of practice by means of which we can reduce the destruction caused due to fire. It means affirmative ways to reduce destruction and damages caused by fire in the official as well as residential premises. Fire safety techniques or methods are intended to prevent the ignition or uncontrolled fire which will soon takes place after fire starts. For example: in construction building or in process plants we will use the fire safety measures like fire extinguishers, fire hoses.
Fire safety management is a planned procedure that tells about the arrangements for controls, implementation, and reassessing the fire safety standards those are already maintained. The plan should clearly specify planning, control, monitoring, organization and reassessing of fire safety techniques and provisions of fire safety in premises.
Fire Safety Management
Effective planning should include-:
- How designated personal respond to risk assessment of fire safety and determine the preferences of eliminating the fire hazard and minimizing the risk to the peoples.
- By choosing appropriate fire safety equipments.
- Fire safety planning improvises the standards and accountability of the fire safety measures which we adopted in the course of our fire safety plan.
Firstly recognize the people at all level who have the responsibility to carry out issues related to fire safety throughout the premises. Fire safety control techniques should brief about that how much our fire safety measures are healthy and be effective in an efficient and effective way. Fire safety control should supervise authorize personnel to look into matter those are considered relating to fire safety problems/ issues.
Fire safety monitoring meant to check on the fire precautions on regular basis and the detailed checking or investigation reasons of causes of the incident and recording of the other useful information. Mentoring includes routine inspection to ensure that techniques or methods are working in a efficient and effective manner and are properly maintained. Monitoring should altered the procedures if necessary and take further actions by which the accidents will go less in a ratio.
Fire safety reassessment means to redefine the plan, procedure, techniques or methods which we adopted in the course of fire safety management and remove the identified deficiencies and rectifying themselves. Its mechanism is to ensure the remedies are properly carried out in our plan. Reassessment includes the management system from beginning to the end working in a properly and compatible way according to our procedures and techniques.
Fire emergency plan is a plan which deals with the emergency fire situation to minimize the consequences of the fire hazards. The purpose of an emergence fire plan is to confirm that the persons in the premises should know that what they have to do in this type of extreme condition and how they can be safely evacuated from the premises. The fire emergency plan should provide the outcome of fire safety risk assessment and valid for the personnel, representatives and appropriate authority.
The emergency plan may not be a more than fire action notice in very small premises like residential houses, small offices, shops etc. In the large type of organization or premises the plan should be in a concise and detailed form after the discussion with the other holders and responsible people like owners, management those have control over the premises or building.
Fire emergency plan should be well implemented and well performed and could include-:
- How people will be alarmed in fire emergency circumstances.
- What employees should have to do if they found fire and they react with it?
- How to evacuate the premises in a best a best possible way without any misconception?
- After the evacuation how to assemble the personnel and check whether the building have been properly evacuated or not?
- Arrangement of fighting the fire
- Checking of the life safety system such as fire extinguishers, fire detection, evacuation lift, warning alarms, sprinklers.
- In these types of extreme critical there should be proper and fast contact to the fire brigade department or any kind of rescue services those can help in these kinds of situations.
- Proper carefulness in checking that any machine, appliance, processor, power supply is properly stopped or isolated to reduce the risk of increasing in fire because of short circuit or any type of electric wire problem.
- In these kind of condition how to control the crowd and how to deal with them?
- Staff should be properly trained that how the evacuation plan should be implemented in effective way during these extreme conditions while other are alerted those are not evacuated until later.
Fire safety drill is technique of practicing to how to evacuate personnel in the case of fire or any other kind of emergency situation. In the premises the fire alarm is activated and premises is evacuated when emergency happens. Fire safety evacuation plan guides the staff about their duties and responsibilities in case of fire emergency. Fire drill or we can say a fire mock drill serves as an opportunity for personal that how to demonstrate and fight under simulated fire conditions. In these type of drills staff can make strategies and plans that how they can deal with the fire hazards situations and techniques to save themselves as well as their colleagues in these types of risky situations. Fire drills should include the transmission of fire alarm signals.
Fire Alarms
Fire Safety Planning
A fire alarm system is device or a machine which is used to detect and warns the persons when there is any type of fire, smoke or other emergency occurs. These types of alarms got activated from smoke and heat detection.
- Warns the personnel to recognize the occurring fire through automatic techniques like smoke or heat detection
- Fire alarms alert the premises occupants in a fire condition and peoples have to evacuate from premises soon.
- Fire alarm system notifies the signal to the fire department or any other emergency rescue of the organization.
Mainly two kinds of fire alarms systems are used-:
- Conventional fire alarms system
- Addressable fire alarms system
Conventional fire alarm system is not located at the panel or central station. Programming of the conventional alarms system is easier in comparison to the addressable alarms system. The initial equipment cost is also low as comparable to the addressable alarm system. It has the expansion capability which is limited to the extent.
Addressable fire alarms system is located at the panel or central station. The input/ output programming is much more feasible and flexible in comparison to the conventional alarm system. Expansion capability is usually much more and wide in comparison to the conventional fire alarm system.
Fire safety control means full laid procedure by which we should reduce the risk and minimize the losses which will occur by fire hazards. Fire safety control should be including, fire fighting, fire detection, warning, emergency escape and fire prevention.
Firstly we should take fire prevention strategy in fire safety control plan which include details in full considerations of all the issues including issues like oxygen, fuel, heat. In fire safety controls we have to take the safe guards regarding to the above issues-:
- Control source of ignition
- Chimney to be clean and inspected regularly
- Treat the independent premises uses such as office over shop as separate purpose group in therefore compartmentalize from each other.
- Provide no smoking sign at appropriate location and smoking areas should be at distance from inflammable materials.
- In the premises like industry or factor use hot works permit system which include fire resisting protective cloths
- Routine checking and supervision of the machines or fire fighting equipments remove or protect combustible
- Prevent the suppress and control sparks, provision and training on suitable fire fighting equipments
- Fire safety control should mainly provide the safe guard on electrical safety because many fire hazards situation are happens cause of the problem of electrical short circuit, breakages in wire or any other electrical failures or electrical equipments and installations designs, constructed, installed, maintained, protected in a way which is used to prevent the dangerous situation in the premises.
- In premises there should be proper check on the electrical equipments and remove the defective ones. Ensure that the electrical cords are in good and working conditions.
- Avoid use of extension cords those are not safe under carpet or smoking area. Per outlet use only 1 device.
- Identify all inflammable material so that proper control can be implemented and work in the best possible way.
- Identify use of substance with flammable vapors examples some adhesive.
- In the factory industry type premises or anywhere to reduce the risk of fire hazard replace highly flammable materials with lesser one.
- Provide clearly marked separate storage for, gas cylinder, waste materials and flammable chemical.
- Management should train their personnel for uses of flammable material and safe storage handling.
- Flammable materials like flammable liquid present a important risk taking role in fire.
- Vapour evolved are heavier than air and these can spread long so our more likely to reach sources of ignition.
- Liquids leak & dangerous vapors can arise from the faulty storage bulks and container those are risky for the premises and if the fires happen them it will destroy all the machines, equipments of the industrial unit.
In the fire safety control the safety data sheet provides useful information about chemical, emergency majors and handling storage. Safety data sheets provide the knowledge above the hazards chemical that include useful information about it. For example in the chemical processing working units handle materials in accordance with advised on the safety data sheets and safety data’s sheet should be available in the event of fire or any kind of emergency services.
Fire fighting or protection system include device like piping equipment, wiring, control to detect the smoke or fire and to accurate the signals and suppresses the smoke or fire. The primary objective of protection of fire is to save life and protects the property and minimizes the interruption of service due to fire. Following are the fire fighting equipments-:
Manual alarm station
Manual alarm station like bells, gongs and flashing lights are manually activated by a switch. The manual alarm station is usually designed so that person can break a glass panel or glass rod so that alarm can be operated.
Fire Safety Control
Thermal detectors are special temperature activated sensors to initiate and alarm. These alarms activated with rise of temperature. There are three types of thermal detector-:
- Fixed temperature type
- Rate of rise type
- Combination type
These are quicker to respond than thermal detectors. There are two types of smoke detectors-:
- Photoelectric type
- Ionization type
Fire suppression system
Fire suppression system is achieved by means of preventing oxygen to come in contact with flammable materials by mean of cooling it below its igniting temperature. Fire suppressions system may be classified in several ways. Fire suppressions medium-: foam, water, gas, chemical etc. The fire suppression system devices -: stand pipe, portable extinguisher and automatic sprinkler, hose etc.
Foam system are most effective measures in fire fighting caused by oil, liquid, paint, grease etc. The suppression foam is made by generator which mixes water with the detergent or any other chemical for producing as much as one thousand gallon of the foam for water quantity of each gallon. Foam system suppresses fire by separating fuel from the air (oxygen).
Automatic sprinklers systems are integrated fire suppressions system consisting of supply of water in the network of sprinkler head, pipe, and of other component to provide automatic fire suppression in areas of premises. This type of system is mainly effective in the premises which contain the ordinary combustible material such as wood, paper and plastics.
Portable fire extinguisher is used as first and prime type of fire fighting equipments. They are normally recharged with water or chemicals and are hand operated.
Stand pipe system
Stand pipe system can also be called as stand pipe or hose system consists of the valves, piping, nozzles connections and hose to providing the stream of waters for fire suppression. There are two types of stand pipe systems-:
- Wet system
- Dry system
By cleanliness and housekeeping we can reduce the chances of fire hazards by following ways-:
- By avoiding accumulation of combustible waste and cleaning it at least once a day and by storing it away from the building.
- Don’t store combustible material in between the escape routes or nearby the heat potential source even on temporarily basis.
- Clean the production surfaces on the daily basis so as to prevent the grease build up.
- Clean the nearby area of workplace or empty land nearby the process plant so as to avoid the fire spread by mean of dry grass.
Fire safety deals with risk. Probability of the serious fires or any type of fire hazards situation in any premises maybe less but potential consequences are enormous. Unwanted fire may have much consequence which can damage to property damage, human life, health, environmental pollution and business interpretation. Most tragic consequence of the fire incidence is any loss of life. Fire is mainly occurred because of use of combustible core materials.
Conclusion
Over the time changes an increasing knowledge ability and understanding of the manufactures that contributes to risk of the fires as lead to some positive development in fire protection of commercials as well as residential structures. Improvement in personnel fire protection system and services through loss control engineering and fire protection as meant to decrease in cost of fires. Fire safety can be achieved by various means of a variety of passive and active protection of fire measures can be assed and factors related to market considered optimizing the both overall cost and fire safety for the commercial premises.
References
County Durham and Darlington, “Fire Safety Management and Emergency Plan”, Visited 25 August 2016, Available-: <https://www.ddfire.gov.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/fire-emergency-plan.doc>
W.K.Chow, 2001, “Review on Fire safety management and application to Honk Kong”,
International Journal on Engineering Performance- Based Fire codes, Vol.3, No.1, Visited 25 August 2016, Available: <https://www.bse.polyu.edu.hk/researchCentre/Fire_Engineering/summary_of_output/journal/IJEPBFC/V3/p.52-58.pdf>
Fire Drills, Visited 25 August 2016, Available: <https://www.bse.polyu.edu.hk/researchCentre/ FireEngineering/summary_of_output/journal/IJEPBFC/V3/p.52-58.pdf>
Fire Marshal’s Office, “Fire Alarm System Basics”, Environment health & safety department,
Stanford University, Visited 25 August 2016, Available: <https://bgm.stanford.edu/sites/all/lbre-shared/files/bgm/files/shared/file/SU FMO%20Fire%20Alarm%20System%20Basics%20Presentation %20to%20Building%20Managers%207-28-2014.pdf>
Safety net, 2004, “Conclusion”, Intelligent safety solution, US Patent Application: US 2004/ 0140899 A1, Visited 25 August 2016, Available: <https://www.intelligentsafetysolutions.com/pdfs/conclusion.pdf>
Rockwool firesafe insulation,” Why fire safety?”, Visited 25 Aug 2016, Available: <https://www.rockwool.com/sustainable+buildings/fire+safety/why+fire+safety>
“Fire Prevention”, Health and safety authority, Visited 25 Aug 2016, Available: <https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Topics/Fire/Fire_Prevention/>