Identification of Effective Strategy to Reduce the Number of Injuries - Literature review Example

COMMUNITY FIRE SAFETY Identification of effective and robust strategy to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities as a result of domestic fires in multi-occupancy high-rise buildings 1. Introduction Fire is often disastrous and most of all costly in terms of life and property. Moreover, fire kills more people than natural disasters and majority died because of inhalation of toxic gases (Steorts 2003, p.43). In the United Kingdom, fire damage to property was a 1.3 billion in 2004 alone, 395 lost their lives and 12, 300 were injured (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2006, p.25). According to fire statistics, careless cooking is the main source of fires and highly overpopulated multi-occupancy high rise temporary housing for migrant workers cooking outside the kitchen and near combustible materials is very common. A certain moment of carelessness can cause fire thus having an overpopulated high is dangerous and can injure or kill not only the workers but the responding fire fighters. Consequently, production will be affected and building stability will be at risk leading to further hazards and life threatening situations. The following section discusses the problem arising from having migrant workers living a high-rise multi-occupancy temporary housing and possible solutions using problem-oriented partnership with other agencies. 2. Analysis of the Problem Fire in dwelling common occurs while cooking and in an overpopulated high-rise temporary housing, cooking is being done in unlikely places due to overcrowding in the kitchen or designated cooking area. The situation is made worse due to lack of space since the facility is not yet complete. Consequently, workers have no choice but to use their living room or other available places to cook regardless of obvious fire hazards in the area (Koren & Bisesi 2003, p.401). Since most the part of the building is under construction and installation of fire safety features is not yet done, fire could spread uncontrolled. Fire in this type of overpopulated building can cause severe damage including worker’s injury of death and it worst cases; it can take a responding fire fighter’s life. Although the lack of space for cooking can be blame to a degree, the carelessness and disregard of both migrant workers and building management to fire safety is generally the be blame as fire would not occur if they comply with fire safety regulations about building occupancy and safety precautions. Fires usually occur in homes and other residential buildings while cooking and any uncontrolled fire may spread and can become unimaginably destructive in a matter of minutes. For instance, inside the kitchen, cooking oil may ignite along with fats and grease accumulated on the cooking appliance the further spread to nearby combustible materials like cloth, wood, plastic, and so on (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2006, p.4). Uncontrolled, this situation could lead to a major fire consuming the rest of the building. In an overpopulated dwelling such as the migrant workers accommodation, the situation may be worsened by the height of the building and the number of people that will be affected. For instance, a fire occurring in 6th floor accommodation particularly in the living room where the workers cook their meal can spread rapidly due to the availability of highly combustible materials such as sofa, carpet, clothing, paper, plastic, and similar materials. Since the building is under construction and no fire safety devices installed, fire would spread rapidly and responders may not reach the 6th floor on time. Another problem with an overpopulated high-rise temporary workers housing is electrical fault induced by altering electrical equipment, outlet, and wiring. According to Tullier (1999, p.185), fire usually occurs because of people’s carelessness and negligence. For instance, people tend to misuse electrical appliances, tampering electrical supplies to suit their needs. Particularly in a building that is under construction with incomplete facilities such as limited electrical outlets, workers tend to improvise and alter electrical connections. An overcrowded temporary housing requires more electrical supply as there are more people in one unit that requires electricity. Moreover, they use more appliances, requires more heating equipment, and more electrical outlet. For instance, since the electrical outlet is limited, workers will carelessly use extension wires that have much smaller load capacity or plugging in a number of appliances in one outlet using adaptors and extension cables. This alteration can lead to overloading and subsequent overheating that can cause fire (NFPA 2005, p.90). In other situation, workers may overuse their appliances and overheat causing ignition and fire. Carelessness, neglect, and total disregard to fire safety can lead to abuse of potential fire sources. People living in overpopulated temporary housing are commonly at risk due to insufficiency of escape routes and fire safety equipment. More often than not, escape routes in these buildings are insufficient because they are being use as storage of equipment and other materials. Moreover, since the building is under construction, standard fire safety features such as fire sprinklers, fire extinguishers, and others do not exist and during a fire, occupants have no choice but to escape and let the fire spread. Moreover, materials stored in escape routes may prevent people from escaping effectively as a narrowed escape route cannot clearly accommodate a significant number of people at once. In case of fire, materials stored or placed in these escape routes can become additional source of fuel for the fire (Communities and Local Government 2006, p.50) contributing to further fire spread. Consequently, fire would burn the escape route as well making escape and fire fighting almost impossible. Fire occurring in high-rise temporary housing is dangerous considering the height of the building and the length of time before responders can directly deal with the fire and conduct an evacuation. Moreover, buildings that are under constructed do not have enough water supplies that can be use to effectively suppress the fire. Considering the height of the building, it is very likely that fire fighters would find it hard to suppress the fire in the soonest possible time. Fire occurrence in overpopulated high-rise temporary housing is inevitable for a number of reasons and as a mentioned earlier, these can be carelessness, neglect, insufficient cooking facility, insufficient electrical outlets, alterations of electrical equipment, and total disregard by both workers and building management to fire safety laws and regulations. This type of building is under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 where the responsibility for keeping the facility safe is the hands of the “responsible person” who in this case is the building owner or management. Under the law, the building management must conduct a risk assessment and ensure that risks are addressed (Billington et al. 2007, p.7-19). Clearly, the management allowed overcrowding and disorganized and hazardous living of migrant workers in a building that has no fire safety features and risky to everyone. Since the likelihood of fire occurrence is high, this problem must be address with an effective strategy as soon as possible. The following section discusses the likely strategy to solve the problem and prevent fire occurrence and fatalities in high-rise temporary housing for migrant workers. 3. Strategy to Reduce the Number of Injuries and Fatalities During the early days of fire prevention, concern about fire safety was mostly focus on premises. However, since fire occurrence becomes more frequent and more destructive, people realize that fire prevention should be an individual concern. Since then fire safety education is being offered as a tool to reduce the number of fire occurrence, fatalities, and injuries. According to Barr & Eversole (2003, p.942), fire education can be in the form of posters, school programmes, media sponsored fire safety initiatives, incorporated in community activities, and house to house campaigns. However, the fire safety programme must address specific concerns and must be implemented by those who have the power to influence others. In this case, the fire safety education programme will be directed to building owner and its workers. Safety is not just a matter of knowing what is safe or not but dedication and concern to life and property. People who know the consequences of carelessness can better respond than those unaware of the importance of being vigilant and cautious about fire. Generally, lack of fire safety knowledge lead to poor safety practices (Nazarro 1994, p.249) while knowledge ignored can also leads to disaster (Gillespie 2004, p.73). It is therefore necessary to have an effective fire safety education that does not only teach how to do things safer but infuse the knowledge deeper into every person. Clearly, there are two main problems with high-rise temporary housing. The first is overcrowding or over-population and the second is the lack of fire safety concern. These major problems will then lead us to building management’s disregard to laws and regulations concerning fire safety and worker’s carelessness and ignorance of fire safety practices. According to Hogan & Burnstein (2007, p.349), fire incidents are commonly caused by overcrowding, disobedience to fire codes and disregard to protocols concerning fire safety. For instance, it is very likely that in an under construction building early warning devices is not yet available and since it is being use as a temporary housing, it is very likely that escape routes and procedures are not very clear to the majority of workers. Fire safety education may not be the only solution to the problem but it can be the most effective means of controlling the behaviour of individual particularly in fire safety practices. Typically, existing fire safety education programmes intends to help people learn to prevent fire because awareness of safe practices and consequences of not doing so can make people vigilant to what they do. According to Noji (1997, p.389), an effective fire safety education not only teach people best practices but modifies people behaviour in such a way that fire safety is almost an everyday concern. It is therefore necessary that individual should be aware of the risk of fire and at the same time concern about fire safety practices. Educating the workers and the building owners about fire safety can go along way and would benefit not only the people concern but the whole community and the fire and rescue service. A significant number of lives and property can be saved while fund and resources of the fire and rescue service can be use in some other worthwhile activities. A single agency is undoubtedly not adequate to cover and implement a fire safety education programme since there are number of different people involved in ensuring compliance to fire safety. First, building management is under the local authorities who had issued the necessary building permit and compliance certificate. Moreover, building owners are bound to fire safety regulations and national laws and therefore the power to affect change is the hands of the local authorities. In other aspect of fire safety, fire safety education may be in general target a specific group such as the workers. According to Diamantes (2004, p.160), a concern person would likely try be a good citizen and avoid being the problem. This person, observing his behaviour and avoiding making unacceptable actions, would soon become a model for others and influence the way the group manages things. If fire setting is considered as an antisocial behaviour (Forehand et al,, 1991, p.1-21) or people who feel unwanted (Sakheim et al. 1985, p.64) or doing for just curiosity and fun (Kolko & Kazdin 1994, p.33), a community and multi-agency approach may be also applied. In the same way, he can also influence people’s fire safety practices. Not all workers are careless and neglectful as there are others who are concern about their safety. These types of people with proper support can influence others positively. The fire and rescue service may be placed at the centre of public fire safety education since they have the knowledge and expertise to detail fire safety procedures. Supporting the fire and rescue service is the local authorities by providing resources and access to target groups and facilities required in conducting the programme. Moreover, local authorities can facilitate media coordination and dissemination of messages more effectively because of their greater resources and connections. Schools are also a great place to start as students is more receptive of fire safety messages and they can impart this knowledge to other members of the community, family, friends, and in some cases can influence migrant workers if given a chance. The community can also support the fire service by being a good example to the migrant workers. There are community groups that will be most willing to conduct educational activities such as visiting and encouraging workers to practice fire safety in their accommodations. This can also help understand their better because there is also a possibility that the cause of fire may not be negligence alone but behavioural disorder such as distress, alienation, depression (Moore et al. 1996, p.67). Finally, building owners, managers, and other personnel must get involved as citizens of the community that are concern with fire prevention and safe practices. These groups working together with a common goal will be more effective in solving fire safety problems in high-rise temporary housing. 4. Conclusion Uncontrolled fire is often destructive and carelessness is frequently the cause of such fire in dwellings. An overpopulated high-rise temporary housing is a fire hazard as migrant workers due to overcrowding tend to use the bedroom, living room, and other unlikely places to cook their food. The building is not yet complete and therefore lack the necessary fire safety features than can immediately detect and suppress fire. Aside from overpopulation and lack of appropriate area for cooking activities, migrant workers tend to alter electrical installations to suit their needs resulting to overloading and overheating of wires and equipments. The cause of such overcrowding is building management’s disregard to the well-being of the workers and public safety. More importantly, the problem was started by the management’s intentional violation of laws and regulations regarding fire safety and occupancy of highly hazardous building. Prevention is considered an effective means of solving fire problems and an important part of this prevention is fire safety education. The strategy to solve the problem in high-rise temporary housing should employ fire safety education as a means to reduce the number of fire occurrence, fatalities, and injuries. It must target a specific group and implemented with other agencies in mind. A multi-agency approach that includes relevant stakeholders such as workers, building owners, local authorities, community groups, the fire and rescue service, and others can greatly improve fire safety compliance and practices in many ways since it would involve almost all sectors concern. The coordination that would take place between building owners, the fire and rescue service, and local authorities can bring fire safety in the forefront while building management realizes their roles and responsibilities in keeping their building, workers, and the community safe. The workers on the other hand would also realize the extent to which fire safety must be a part of their daily activities considering the presence of local authorities and the community that are all concern for their safety and well-being. 5. Reference List Billngton M., Bright K., & Waters J. 2007, The Building Regulations: Explained and Illustrated, Wiley-Blackwell, UK Communities and Local Government. 2006. Fire Safety Risk Assessment: Sleeping Accommodation. The Stationery Office, UK Forehand et al, 1991, Juvenile fire setting: A unique syndrome or an advanced level of anti-social behaviour?, Journal of Behaviour Research and Therapy, pp. 29, 125-128, 1991 Gillespie James R. 2004. Modern Livestock & Poultry Production. Cengage Learning, US Koren H. & Bisesi M. 2003. Handbook of Environmental Health. CRC Press, US Moore et al, 1996, Profiles of adolescent boys with a history of firesetting, Journal of Personality Assessment, pp. 67, 4-20, 1996 Nazaro J. 1994. Marine Fire Prevention, Firefighting and Fire Safety: A Comprehensive Training and Reference Manual. DIANE Publishing, US Noji Eric K. 1997. The Public Health Consequences of Disasters. Oxford University Press, US NFPA. 2005. User's Manual for NFPA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations. 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