Efficiency of the Fire Protection Trainings - Research Proposal Example

Research proposal: This research proposal is based on various aspects of fire investigation which is also known as origin and cause investigation as noted by (Smith, 2010). Fire investigation is one of the most important branches of Forensics which focuses upon the investigation of the fire breakout and reveals what factors played their role in the breakout of fire and who might be held responsible for the incident. In this way, it is also a means of crime analysis. People involved in the practice have legal support and are licensed to use scientific methods to investigate the matter. Fire investigation is very essential to help people realize and eliminate the unsafe practices that lead toward fire breakout. Fire investigation can also be employed in the study of effectiveness of fire training education of the occupants in protecting the buildings against the harmful effects of fire. Introduction: Fire protection has long been a matter of major concern to the investors. Protecting the building against fire has been a big challenge for the builders. Successful entrepreneurs have considered it as one of the major areas of investment. Legislations like Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) have placed great emphasis on the workers’ education and training. It is emphasized that employers should necessarily educate their workers on health and safety matters. Fire training is one of the necessary areas of education. (www.osha.gov, 2002) mentioned that under the Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 1910 Subparts E and L; and Part 1926 Subparts C and F, OSHA states that it is the employers’ responsibility to train their workers about fire hazards and teach them what to do when a building catches fire, where to escape from and how to use fire fighting equipment. This has led to the concept of fire training courses. Fire training is gaining employers’ attention because of a large emphasis on the health and safety aspects of the business in the present age. Failing to comply with the standards set by the health and safety legislations may expose the owners to severe liabilities and penalties. This research aims at drawing a comparison between the performance of fire trained workers and untrained workers in fire prevention of the buildings in UK. To achieve this purpose, the buildings with recent fire breakouts will be investigated and the information will be compared with those which had been occupied by untrained workers. Investigation will be carried out by some licensed company as usual. Often, a government authorized body like OSHA may investigate the matter. The research will be useful for the safety conscious entrepreneurs who are reluctant to invest in the fire training of their employees. The cost comparison of the investment in fire training and the penalties imposed by health and safety legislations upon the ignorant would serve as an incentive for the managers to willingly invest in safety. Objectives: The objective of this research is to measure the effectiveness of fire training courses given to the workers, especially in case of emergencies. The research question can be stated as follows: Are fire-trained personnel better at dealing with fire hazards than untrained workers in case of emergencies from an owner’s perspective? The research will make use of taped videos captured by cameras installed by the owners at various locations, to learn the performance of the workers during fire breakouts. This would help the research answer another question: Are cameras a reliable source of conducting fire investigation? Often, in an attempt to provide the building with sufficient protection against possible fire hazards, the clients unknowingly over-invest. This research would not only measure the role of fire-training courses in inculcating a safe attitude in workers, but also work out an empirical relation for the gross investment in fire protection and the type of building while answering the following question: What is the optimum investment in fire protection for a certain type of building? Since, some buildings are more likely to experience a fire breakout than others because of their functionality; builders would be able to benefit from the results of the research. Literature review: A number of studies in the past have criticized the owners’ unwillingness to invest in the workers’ fire safety training in general because they think of hazards as a natural phenomena and consider the investment in safety as a waste of money. A research conducted to examine the notion of outsourcing fire prevention services by (Valentine, 2002) revealed that agencies have to outsource fire prevention tasks in the absence of a technically competent staff. This can be expensive as well as less productive in that the hired services might take long enough to arrive at the site to let the fire cause considerable harm to the property. Several organizations offering safety training courses have surfaced as a result of an increasing emphasis on workers’ health and safety in the present age. Swan Fire Training is one such training, which offers high quality fire training services at the location chosen by the buyers as mentioned in (www.swanfire.co.uk, 2007). Owing to the role of cameras in conducting fire investigation, a lot of literature from the past can be accessed. Cameras are widely employed in plazas and buildings specially those of commercial use and are often quite useful for investigations. (Beam, 2010) mentioned that fire investigators often make use of cameras during routine investigations. Research methodology: This portion of research discusses the ways and means that will be adopted to find answers to the questions mentioned under the “objectives” section. “Structurally, research methodology has been defined as the ‘methods’, that is, methods, techniques and tools for research.” (Hayat, 200-). Since, the research is about exploring the workers’/occupants’ behavior during fire breakouts, the research is qualitative in nature. Qualitative research is suitable when behaviors, attitudes and experiences are to be studied through interviews or focus groups. (e-articles.info, 2010). Therefore, qualitative research is preferred over quantitative research. The universe, population and samples considered for this study are defined as follows: Universe All building owners in the United Kingdom (UK). Population All owners of buildings in the universe which experienced fire breakout. U-sample All buildings from the universe studied. P-sample All buildings from population studied. Selection criteria: The criteria based on which buildings will be included in the research are mentioned below: 1. The buildings must be located in the UK and have undergone a fire breakout at least once in the lifetime of the building. 2. The owners should voluntarily contribute toward the research. Data collection: This research is fundamentally based on an observational study in which data will be collected from the owners of buildings which caught fire in UK considered in the sample who will be interviewed to express their stance on the fire training of the occupants/workers. Interview is one of the most reasonable means of gathering the right information especially for a qualitative research. Also, the semi-structured interviews can be very helpful in the development of a healthy environment for the meaningful conversation between the two persons involved in the interview. “Falling within the constructivist research model (Kvale, 1996) the interview is seen as a conversation in which the researcher asks questions to enable the interviewees to tell their own stories in their own terms.” (Coates, 2004). Besides, the owners will also be asked to respond to a questionnaire which will be formulated for the respondents to answer in simple yes or no. Although, questionnaires are not taken as a fundamental method of conducting a qualitative research, yet they can be helpful. (Woods, et al. 2006) argued that questionnaires might be used prior to interviews as a check for the validity of information. They further noted that such an interaction among various techniques is typical of a qualitative research. Also, the questionnaires can provide additional information that might be quite helpful in drawing the analysis. The owners will be asked to respond to the same questionnaire at regular intervals within a month, to reveal any psychological changes that they might have undergone during the intervals which would reflect in their changed response to the very questionnaire. Responses remaining unchanged over the intervals would prove their solidarity. Sample selection: The study will be conducted on 50 buildings, randomly selected from the buildings which experienced fire accidents from the data collected by the UK Fire Statistics which records fire accidents. “The Fire Statistics, UK are published as annual bulletins presenting detailed statistics on fires, casualties and false alarms attended by fire and rescue services in the United Kingdom.” (www.communities.gov.uk, n.d.). The interested owners will be compensated for their collaboration and cooperation with the researcher as an incentive to develop realistic responses toward the questionnaire. It will be left upon the will of the owner if his name is to be mentioned in the final thesis. Time scale: The intended schedule for the research is as follows: Time Task 1 month Data collection 1 month Study 1 month Interviews 1 month Questionnaire distribution and collection 15 days Data analysis 5 days Conclusion and recommendations References: Beam, J., 2010. “What Does a Fire Investigator Do?”. Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-a-fire-investigator-do.htm. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. Coates, N., 2004. “The ‘Stranger’, the ‘Sojourner’ and the International Student”. Available at: www.ece.salford.ac.uk/proceedings/papers/nc_04.rtf. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. e-articles.info, 2010. “The difference between qualitative and quantitative research”. Available at: http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/THE-DIFFERENCE-BETWEEN-QUALITATIVE-AND-QUANTITATIVE-RESEARCH/. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. Hayat, S., 200-. “Research methodology manual”. National Management College (Lahore) Available at: www.pasc.gov.pk/material/research-methdology/file-2.doc. Available at: [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. Smith, S. E., 2010. “What is Origin and Cause Investigation?”. Available at: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-origin-and-cause-investigation.htm. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. Valentine, R. P., 2002. “A study to examine outsourcing fire prevention bureau services”. Available at: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo33767.pdf. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. Woods, P. and Pratt, N., 2006. “Qualitative research”. Available at: http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/qualitative%20methods%202/qualrshm.htm. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. www.communities.gov.uk, n.d. “Fire statistics, United Kingdom”. Available at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/researchandstatistics/firestatistics/firestatisticsuk/. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. www.swanfire.co.uk, 2007. “Welcome to Swan Fire Training”. Available at: http://www.swanfire.co.uk/. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. www.osha.gov, 2002. “What should employers do to protect workers from fire hazards?”. Available at: http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/fire-safety-factsheet.html. [Accessed: 22 May 2010]. Read More