Cause and Effect of Fires and Their Investigation - Essay Example

Cause and effect of Fires and their investigation 1. Introduction Amongst the most threatening and harmful disasters is Fire. More than often fires be it natural or created by human negligence have lead to tragic deaths and consequences. Amongst the worst of these kinds is known to be the forest fire that especially occurs in the wood lands of Canada. They cover vast areas and burn down the vegetation and everything that comes in its path. On the other hand fires in the cities are hazardous too. Government and city authorities take every possible measure to cope with these occurrences and mostly the efforts of the fire brigades are commendable. Still there are times when even these fire fighters are helpless and cannot protect the people. Fires have known to occur or start due to various reasons amongst which the most common is the house fire that starts due to carelessness while cooking and sometimes short circuiting. Explosions of sorts, like in car accidents, blasts of gas cylinders in homes and factories or other bomb blasts all lead to fire issues. These life threatening occasions happen all around the world only the scenarios may differ and the measure taken to control are different. There are various aspects of the human psychology that needs to be kept in view when we discuss the causes and impacts of fires. Whether they were caused by human negligence or that in the panic state what the people might do and how they might react, all are issues that need to be kept in mind while investigations for the fire are carried out. This paper will look into the different human factors that contribute towards the scenarios people are in and will also discuss the hazards that are caused by fires. 1.1. The Human Factors It is universally understood that no two people will react to a situation in the similar manner. It may also be that one person acts in a different way one day and after a week the same person may act totally differently. How a person might react under a fire situation depends on some factors. The following will identify how we react to heat, smoke and flame: 1. Age Factor – according to research the elderly and the very young, are unable to withstand the fire effects as compared to other age groups. Data also shows that the highest death rate during fire is of these two age groups. . 2. Physical Size – one hand the people who are larger in structure and physique are able to endure higher amount of “toxic materials” that are created when there is a fire. On the other hand it may be negative also if we consider that heavy or large size people lack physical conditioning. 3. The next factor is of any existing condition physically. That means that the over all physical condition of the individual contributes to the survival of these people during fires. For example the heart stability, state of the respiratory system or aerobic condition, the mobility of the individual like his weight, height and other physical attributes. 4. Respiratory capacity - the majority of fire deaths are a result of smoke inhalation. Because of this a persons respiratory capacity is critical to their survival. Chronic diseases like “emphysema or asthma” also lower the capacity for breathing during fires. Similarly the conditions like pneumonia and flu do have an effect on this ability. People who smoke cigarettes have a high level of carbon monoxide and that in turn decreases the ability of the body’s oxygen intake. 5. Another area of concern which has come to view in cases of fire is the use of alcohol and prescribed drugs. This reduces the person’s capability to react to the dangerous situation and to recognize it although the women are much less prone to the effects than men. Lets us now move on to see the actions that may affect the reaction of individuals in a fire situation. Most people tend to deny, from a psychological point of view, the unpleasant situations that will occur due to fires. In that case their reactions are slower as they do not accept the condition and feel that the alarm might be false. The action that may affect the reaction of individuals is the act of affiliation. Generally people will leave in groups if there is a dangerous situation and the speed of evacuation of the area will be set by the slowest member of that group. It is the same act of affiliation that explains why parents cannot leave without their kids and why most people wait for their colleagues or neighbours in the apartments etc. The status of an individual will be a determining factor as to the reaction that person might have. The following paragraphs will be discussing the kinds of threats that are faced during or because of the fire. 1.2. Dangers of fire The important factor of the reaction to fire is generally categorized as the following four things: Temperature, Heat, Smoke, and Oxygen Depletion. The range of the temperature near the fire occurrence has varying effects with the duration of the exposure. The breathing ability and the humidity also affect people. Similarly people may face severe discomforts when facing temperature lower than 1220F and above 1500F. if the temperature rises above 2120F it may cause death. From the information given in table in an article regarding fire hazards the following details were extracted. The physiological effects of heat would in turn lead to heat strokes, rapid skin burns, difficulty in breathing through mouth and through nose, pain due to dry skin, and the thresholds of the respiratory system. The highest category of all these effects was the respiratory threshold and ability to tolerate temperature drops. The third hazard caused by fire is the obscurity due to smoke. It is known to have several negative effects like the visibility is reduced, eyes and throat irritation and fear that may be caused by inhaling the toxic fumes. It directly affects the ability of a person to escape. The last hazard is the depletion of oxygen. 1.3. Nature and types of buildings In various articles and news we come across fire occurrences in different kinds of building like homes, multi-storied buildings, farms etc. when a fire occurs in a building the characteristics of the building play an important role as to how people may or may not behave. Another important point to remember while considering the reaction of the people is the type of building or area where the fire has occurred. As part of the research for this paper I visited several fire department websites and collected interesting facts. The fire fighting websites provide sufficient information as to the reaction that people might show in different surrounding. (http://www.sjfd77.com/react.html ) Some of the steps to be taken in case a fire starts in Single Family Homes are: In case of a smoke detector sounding leave the premises immediately and do not try to investigate. Shouting "Fire! Everyone outside!"  Will alert everyone, then you can leave immediately. Always check the door temperature with the back of your hand before opening it. If it is warmer than normal use any other escape route. In case of a multistoried building or high rise the people living or working should be aware of certain things. They should consult the management of the building or the fire department and to have an idea of what should be done in such cases. Some building plans may however require evacuation in such cases and for that the emergency exits are to be known. When an alarm goes off people need to follow the instructions given before hand or may be at the moment as they come. Once again it is most important to keep calm however several reactions can be expected as there may be a very diverse group living or working in that building. Each of them may react differently even if there are fire fighters and rescuers working and giving proper guidance to the people. In the incident of having to stay inside then it is very important that a person should stay calm and go to the window so that fresh air comes in and call for the fire department. It is essential thing that elevators are not used during fires as they may get stuck etc. the fire fighters also use different tactics in cases of fire occurrences in the buildings. Road accidents are a cause of fire especially dangerous if the accident happens in tunnels. An article read on the internet stated a survey that had been conducted to highlight the reasons of accidents of fuel trucks. The article stated that it had been recently noted that there was a extensive addition in the number of fuel-truck accidents that also involved fire outbreaks especially in the “Oyo State, Nigeria”. As mentioned in it the “accident explosions” had some faults in the mechanism occurring while on the road. This mostly resulted in the loss of property and lives of the areas surrounding the place of the accident. Another area of concern with regards to fire that occurs during road accidents or collisions is the tunnels. As suggested in “The handbook of tunnel fire safety” by Alan Beard and Richard Carvel, tunnels are enclosed places and the fire that occurs in them causes poor visibility. Also, the spread of smoke and toxic gases and the rapid development of increased temperatures and oxygen reduction in the air. In this case the damage that may occur is far greater than if the fire was on an open road. According to the handbook there has to be a well developed plan in such cases where a fire occurs in the tunnel and to ensure the safety of the people who may be stuck in the fire. A case study was found in relevance to the fire and their causes, “Study of the exploration of fire occurrence spatial characteristics and impact factors” in the city of Tainan. This case study is written by Hsueh-Sheng Chang. It shed slights on the fire occurrences in the area of Tainan and how urban development plans were catering to safe guard the people and providing them with facilities to handle cases of fires. The results of the study apart from analyzing the “spatial characteristics” related to the urban disasters can also be used as a suggestion for significant “urban disaster” avoidance plan. It further explains that the area of the disaster is mostly connected to the surroundings. The appropriate methods for analysis also help to understand “spatial characteristics” that have an effect on calamities and sketch plans for prevention of disaster in cities. For the study examination of the locations where disasters had occurred in Tainan was carried out in two sections. The first was about the spatial features of these disasters in quadrants to evaluation of the “spatial gathering or dispersion of fire locations”. Secondly for further simplification of the man-made ecological features that have an effect on the happening of disasters in the blend with environmental “weighting regression analysis” in order to check the correlation among three things: loss, the man made environment and the occurrence of fires. The result of the study shows the fires in Tainan occur due to different reasons in the east side and south side. After the analysis that has been conducted for this study it was highlighted that the fires that occurred were due to 7 reasons. These factors are the “population density, adjacent road of buildings, types of buildings, structure of buildings, age of houses, floors of buildings and types of use.” It is important for different development authorities and city authorities to plan for fire incidents. They need to prepare and educate people so that each individual knows what and how to handle the situation in which fire has occurred. References “Incidents of fire outbreaks during fuel truck accidents in Oyo State” by A.A. Dare, S.A. Oke, K.L. Olanrewaju, viewed on Dec 12, 2009, http://www.emeraldinsight.com “The handbook of tunnel fire safety” by Alan Beard, Richard Carvel, viewed on Dec 14, 2009 http://books.google.com.pk/books http://www.sjfd77.com/react.html http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep04/fighting.html Read More