Fire Investigation - Signs, Symptoms, and Causes of Collapse, Risks Hazards, and Solutions - Case Study Example

A report on fire investigation By [ name of the author] A report on fire investigation from [name of the organization] [author’s name] [date of fulfillment] Acknowledgment Abstract The very important aspect of a fire investigation depends a lot in the origin and cause of the fire. The investigation is done in order to get the actual reason behind the fire. I am also looking at various preventive measures that would have given a different scenario. My topic of concern is a fire outburst in Beetham Tower, Manchester, England. I am trying to plot some situations related to it, during my investigation. After firefighters extinguish a fire, an investigation is launched to determine the origin and cause of the fire or explosion. Investigations of such incidents are done using a systematic approach and knowledge of basic fire science. Table of Contents Cover sheet 1 Title page 2 Acknowledgment 3 Abstract 4 Executive Summary 6 The report 7 Conclusion 13 references 16 Recommendations 16 Executive Summary This paper is the analysis of a fire-related incident. This is a report about a fire break down in Beetham Tower, Manchester; which is the tallest residential building in UK. This particular building is also known as "Hilton Tower" and "301 Deansgate". The fire was devastating and my report is concentrating on all those factors related to such a mishap. My approach is a very systematic and is following the knowledge of the basics about fire as I proceed with my report. As a basis of this analytical survey I am following Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. DeHaan (2007). This is a wonderful book and is a well narrated piece to serve my purpose. The report INTRODUCTION It was on last Monday, that there was a great fire in the Beetham Tower, Manchester. This is supposed to be the tallest residential building in UK. This particular building is also known as "Hilton Tower" and is estimated to be of "301 Deans gate"1. It is a very huge building of 168.9 metres (554 ft). The fire broke in the building at about 2 pm in the afternoon. Being a residential building, Beetham Tower, Manchester, England was well stuffed with a population not less than 800 people including children. There started big nuisance all around and people started running in all possible directions. There were many people who were also at the same time taking care of the children and were calling the fire brigade station. Fortunately the fire fighting reached the scene in a very short notice of 10 minutes and all the efforts were applied for a quick control over the fire. In this paper, I am trying to find out the measures that would have protected the Beetham Tower, Manchester, England from having so much destructive consequences. May major area of discussion is about the safety tips as has been well described in Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. DeHaan (2007)2. This book is exclusive dealing with all kinds of fire accidents. There is very precautionary description for every fire emergency. Here we can have the instances of fire in a skyscraper to a grass and wild land fires and their investigation. It is an exclusive piece of work dealing also with the sections related to automobile, motor vehicle, and ship fires. I strongly feel that if the necessary measures are taken well before hand than then there remains very less possibility for such disasters. The matter that this book specifies is about the explosions and explosive combustion that are very hard to control. In this case the matter of consideration is related to the chemical fires and hazardous materials, i.e.; the LPG cylinder. Signs, symptoms and causes of collapse The fire brought a great destruction to the whole Beetham Tower, Manchester, England. It burnt almost all the private properties and also damaged the building a lot. According to the sources it has been said that the fire broke due to some kind of mishandling of LPG gas cylinder. This actually seems to happen in a household. As the fire broke in the 5th floor it started going upward in no time. The 5th and the 6th floors were collapsed. The 4th floor, however almost broke into pieces. The building just fell straight towards the ground in the vertical position. I approached a police officer, who was in duty at the time of this accident. I asked him about the incident and he said that, he heard a big sound and the 5th and the 6th floor of the building collapsing with a huge fire. Immediately the power supply got disconnected and the whole area turned into battle field. The hazards were more as there was no provision for sprinklers. In buildings like this the automatic sprinklers are very compulsory and they should be made available in almost every nook and corner of the building. Rather than the manual sprinklers the automatic one is more effective. However while placing them it should be wells scrutinized that they are not fitted in those areas that are closer to electrical goods. Risks and hazards As soon as the LPG cylinder got burst there was a sudden explosion killing 10 people on the spot and that was a great tragedy. It has been said that the building is well protected from fire with all kinds of preventive solution but even that it was very unfortunate that the accident came up so obvious. I went down to the locality to get the whole information in detail. I met some of the people who were taken out of the building in sound health. According to a Ales Stephenson, a 50 years old man; ‘the scene was terrible and the every thing was chaotic as there was no emergency exit markings place properly in every possible turning. There were some placed in a very appropriate places but most of them were hardly found.’ A group of young people made an effort especially to save the children and they also saved 26 children from the fire. The fire fighting group reached the scene and they started in the process of immediate rescue. The best thing that they did was the means of making announcements3. They were giving many helpful instructions and that was a great help to this young team that was voluntarily helpings the children out of the building. George Michael, a young man of 27, says that the rescue team was telling not to spray water over electrical goods and that was indeed a great help for those who were not acquainted with the fact. As specified in the Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. DeHaan there is a strict application of foams to the electrical caused of fire. It has been well demarcated from the clothing and fabric fires. These are some of the things that the people of the building should have made aware by some practical sessions organized by the building committee. The hazards that this team faced was much cleared by Franc Johnson of 30 years. He says that ‘the problem that they faced was of minimum availability of fire ceasing cylinders. There were some, but were not in abundance’. According to Franc; ‘the availability of fire ceasing cylinders should be more towards the upper stairs as fire gets more bigger in mass towards the upper part of the building’. The firefighting team found it really difficult to go upstairs as both 5th and the 6th floors were collapsed. Fortunately this fire fighting team had got the specialist fire investigation officers and they made some technical efforts to reach to the uppermost floors. The team was equipped with some well qualified and very experienced professionals. This made the task much easier. This is very important. However the chief of this team M.D. Nichols complained that the authority of the building should have some well trained in house professionals for these types of crisis. These types of buildings should operate their own private fire services to protect their interests and provide a first attack capability until local authority fire crews arrive4. Nichols was also very much disappointed by the lack of extensive equipments for the rescue purpose. According to him a big skyscraper like this should always have a ladder attached to the building for emergency exit. This helps in coming out of the building in a much safer way and people can at lest help themselves5. The whole building was burning and the entire area was engraved into clouds of smoke. It was all smoky and was a very serious situation to handle. Many people were coughing and were in a state of fire is smoke inhalation. Few elderly people were to enquire is there is any first aid provision in the building. The response were negative, it seems that there is no such emergency arrangements in the building itself; however the nearby hospital was informed and they were making al possible efforts for the purpose. Some solutions There are many ways through which we can have the immediate remedies and solution to these types of situation. I here would like to refer to Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. DeHaan. This is a book that is very close to the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) 921 Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigation6. All the guidelines used in this book for the purpose are worth following and is well recognized and used at the National Fire Academy We can have an extensive education and training experience in all phases of fire and explosion investigation. It is therefore very important to understand the chief factors that are applicable to extinguish a fire. The main objective lies in the removal of the combustible factors. As the Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. De Haan specifies that the firefighters work by eliminating exposure of fuel that may be ignited by nearby flames or radiant heat. They are also very active in the means of cooling the fuel below flashpoint. The methodology also undertakes the means containing and extinguishing the fire. There is also the rapid way towards the removing debris and extinguishing all hidden fires to prevent rekindling. These are the techniques that are mostly applied by the professional trainers and are the best way to control fire. I also prefer that the buildings like Beetham Tower, Manchester, England; should have some sessions on these types of theme so that the security measures can be well applied during emergencies. As people will learn about the nature and behavior of fire; combustion properties of liquid, gaseous, and solid fuels; they will be cautious by themselves. A good understanding of the sources of ignition7; like a LPG cylinder will be better handled by the people and the risk will diminish. Added to this the residents should be made aware of the structure of fires along with their investigation for a better handling of the situation under emergency8. One of the main risks of a huge building fire is the smoke. In a skyscraper like the residential Beetham Tower, Manchester, England the fire gets all possible chance of making tremendous smoke. These suffocated smokes are pretty obvious to carry immense heat and poisonous gases, and that leads to obscures vision. There is all provision for getting rid of such a trouble. In a huge building like this there can be the application of two different strategies. One of these is the application of isolation of the fire. This is sometimes not worth the use. However in such cases the most well recommended means is that of positive pressure ventilation. Positive pressure ventilation or as called the PPV consists of using a fan to create excess pressure in a part of the building. The usability depends a lot on this pressure that act to push the smoke and the heat away, and thus secure the rescue and fire fighting operations. This is a very fruitful way of making the building smoke free and helps against breathlessness. As stated by Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. DeHaan, there is this provision for making awareness through alarms for fires. These are sometimes categorized as "one alarm", "two alarm", "three alarm" (or higher) fires. This is very effective for a quick response. There is also a great need of comprehensiveness about the elementary chemistry of combustion. This is very much important at least for the constructing teams of buildings like Beetham Tower, Manchester, England. It is highly recommended that the residential buildings like this should have all kinds of laboratory services for such emergencies. This will minimize he instances of fire-related deaths and injuries. Conclusion The disaster of Beetham Tower, Manchester, is a way to make people more conscious and careful about the accidents caused by fire. It is a warning to all those institutions that are more likely to face these types of situation. DeHaan made a complete and through text about Kirk's Fire Investigation. I feel that there should be full-fledged practical demonstrations based on this particular book for general awareness. This piece of exclusive write up will prove to be of great help for the highly populated buildings and will definitely defend many such accidents . This book typically deals with all those issues that are related to the matter of arson. It is very clear in making the statements that proves arson as a crime. As a matter of fact accidents are unpredictable; however 90 percent of them are due to carelessness and also due to the lack of precautions9. These are some of the important things that need to be taken care of and there should be a clear avoidance to the human deaths and injuries, including proprietary losses. REFERENCES Beetham Tower Manchester". SkyScraperNews (14 February 2008). http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=132 [Retrieved on July 17, 2008] Forensic Fire Scene Reconstruction[/Tag-Tec] by D.J. Icove and J.D. DeHaan FRS Online, links to full report PDF: Independent Review of the Fire Service pub Dec 2002, http://www.frsonline.fire.gov.uk/publications/article/17/306 [Retrieved on July 17, 2008] High Quality Virtual Tours of Fire Investigation Scenes - Virtual Vision, n.d. http://www.virtualvision.ca/tours/index.asp?cID=4 [Retrieved on July 17, 2008] Independent Review of the Fire Service, online press release 20 Sep 2002, Independent review starts into pay and modernization of the Fire Service. Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. DeHaan (2007), Hardcover: 792 pages Published by: Brady / Prentice Hall, 672-694. NFPA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations, 2004, National Fire Protection Association. ISBN 0-00-653937-8 The Science of Arson and Fire Investigation: All About Forensic Science Blog Post, n.d. http://www.forensic-courses.com/wordpress/?p=48#more-48 [Retrieved on July 17, 2008] What We Do, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Website, n.d., http://www.manchesterfire.gov.uk/gen/what_we_do.asp?id7=1&id8=1 [Retrieved on July 17, 2008] RECOMMENDATIONS Kirk's Fire Investigation Sixth Edition by: John D. DeHaan (2007), Hardcover: 792 pages Published by: Brady / Prentice Hall NFPA 921: Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations, 2004, National Fire Protection Association. ISBN 0-00-653937-8. Read More