Risk Management in Lancashire - Ways of Preventing Risks of Fire - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Risk Management Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Risk management Introduction Risk management is the act of identifying, assessing and prioritizing of risks or the uncertainty effects on objectives of any Fire and Rescue services. It is followed by application of the economic and coordinated resources to reduce the probability of the occurrence of these risks or the impacts they are likely to cause on the affected. Managing risks can also involve application and maximizing opportunities which can help realize the factors which are likely to cause the risk hence prevent it. In an ideal process of risk management, a well laid strategy is followed in which the risks with the greatest loss or with the highest probability of occurrence are given the first priority (Hallenbeck 2003). A local accommodation centre for students hardly goes for a semester without getting fire. This is caused by a number of reasons most of them being the artificial causes which occurs as a result of the lifestyle of the students accommodated. Every time a risk of fire occurs, a lot of money is spent on the treatment of the students affected by the excess inhalation of smoke and others together with some fire fighters may need attention to heal the burns. Risk management in Lancashire Lancashire is a large Local Education Authority with over 600 schools whereby half of the schools are voluntary and self aided of foundation schools, thus it is the duty of the management to ensure that there is assurance of health and safety measures of all the students, staffs and the visitors in these organizations. Because of some of the risks which are prone or likely to befall the institution like that of fire, the organization has come up with the rescue and services bodies to cater for the local needs. The Lancashire fire service is the local fire station in the Local Education Authority and is required to form a plan to reduce the number of fire risks in the accommodation centre for the students or control them from causing the severe effects on the students and the rescuers. This can be done by identifying the potential causes of the risks and the possible ways of preventing them using the available resources or reviewing the effects of the past incidence and considering ways of minimizing them. The station is required to assess the risks by determining the qualitative and quantitative values associated with an actual condition and a recognized hazard. It is an intentional evaluation of dangers in which suspicions and hypothesis are clearly looked into and presented. This should be well or perfectly done because it helps to gauge the potential loss and the possibility of occurrence hence knows what to set for the compensation. (Kemshall & Pritchard, 2000). Steps involved in risk assessments These are methods or stages followed especially when assessing a more complex circumstances or risks and they are preferred to be the most straightforward in most of the organizations. There are five steps which are considered when assessing activities in the workplace and those that can cause harm to the concern. These steps are: Identifying the hazards, decision of who might be harmed and how they can be harmed, evaluation of the risks and decisions on the relevant precautions, recording of the findings and implementing them and lastly reviewing the assessments and updating them. In the stage of identifying the hazards, one considers situations or things which are likely to cause harm or threat to health, life or property. They can be potential hazards with either a physical or theoretical risk of harm and can be classified to either natural or man-made. Natural hazards entail anything that results from natural process like volcanoes, land slides or loose rocks on hillsides and the man-made ones are created by people like buildings which are likely to collapse or electricity. In the student’s accommodation centre there are a number of hazards which are likely to result to the risks of fire. From the natural cause, the building can be struck by lightning although according to the records it has never happened, however, all the risks that have occurred are as a result of the artificial causes (Health Safety and Executive, 2009). The lifestyle of the students determines their security levels in terms of the risks which are likely to befall them. The students live in small rooms which they pack with equipments with elements of hydrocarbons, for example, the televisions and the computers. These hydrocarbons easily caught fire and burns with severity and explosions. The small sizes of the rooms can facilitate the severe burning of the whole hall because they increases the pressure of oxygen hence rising the temperature of the heat and this leads to explosions as the strong heat fights its way out of the enclosure. This results to completely destruction of the whole building. Other things such as the electrical cookers, heaters and hot air dryers are common causes of fires in the student’s residential hotels. Some of the students are drunkard hence are very careless when handling some substances which can easily cause fire, they dispose garbage and rubbish like papers everywhere that if the risk of fire occurs, it easily spreads. Some also smoke in their rooms carelessly resulting to fire. Textiles and other materials like coking gas can increase the rates of burning. Oxygen is one of the dangers gas which can cause fire, most of the people use oxygen in cylinders, either when working or for various purposes at home. For example, for food preservation, by people with breathing difficulties or other general uses. Oxygen is very reactive, when it is pure and under high pressure, it burn hot with explosions and can react violently with materials such as oil and grease. The students can be misusing the dangerous gas or carelessly handle it resulting to risks of fire. The frames in presence of excess and enclosed oxygen are strong and difficult to put off. (Peter & LaGoy, 2004). The second step is to identify those with the possibilities of being harmed and how. When assessing the risks likely to occur in the residential hall of the students, one should focus on those who reside in it, those in the neighborhood and those to be involved in the rescue in case the risk occurs. The health status of these people should also be considered so as to know the precautions to use. All the students who reside in the hall should be considered to be at a risk of either being burned or being affected by excess inhaling of smoke. The staffs of the Lancashire Fire Service can use this information to decide on the steps to take when dealing with the problem. The third step is evaluating the risk and decides on the precautions to use. In a residential hall it is easier to identify the possible risks and the care taken in advance to minimize its effects. For example, the precautions to be set against the most common risk of fire is carefully installing and maintaining the electronic appliances, training the residents on the better ways of handling devices which are likely to cause the risk. It is necessary to record the results of the assessment and to try to always implement them in the relevant areas so as to make it most effective. The last stage to be considered is always review the assessment and updates it where possible. This is because each day new ways of causing risks are coming up and should be included in the assessment for the group to meet its goals and objectives. For example, the students can start using chemicals which are more reactive or can easily explode hence increasing the chances of causing the risk. During this step, the organization will also realize the methods which are less relevant to the present situations or those that are less effective and replace them with others (Health Safety and Executive, 2009). Ways of preventing risks of fire The students should be encouraged to avoid packing their rooms with the objects containing hydrocarbons like Televisions, Computers and so on, instead should have them in spacious and common rooms with enough space of putting fire off. The rooms should be spacious to reduce the compression of oxygen in them hence reducing the risks of getting fire and if there is fire it will not burn fiercely hence the fighters will be ale to put it down before it burns everything to ashes. The students should be trained on the better ways of handling electronics so as to minimize the risks of fire. This should go along with proper wiring in a way that it cannot be possible for the students to interfere with it, for example, can be done internally or during constructing period so as to be covered in the walls. Those using the oxygen devices should be taught on the better ways of handling them and properly checked to avoid the problem of their leakage. They should also be discouraged from malfunctioning electrical appliances or displays. The management should also ensure that the students use the proper ways of disposing the rubbish and have a smoking zone for the smokers so as to minimize the possibilities of causing risks. To avoid or reduce the problem of smoke inhalation, smoke detectors should be installed and monitored. This is because smoke is toxic and when inhaled excessively can result to the death of the affected. This can have impacts on both the residents or the students and the fire fighters. The fire fighters should be taught to keep their equipments always ready for emergency; this is necessary so as to prevent the delay of rescue or the fighters can be caught when they are not well armed hence may not be able to put it off. They should also formulate a good way of attacking fire (Hurst, 2005). Risk assessment for a small business A night club has three bars, three dance floor and an extra quiet bar. It has 30 staffs employed and is open for anybody from 8.00 pm to 3.00 am. The risk hazards which were likely to cause risks in the organization were: fire, electricity, noise, violence, gas, manual handling, transport, smokes and many others. If there was a risk, the staff members, the customers or the cleaning contractors are most likely to suffer the effects. For example, if a risk of fire or electricity occurs they are likely to be burned, suffocate after inhaling excess smoke or can be injured if the structures collapse. The risk of noise may cause damage in the hearing of the members and especially the staffs like the DJ who work with loud electronics and those involved in the violence with the drunkards might suffer physical injury. Manual handling might harm the health conditions like causing back pains from carrying heavy crates of bear and others may be struck by vehicles during transportation process. To control occurrence of such a risk, the management should ensure that there is regular check ups to ensure that all the measures of controlling fires formulated in the risk assessment plan are implemented. The noise limiters should be fitted to the sound systems and some regular check ups of the system done to ensure that there is balance or proper control. The boilers should be well checked and serviced regularly by a gas safe registered engineer. Generally the risk assessments against all the hazards should be followed to prevent or control them or to ensure the security of the workers. All the shareholders should meet to discuss areas they think needs to be improved their security and updates made on the assessments to fit in the most recent needs of locality, for example, if they want to expand their services they should include the new ideas in their risk assessment plan (Health Safety and Executive, 2007). Lancashire fire service risk management plans for reducing emergencies This is an evaluation of the dangers to life and damage to a community which ends up in a log-term arrangement to make sure that the fire and rescue services are reactive to the needs that are locally identified. This is based on the resources that are available for the services and making their status most effective by locating them in the right position or condition (Michael & Carl, 2000). When evaluating the needs of the locality, they consider the most recent potential causes of risks like doing the research on the living styles of the students. This gives them a chance to rethink their activities so as to make them more responsive to the health and safety needs of the students and other members. They also examine the effectiveness of the protective, preventive and responsive of the methods that they have formulated to control or prevent the risks. If they find them not to be the best, they think of other options or ways of improving them to the best. The organization also makes good arrangements of the ways of monitoring and reviewing the plan. The stakeholders are involved in the process of making the plan so as to give their views. The plans of the Lancashire Fire and Rescue services is an example of an effective and efficient Fire and Rescue service because it is well organized and follows the necessary procedures, for example, an assessment of risks and the possible ways of preventing them. They also ensure that their objectives are updated by considering the most recent local needs, for example, they do a research on the recent potential hazards which helps them to renew their objectives and ensure that they are more responsive to the needs at hand. The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 places prevention to be the main aim of all Fire and Rescue activities because the workers and others like tenants have the right to be protected from any harm which comes as a result of failure to take rational control measures. If these risks occur they can ruin lives and affect the financial status of the business, for example, in cases where output is completely lost, machineries are damaged, increased insurance covers and cases which call for court ruling. To prevent the complications as a result of the risks the activities which can cause them should always be put off (National Research Council, 2009). Conclusion Today’s life is prone to many different risks which demand any organization to have a well planned strategy of managing these risks. Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing and prioritizing of risks or the uncertainty effects on objectives of any Fire and Rescue services. It is necessary to have an Integrated Risk Management Plan in every fire and rescue service. This helps the organization to evaluate the dangers to life and damages to a community which ends up in a log-term arrangement to make sure that the fire and rescue services are reactive to the needs that are locally identified. Bibliography Kemshall H. & Pritchard J., 2000, Good practice in risk assessment and risk management, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Sunderland. Peter K. & LaGoy, 2004, Risk assessment: principles and applications for hazardous waste and related sites, William Andrew, Midwestern. Michael C. & Carl L., 2000, Risk assessment: logic and measurement, CRC Press, London. Hallenbeck H., 2003, Quantitative risk assessment for environmental and occupational health, CRC Press, London. Hurst W., 2005, Risk assessment: the human dimension, Royal Society of Chemistry, Preston. National Research Council, 2009, Science and decisions: advancing risk assessment, National Academies Press, London. Health Safety and Executive, 2009, Five steps to risk assessment, Liverpool University Press, London. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services, 2009, Community Safety Strategy 2009-2014, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services, Preston. Health Safety and Executive, 2007, Risk assessment for a nightclub, Smith’s nightclub, Preston. Read More