The England Fire Rescue Service Department in Haiti - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Law, Justice and Community Studies Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Executive summary The objective of this paper is to assess and examine England and Wales law with regards to the fire rescue services. It will look at the close correlation between fire rescue services offered by England and Wales with respect to the Haiti’s earthquake, analyze the role of globalization affecting both the legislative and substantive fire rescue services. The aim of this paper is to analyze critically on how the fire rescue services affects the country legally, ethically and globally in the changing world environment. The main point of reference with regards to fire and rescues services offered by U.K would be Fire and Rescue Services Act of 2004. This paper will also cover the ethical consideration of the fire rescuing team as well as the immediate roles of the practitioners. Introduction Earthquake refers to the sudden release of energy on the earth surface that creates seismic waves. Considering the Haiti’s earthquake which took place on the 12th of January this year, Survey shows that more than two million people were directly or indirectly affected. The report issued by the Haitian government spokesman showed that the earthquake claimed the lives of 230,000 people (among this are 200 UN workers), while 300,000 sustained serious injuries and at least 1,000,000 people had to vacate their home in search of new ones. The estimated magnitude of the Haiti’s earthquake was 7.0 Mw. Port-au-Prince was the major region hit by the Haiti’s earthquake. Many countries, including England offered humanitarian assistance to the affected people. The major help offered by England was the fire and rescue services, which operated almost in the entire regions of the Haiti’s hit areas. Frank Williams (Haitian world vision director), said that the earthquake left many people "pretty much screaming" all over Port-au-Prince. The laws passed by the national assembly for Wales and that of the parliament of England have a strong links to Wales’s law. Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 of operates under a distinct legislative and administration cover in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The England and Wales law on fire rescue mission was developed internationally. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that England fire and rescue services are carried as displayed in the Act, assisted by HMFSI (Her Majesty’s Fire Inspectorate). The major duties undertaken by the England fire rescue service department in Haiti was to promote and enhance fire safety Services in accordance to the Fire and Rescue Act 2004. Under provision 2 subsections (I) provides that fire rescuers must act reasonably in the course of caring out their duties, and provide advice deemed fit to reduce deaths and injuries as a result of fire. Second duty is to offer fire-fighting equipment, for instance, the use of fire extinguishers in protecting lives and individual’s properties, and obtaining more information from different sources, this may include; third parties, those affected and from media stations which will help them carry out their work effectively. In addition, they were expected to rescue individuals from road accidents especially those still under shock, deal with other emergencies, such as terrorist attack which may occur as a result of the prevailing circumstance, and safeguard their health through a continuous inspection of the affected areas, for instance Port-au-Prince. This Act was formulated or put in place to replace fire rescue Act of 1947. England fire rescue services Act received royal assent in the late July 2004 whereas Wales’s bill was assented on 26th of July 2006. Under schedule 5 (field 7), Wales’s government gave full mandated to the National assembly for Wales on fire and rescue activities. The local authority of the fire services of England and Wales were granted power or the mandate under new legislation. Fire Brigades Act of 1938 of both Wales and England provided a centralized co-ordination to arrange for an effective fire and rescue services. The role of globalization Globalization refers to the situation where all countries come together in order to achieve a common objective, for instance, the Haitian earthquake brought most of the nations if not all together in order to save and provide assistance to the less fortunate people. The fire and rescue service offered by England was as a result of globalization. Its roles with regards to the fire rescue services are; first, to provide advice on important issues of fire prevention. Second is to provide advice on fire escapes routes during the emergency situation, inspect different premise to ensure it is safe for the fire services providers to undertake their activities. The aim of this is to reduce the level of risks incurred in the cause of rescuing individuals. Another role offered by globalization is to provide collective humanitarian aid in terms of food, water, shelter, medicine and clothing. For example, during the Haiti’s earthquake, most of the people lost their lives, business activities were disrupted, meaning, there was limited or no transactions carried out to support buying and selling of commodities. Therefore, it was the major responsibilities of globalization to provide some of this items, basically, the basic wants, these are: food, shelter and clothes. The most important role of globalization with regards to fire and rescue services is to ensure that it has supplied or provided enough tools and machines needed in the rescuing process. For instance, the Haiti’s earthquake called for assistance throughout the world, mainly because it did not have enough tools and equipment to undertake the entire activities by themselves. The role of globalization is to provide fire security to those individuals who were affected; this may be in terms of shelter where the victims may be allowed into different countries. This is usually done until the victims are sure of their countries security in order for them to return home. Victims are allowed by globalization to look for shelter in their neighboring countries, for instance, the Haiti earthquake victims were allowed to look for shelter in their neighboring state. The country chosen by people shall be responsible in assuring the victim’s security, breach of duty of care, will automatically amount to liability, that is, the country shall be held liable. Consideration of ethics Ethics is defined as a system of discipline instituted by professionals to its members to govern the conduct and behavior of the members in the fire and rescue service department. Fire rescuers ethics are governed by the Fire rescue and Service Act of 2004. Their major ethics covers variety areas of discipline including; integrity, due care and skills, objectivity, competent and technical standard. Integrity means that a fire rescuer must be a person who is honest while dealing with emergency incidence, such as that which took place in Haiti. The degree of integrity should not be questioned, doubted or appear to be threatened by the prevailing environment. Due care and skills is where fire operators must exercise judgment in respect to professionals work. This is possible where the fire rescuers exercise due care and skills and most of all being diligent in respect to fire and rescuing services. In addition, rescuers must be competent in respect to rescuing services by having different varieties of knowledge in different field of fire rescuing services. Competence is necessary in ensuring objectivity. For rescuers to be competent, the following are necessary; they must have adequate knowledge in the rescuing field, adequate practical experience in the related practice, general knowledge in the surrounding under which the organization is operating (in this case, fire rescuers must be fully acquitted to the environment at which they are expected to carry out their duties in timely and effective manner) and must handle matters with no fear. The purpose of ethics is to: regulate the conduct and behavior of the fire and rescuers, maintain discipline among the workers, enhance objectivity of the rescuers and finally helps to maintain interest and good behavior of the rescuers with other members of different profession, while carrying out their duties. On the other hand, technical standards require that all rescuers should carry out their duties in accordance to the relevant and technical standard instituted by the Fire and Rescue Act 2004. Fire rescuers must be objective. These objectives must be attainable. It would be irrelevant to formulate an objective that cannot be attained at the end of the day. For instance, fire and rescue operators must formulate and target on the number of individual they intend to save at the end of the day and be able to achieve that target. Last but not least, is the conflict of loyalty, fire rescuers owe loyalty to the professionalism as well as the employer, and this may however conflict. In case of conflict in loyalty, fire rescuers priority should be the legitimate objective of the employers according to the Fire and rescue Act 2004. However, in the course of carrying out their duties, they are not expected to break the law, violate professional standard, lie or be associated with a statement that misrepresent the victims and the countries at large. If all the above considerable ethics are adhered to, the fire and rescue team will be said to be operating in an effective and efficient manner. Role of practitioners Practitioners refers to the body at which shareholders in the fire and rescue company works together in order to provide advice to the government basically on policy development issues. It is a driving force used in managing change and executing reforms in the fire and rescue department. Practitioners have an essential role in implementing reform, providing secretariat, in order to ensure that the services offered are developed in light of practical considerations which specify different initiatives. In additional, the fire and rescue practitioners’ role is to provide fundamental knowledge in fire and rescue forum to the community. The aim is mostly attributed in helping the government and most of all, the private sector in ensuring public fire safety through education. They are also required to contribute positively to growth and development in order to improve their major role of protecting life, environment and property of people. They are to represent professional industries voice of common interest associating suppliers with stakeholders for the benefit of its members and the customers they serve. They are to offer credibility and quality assurance to ensure that they curb panicking in victims who are affected. Recommendations The fire and rescue services should (in Haiti) be in the forefront in rising understanding as well as create awareness of risks incurred. It must also be able to produce joint protocols for unique incidents, develop animal rescue training such as use of Dogs; this will help in the rescue team operations. Fire and rescue services must also take into consideration in representing views of its immediate members across the regulatory standards and legislative. All countries regardless of the continent it may be should have a strong fire and rescue services of their own. This will help reduce the number of deaths and injuries as a result of emergencies. For instance, if the Haitians had a strong fire and rescue services it would have probably require less help of globalization(which may take time to reach the place of incident) thus reduce the number of deaths, injuries and those who were internally displaced. The existing fire and rescue department must have a strong internal control system, internal control system (ICS) refers to the whole system of financial control or otherwise established by the management to enable them operate business in an orderly and efficient manner and ensure adherence to the Fire and Rescue Act policy of 2004. Where the fire and rescue service department has a strong ICS it will have a smooth flow of information, goods and services within the organization and with its dealings with eternal parties, there will be co-operation among department and official within and outside the department, the system will be able to produce timely and reliable information purposely for decision making within fire and rescue department, the fire and rescue service department will be able to meet the needs to both the shareholders and practitioners and it will facilitate efficiency in the organization thus reduce wastage (in this case wastage may be as a result of the fire and rescue materials such as water etc). It is essential that the fire rescue department should consider the following factors: they must conduct periodic check-up to determine their ability to perform their duties without putting their lives at risk and those of others. The department must also ensure that fire fighters took EST (exercise Stress Test); the department must carry out an annual physical ability this should be done to ascertain the fire fighters physical ability to conduct their responsibilities in an efficient and effective manner and provide enough fire fighting staffing in order to provide a safe working condition. Conclusion It is therefore right to conclude that globalization has a positive significance when it comes to emergency incidents. For instance, the use of globalization did help Haiti to be able to stand on its feet again; this was through donations, grants, gifts in term of food, water and providing shelter to some if not all. These donations did not just helped victims alone but the entire country at large since it reduced the level of death toll as a result of hunger and other contributors. Ethic considerations dictates what is professionally right or wrong and therefore sets professional practice to be used by all its members in the fire and rescue service department. This consideration allows all fire and rescue individual to act in accordance to the Fire rescues Act of 2004, thus be able to provide best and quality work while delivering their services to the victims of Haiti’s earthquake emergency. It is also important to recognize the workforce of practitioners that is offered to the government and the private sector organizations. The role of fire and rescue practitioners also very important in the healing process of the affected country such as Haiti, it offers help through in different ways. Through coordinating various activities, they were able to offer quality services with regards to rescuing activities thus reduce the number of death in Haiti’s earthquake which took place on 12th of January this year. Globalization helps the affected countries to recover from their dreadful incidence such as the Haiti earthquake. It instills hope to those individuals who were traumatized by the incidence, through education, offer medication and many others. The role of globalization is therefore vital in growth and development of the country. References Bosanquet, B, Some Suggestions of Ethics in the fire and rescue, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009. Graham, G, Eight theories of ethics, Routledge, 2004. pp 211. Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Communities and Local Government Committee, The Fire and Rescue Service: Fourth Report of Session 2005-06, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Communities and Local Government Committee, The Stationery Office, 2006. Haines, F, Globalization and regulatory character: regulatory reform after the Kader Toy Factory fire, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005. Read More