Local Authorities in the Fire Investigations and Rescue Services - Term Paper Example

Name : xxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxx Title : Local authorities in the fire investigations and rescue services Institution : xxxxxxx @2010 Local authorities in the fire investigations and rescue services Introduction Local authorities are involved in safeguarding the local population against fires and any other emergency services. However, of late they have come under heavy criticism about the effectiveness and the quality of the services provided by them. One particular area under many people minds is the service of fire investigations and rescue services. This area is very critical for a city or towns survival because once a catastrophe of fire strikes, damages worth millions can be sustained and it can lead to immense loss of life to the local populace. This department has had the burden of shouldering most of the blame that the town residents had about the department’s performance. This study is then meant to investigate the views of the local populace towards the quality of service they receive from the council and particular emphasis being stressed concerning the quality of the services provided. The quality involves the reaction time the council takes to reach the scene of fire, the skills, and the commitment employed in putting out the fires and the kind of equipment available to fight the infernos. In many cases the type and kind of equipment is very instrumental in the effective putting out of fires. This it is the proper use of the equipment that helps in putting out the fire. For example if a low pressure water hose pipe is used to put out the fire then the higher floors will not be reached by the gush of water. In addition, the capacity that the tanks can store in the fire trucks is very important. In the event of a large fire then large tanks are needed to be able to sustain the putting out effort to the end. Finally, the commitment of the firefighters is very important. It has been found in the past that most of these fire fighters do not have the acceptable commitments to fight out these kinds of fires. This is because of lack of job satisfaction and other elements like poor pay and poor working conditions are rife among them. This study will try to dissect several of the elemental and basic concepts that guide the services and hence compare the results got from the study to the accepted values (Barzilai 2008). The concepts are: The risks that befall those affected by the fire and rescues services and to those who do the rescuing. The risks can be in form of deaths, loss of livelihood as well environmental damages. Investigate the total time the fire fighters and other rescues operations take to reach the scene. The standard time should be five minutes. The standard of operations as stipulated by the kind of emergency that is occurring The state of preparedness the fire investigation and rescue services are usually in. This includes the kind of equipment they have, the number of labor resources available and the finally the physical and mental well preparedness of the personnel. Objectives of the study The objectives of the study are to investigate the overall effectiveness of the fire investigations and rescue services. The dissertation tries to uncover all the basic elements involved in the course of the fire investigation and rescues services. The major reason for the study is to identify the weak points within the fire investigations and rescues services and in the process try to improve on the same, once all the analysis has been done and notes compared, the objectives include: The determination of the major causes of the fires and the areas they mostly occur. The determination of the strengths of the rescues services including both material and human resources and the willingness to achieve the strength. Determining the weak points that affect the fire investigations and rescues services and looking for ways to deal with these weaknesses. Providing the basis that can be used to evaluate the needs and wants of a fire services Investigating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that befall the fire investigations and rescue services (Dmmu 2008). Importance of the study There has been an increase of fire in many parts of the country and cities. This unprecedented increase always leads to loss of life and damages and loss of property worth millions. In contrast to this, the fire investigation and rescues services ability to stem this flow of sporadic fires has been dismal and entrenched in utmost failure. This failure has been catastrophic as it has lead to loss of life and property and consequently it has lead to a dwindling of public opinion about the effectiveness of their services as is mandated in their work ethics. Thus in order to overcome these failures, a study needs to be conducted by carrying out a SWOT analysis of the council by learning from their strengths, which should be exploited for the betterment of the services, and also from the opportunities to expand and improve. On the other hand, the weaknesses and the threats can be addressed by ensuring that they are well understood and their sources known. Further, these weaknesses can be able to serve as pointers and explain as to why the council is failing in its undertakings (Natalie 2008). Furthermore, this study will be able to give and point out the starting point in the offering of support to the local councils from the central government through its relevant ministry and from the agencies that are stakeholders in this sector. In so doing, what need to be done is identified in order to enable the councils to tackle their problems and in the process assist them in the development of an action plan. An effective study will also help the council to revise their aims and visions for the fire investigations and rescues services department. The study will also help in aiding the council to take the full responsibility of having to improve its services to the people within the council’s influence. This can be achieved by encouraging the sharing of ideas collected during the study period. These ideas, which come from many people, can be the basis for encouragement of innovation and welcoming of constructive criticism. The council’s fire department will also be encouraged to embrace learning in order to effect continuous improvement. The study will aim at identifying the areas with the highest possibility of having fires hence this study can be used by the council to develop them in order to achieve their full preventive potential. The potential is able to help the council to have and develop effective emergency response to any critical event and to have the capability of providing intervention if required to do so. Finally, the study can be used to effect competent management at the fire investigation and rescue services by ensuring the workers are well developed and managed and also by making sure that they are representative of the councils that they serve. By doing so, the council though the fire investigations and rescue services can be recognized as the top professional and well managed unit it ought to be (Murray 1996). Effective assessment of the fire investigations and rescue services The assessment is carried out to enable the identification of the core areas of a fire unit, the problems they incur, and ways to solve these problems. The purpose of any study is to give answers to parts of a problem not previously known. The assessment hence should be important before the actual study to determine what to expect during the study and what to study. Every corner of a city or a town has its unique challenges and faces different risk altogether from the others. The assessment plan should be of the following factors: The effect that is predicted should be considered when evaluating the proposals and what should change once its implemented and if the change is good or bad to the council. Time required for the study and the implementation of the recommendations. This estimate should give the longest time possible for the effective conclusion of the study and for the implementation and positive working of the recommendation. The overall time to achieve the results of the implemented factors and recommendations should be communicated. The total effort required for the concluding of the study and for the implementation of the results. This effort is measured in terms of the physical and monetary resources that will be required for the proper implementation of the results The cost of the study should be calculated. The total cost needed for the study can be estimated and controlled but the cost for the implementation cannot be estimated. This factor does solely determine all the others but it cannot be used to decide how and what to implement or use to carry out the research. When it comes to fire investigation all the resources by the team for preventative and investigative nature should be offered to them without any cost being spared (Raynsford 2004). Literature review Tayside fire and rescue is an emergency service providence agency that deals with about 400,000 peoples. It located in Scotland where it spends most of its money in promoting this fire services. Only some few years back this service provider was complacent and gave out poor services like the rest in the country. Since it covers a large area of about 7000 kilometers squared and operating more than twenty-four stations, communication between the personnel and the other stations proved to be a problem. This problem was even magnified since contacting these stations in cases of emergency was a problem to the people of Scotland. The organization then had a study and decided to implement a system that was offered by Microsoft to help ease the congestion. This system also provided faster communication links to the fire fighters and the officers operating the fire stations .This new system, which entails the best the modern communication, can offer has helped to uplift the standards that are offered by the organization to date. This system now helps the training of its fire officers. In the past, the fighters used to travel for long distances to train but now they do so online. These trainings sessions are then broadcast online to other station so that the other officers do not have to travel for long distances just to achieve this. With this system, the competency of the fire fighters has been raised a great deal. The system also allows for the saving of the fire fighting drills and training so that they can be accessed in the future if ever needed. The system has acceleratated the communications between the fire fighters. In the past, lots of time was spent in trying to locate and chase fire fighters in case any emergency occurred. However, this has changed a great deal due to system. The system enables the direct contact with the employees if they are ever needed and it informs the employees in case any emergency is experienced (Beauchamp 2001). The second case is a general one of the ongoing change of the fire services department n the United Kingdom. Now, United Kingdom has five fire services that are operational and are under separate legislations in the different units that make up the UK. Over a period the fire services have undergone many changes in respect to the changing economic times and the also the devolution of the government. The changes have also been influenced by the changing world movements and organizations like terrorism (Cardcop 2009). This prompted the government to pass legislations to be able to combat with these new threats. The biggest source of change however was from a study and subsequent publication of a review by Professor Sir Bain. This report fast tracked the changes in the fire investigations and rescues services. The report called for the modernization of the services to enable the councils to give better service. The report and its recommendations were however not popular with the fire fighters and had to include better pay and working conditions for the workers plus putting in to action a time frame that would be used to implement this suggestions. Before the report, the process of fire investigations merely referred and was limited to investigation of the cause of the fire by determining the source, the method of spread and ways in which the fire generally started. However, this has changed to a process where there is systematic approach to the investigative process that requires the investigator to have a detailed knowledge of the basics of the science of fire and ensure the cooperation with the people who were present at the time the fire was starting straight to the time it was put out. The approach to the fire investigation is different from the others since the action is already happened. What makes the difference is the determination whether the fire is a result of arson or it is just another accident (Checkland 1997). A final study concerning the fire investigations and rescue services was commissioned by the Zambian government in 2008; this was after it was after a series of fires affected the country’s main infrastructure including bridges and hydroelectric stations. The response to the fires was not proper and satisfactory, in fact in some instances firefighters had to watch helplessly as huge buildings and properties were gutted by the fires and reduced to ashes. Most of the councils interviewed had no fire fighting trucks and for those that had, they were either not sufficient or were run down. From this study, the government was able to advice the local councils on the importance purchasing the proper firefighting equipment and offered to help the council to train its fire fighters. Since then the trend has been improving as more machinery in purchased and better fire fighting methods approved (Tausch 2009). Methodology of doing the research This research is best done if the qualitative method is used because it is appropriate in collecting the information that is required. This is so because it takes advantages of questions and interviews, which are the strongest research methods that are in use to gain information. This is because the method is easy and cheap and because it is easy to find participants who are willing to answer the questions and unpretentious and can be well understood by the interviewees. The research process will take two different methods due to the different stakeholders that are associated with the council and its fire investigations and rescues services. The first group to be interviewed will be by using the industry approach technique. The members of this group are the fire fighters and the workers within the council directly linked to the fire investigations and rescue services. This approach is designed to give views of the entire city by having the views of the people directly concerned with the fire fighting. It dwells on the day-to-day running of the rescues service and includes the SWOT techniques experienced by the workers. The second approach is the community approach. This community approach is viewed in the gathering of the information about the fire investigations and rescues services from the perspective of the people. The public is usually drawn in two categories where they are those from the high-density population areas and those for the low-density population areas. The study should be carried out by taking a sample of twenty to fifty people all randomly chosen but representing each of the categories earlier discussed. Some victims of fire accidents should be among those interviewed to enable them give their views on the feelings they have about the fire services. (Dmmu 2008) After the interviews are concluded and the data collected, the data is then processed and the results published. The results should include recommendations that should be forwarded for implementation. Time scale Before the actual research, some little time of about two to four weeks should be allocated for research and Intel collection so that we can have the idea of what to expect. After the research and preparation then the interview should begin in Ernest. This interview should be meticulously done to make sure that all the questions are answered correctly and that they are actually answered. This dissertation should take roughly a month. The next full month can be used to put in the data and analyzing it properly to enable the achievement of correct conclusions and recommendations. This is expected to take roughly three weeks while the other week will be used for polishing up of the results. The provisional findings The expected results can be resolved to be: There have been a failure to meet standards for fire fighting Failure of the council and the fire investigations and rescues services to train its workers Failure of the council to adequately equip its workers Failure of the fire investigations and rescues services to notify the public about the fire hazards present within the council Failure of the council to pursue compliance of the bylaws as stipulated by the set laws Failure of the fire fighters to dispatch promptly thus ending up in loss of property and life (Murray 1996). Recommendations For effective providing of services as required by the public, the fire investigations and rescue services should; Have the establishment and conduction of all performance-based training for all its personnel. The training should be relevant to the workers and according to the set standards. The fire fighters should be equipped with the required clothing that meets the required standard. Effort should also be made to ensure that they have the best equipment to fight fires. Any inspection done or investigation performed should be well documented in a well-labeled file for future references. The council should ensure that all the dispatch policies are well followed and that response is fast. The fire services should practice issuing of citations and if the hazards become imminent then judicial intervention should be pursued to ensure they are not hazardous (Murray 1996). Bibliography Barzilai, G 2008. The fire and rescue law in United Kingdom, International law journal, vol.12, no. 14, pp. 395–416. Beauchamp, T 2001, Principles of Ethics and behavior, Oxford University Press, New York. Cardcop, F 2009, Case Study – Emergency Services, viewed on 22 September 2010, Checkland, P 1997, Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. Dmmu, L 2008, the severity and extent of fire disasters-Zambia’s technical capabilities, viewed 22 September 2010, Murray, L 1996, risk management services in the fire service: federal emergency management agency United states, viewed on 22nd September 2010, Natalie, L 2008, Stafford Fire and Rescue values strong leadership culture. Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 27-29. Raynsford, J 2004, The Fire and Rescue Service National Framework, viewed on 22nd September 2010, Tausch, A 2009, The role of fire and rescue service management, Nova Science Publishers, New York. Read More