Community Safety Strategies: Fire and Rescue Services in Merseyside - Essay Example

Community safety strategies: Fire and Rescue Services in Merseyside Author Course Tutor Date Community safety strategies: Fire and Rescue Services in Merseyside Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service’s mission statement is safer stronger communities – safe effective firefighters. In an attempt to accomplish this mission, the service has come up with different strategies to continuously self evaluate and to take stock of emerging threats. Among these strategies is the development of an Integrated Risk Management Plan (IRMP) every few years. The current IRMP focuses on the period between 2012 and 2015. It details, among other things, the challenge posed by reduction of public expenditure by the UK government and how to counter its effects. This is particularly crucial because 61% of MFRS budget has hitherto been funded through Government Formula Grant. IRMP also provides statistics on different levels of susceptibility to fires in different areas of Merseyside and the reasons for the noted differences. It goes on to provide information on the types of challenges responded to in the past and how effective the responses were. This essay will provide an evaluation of the statistics, interpret the data and develop a strategy for improving community safety in areas identified as being at risk. Evaluation of Statistics Poverty and age in relation to accidental fires There is a direct correlation between poverty, number of fires and fatalities reported as a result of the fires (Merseyside Fire and Rescue 2012-15). The bottom twenty percent neighbourhoods in terms of economic endowment are twice as likely to experience fires compared to the top twenty percent. Child mortality in fires in the least affluent areas is 16 times that of the most affluent. Arson incidences are also more in the poorer areas with the poorest areas experiencing 30 times more arson cases when compared to the richest neighbourhoods. The above mentioned statistics are replicated in other parts of the world. It has been established that socioeconomic factors are the best way to predict the possibility of a fire in neighborhoods (FEMA- USA 2007). While poverty in itself does not cause fires, the mechanism of association between poverty, fire and fire related mortality may be derived by identifying factors related to poverty which also increase the possibility of fire. These include structural factors of buildings, which are mainly influenced by the building stock used. The poor can, obviously, only afford the cheapest and hence the poorest quality building stock. Standard of dwellings is an important factor in the high number of injuries experienced by poor children in Britain (Ahrens 2011). Living in temporary accommodation increases the risk of fires (Runyan & Casteel 2004). Risk of fire is further exacerbated by living in new poorly constructed houses or living in a poorly maintained old house irrespective of their original quality, these two living conditions are as a result of poverty. Old houses that are not well maintained are at a greater risk of fire by electric fault. While electrical faults account for barely 2 % of all fires in dwellings, they account for 6 % of all fire related fatalities (Sekizawa 2004). Another important observation is that there is a direct relationship between poverty and smoking with the less affluent being more likely to be smokers. Pleis, Ward & Lucas (2009) found that while only seventeen percent of adults under sixty five with private health insurance in the United States smoke, thirty five percent of those who depend on government funded Medicaid and thirty four percent of the uninsured smoke. The risk of dying from Chronic Obtrusive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a disease whose main cause is smoking, is two and a half times more likely for those in families with an income of less than ten thousand dollars compared to those whose families make more than sixty thousand dollars (Lewis , Clegg & Johnson 2009). Cigarettes are a leading cause of accidental fires all over the world and the leading cause of fire related mortality. Their greater use among the poor and the social stratification that leads to people of the same economic means living in the same neighbourhoods is certainly one of the reasons why there are more fires in poor neighbourhoods than in the richer ones (Ahrens 2011). According to fire statistics of Great Britain (2010-2011) of the 388 fatalities reported as a result of fire in the United Kingdom, 306 were as a result of fires in dwellings. Cases of deaths in residential fires accounted for seventy four percent of all fire related fatalities in the USA from 1983 to 1990 (United States Fire Administration 1990). The same trend has been reported in New Zealand where fires in homes are the main cause of death from burns for children and also for adults (Ahrens 2009). The fact that the less well up will invariably have poorly constructed homes which are vulnerable to fire and the relationship between smoking and poverty being clear, the conclusion by MFRS in the IRMP that there are more fires in the less affluent areas is plausible and supported by facts. IRMP also notes the increased fire risk for elderly people. This risk has also been noted in numerous international. According to Duncanson (2001), mortality rate for older people from fires increases threefold for every decade after the age of seventy five. Research shows that the elderly are also less likely to have smoke detectors installed in their homes. Despite dogged advocacy by fire fighting organisations to have the detectors installed, there has been resistance to this technology in this demographic probably due to the common intransigence that comes with age (Miller & Davey 2007). The lack of alarms puts the elderly in even greater danger from fire than posed by the loss of their sensory and cognitive edge through natural attrition. Emergency response performance and activity MFRS statistics on emergency response performance in 2010-11 shows that they were able to meet their target of responding to fires in at least ninety percent of incidences in all months except one (MFRS-IRMP 2012-15). The month they fell short was December of 2011 and the reason cited was extreme weather. Though statistics provided in the report do not give a monthly breakdown of the number of fires reported, fires are unlikely to have abated during the month in question. It would seem important for MFRS to invest in building capacity to respond adequately to incidences that occur in any weather condition. Response to road traffic collisions On this front MFRS returned an impressive 95.3% success rate, which was well above their target of 90%. They responded to most collisions within eight minutes of the accident and extricated bodies trapped in vehicles successfully. This level of service is going on at a time when fire fighters and rescue workers in other parts of the country are taking progressively longer to respond to incidences (Fire Brigades Union 2011). Despite these happy statistics, there is a discrepancy between response time to fires and response times to collisions. According to FBU (2011), response time to a fire in Merseyside is 4.60 minutes. To reduce the risk of loss of lives and the inconveniencing traffic snarl ups that come with collisions. It is important to bring response time at par with response to fires. Confining fires to the room of origin According to Norman (2012) confining the fire to its room of origin is a critically important way of limiting the damage occasioned by it and the best strategy in fire fighting. MFRS has a performance target to ensure at least ninety two percent of all fires do not spread beyond their room of origin. This target was reached in all but one month between April 2010 and March 2011 (IRMP 2012-15). The fact that only in 69 of the 1999 fires attended, in the survey period, did the fire spread beyond its room of origin shows that this service is clearly dependable on this count. All incidences requiring attendance This is a summary provided by MFRS showing the different categories of incidences attended to by the service in 2010-2011. The number of incidences is compared with that of the same incidences as responded to in 2004-2005. Types of incidences include property fires, small fires, false alarms generated by automated systems monitoring fire alarms in buildings (AFA), other false alarms including hoaxes and genuine mistakes. The other type of incidences are referred to as special service which include releasing trapped individuals from lifts, rescues, chemical incidences among others. A juxtaposition of statistics from 2004-05 and 2010-11 shows that all types of incidences have reduced considerably except AFA. The fact that in the list of incidences it is only AFA that does not depend entirely human activity, and that most fires are caused by human activities that are not intended to cause a fire may be an indication that people have become more careful in their activities thus preventing outbreaks. There, however, is a need to look into how smoke sensors and other devices can be more accurate while setting off alarms. This will reduce the inconvenience and wastefulness experienced when firefighters respond only to find that it was a false alarm. Incidences across Merseyside There has been a marked reduction of the number of incidences between 2005 and 2011 even when the comparison is done on a ground station by ground station basis. Of all the twenty six stations, there are thirteen stations in which incidences are above average, three with the average number of incidences and ten which reported below average incidences. Those with above average incidences include, City Center, Birkenhead, Old Swan, St Helens, Low Hill, Kirkdale, Southport, Aintree, Crosby, Croxteth, Wallasey, Kirkby and Toxeth. Average incidents were recorded in Speke Garston, Bottle & Netherton and Upton. Huyton Bromborough, Belle Vale, Whiston and Eccleston had below average number of incidences. From these statistics, there seems to be a relationship between population density and incidences with the more populous areas returning more incidences. This should be used to inform decisions on resource allocation. A comparison of the number of fires in homes also shows a 20.3% reduction in 2010/11 when compared with 2004/05 each year in between showed reduction from the previous one. Road traffic collisions These are an important activity undertaken by MFRS. An evaluation of statistics provided in MRFS-IRMP, 2012-15 shows that most of the collisions are not life threatening. Their overall number increased in 2005-6 but it has reduced steadily ever since. However, the number of life risk collisions has not reduced in tandem with the general trend. It might help to see what these life risk collisions have in common and specifically target efforts to prevent them with more precision. A good place to start would be among young men aged between ages fifteen and nineteen and men in general. This is because 25% of all deaths of young men in the age group between 15 and 19 in the UK are due to traffic accidents. On the other hand, men in general are three times more likely to die in traffic smash ups than women (RAC Foundation 2010). Fires caused by antisocial behaviour and False Alarms Caused by Automatic Fire Alarms Statistics regarding these deliberately started fires show that they have been reducing over the years but admittedly not fast enough. Although they normally do not cause great damage, they are still a nuisance and a drain to resources available to the service. A reduction of this problem would go a long way in providing resources required to cover for budget cut occasioned by the government’s reduction of public spending. The problem of nuisance activation of smoke alarms is not just a local or national problem. It is experienced the world over in all places where these alarms are in use. A study of Veterans Administration hospitals in the USA found 15.8 unwanted activations for every real alarm, or one unwanted activation for every six devices per year (Dubivsky & Bukowski cited in Ahrens 2009). Overview of interpretation of statistics From the statistics provided, it is evident that, by and large, preventive measures adopted by MFRS have been effective. This can be seen by the net reduction of all kinds of incidences during the period in question. General statistics provided at the beginning of the IRMP regarding poverty and age as predisposing factors in cases of accidental fires are a true picture of the situation. Speed in responding to different incidents and efficiency in dealing with them as shown the graphs on Our Emergency Response Performance & Activity, Response to Road Traffic Collisions and Confining the Fire to the Room of Origin in Fires in the Home MRFS has demonstrated an all round finesse in the Service’s handling of its responsibility. Unfortunately, these achievements are blighted by the fact that out of the 59.21 average cases attended to by MFRS per day, 36.93, a whopping 63.3 %, are in response to antisocial behaviour fires and false automatic fire alarms! Ahrens (2009), notes that since smoke signals produce so many nuisance alarms, they are likely to be ignored. While MFRS is to be commended for not ignoring alerts by AFAs it is clear that a lot of resources can be saved if these false alarms and the number of fires caused by antisocial behaviour were reduced. The report also shows that there has been a steady decrease in the number of firefighters injured in the line of duty. While this is commendable, the ratio of non uniformed staff sustaining injuries is still inordinately high. Strategies of improving community safety To improve safety of communities, it is imperative to ensure that more awareness creation campaigns are conducted in low income areas of Merseyside. This will enable these vulnerable groups to develop habits that will reduce the possibility of fires. Detailed profiling of residents living in the areas in question is also important in ensuring that fire fighters in local stations know exactly where the most vulnerable live. It might even be helpful to create Site Specific Operation Plans for these poor residential areas. A more stringent enforcement of laws prohibiting antisocial behaviors that lead to deliberate starting of fires would be a useful deterrence. National and local legislators ought to pay special attention to areas where there are legislative gaps in this regard. A better method of sifting through alerts to ensure that firefighters respond only to real threats would save money, time resources which could be put to better use keeping the community safe. None uniformed staff ought to be adequately trained and properly attired to reduce the number of injuries they sustain. Conclusion It is clear, from the information provided by MFRS that the service has worked hard to keep the people safe through dedication, hard work, well researched strategies and staff training. It is now critically important to come up with a way of dealing with false alarms and maliciously started fires without compromising quality of service. In these uncertain times in far as finances are concerned, it very well may be that the future success MFRS depends on it References Ahrens, M, 2009, Smoke alarms in U.S. home fires. Ahrens, M, 2011, Home structure fires. Quincy (MA): National Fire Protection Association. Fire Brigades Union, 2011, It’s about time: why emergency response time matters to firefighters and the public. Lewis, D, Clegg L, Johnson J, 2009, ‘Lung disease mortality in the United States, the national Longitudinal Mortality Study,’ International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 13(8):1008-14. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, 2012, Integrated risk management plan 2012/15. Miller, I., Davey, J 2007, The risks, perceptions, and experiences of fire among older people. Norman, J 2012, Fire officer’s handbook of tactics. Pleis, J, Ward, B, Lucas, J 2009, Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: National Health Interview Survey, Vital Health Stat 10 2010(249):1-259. RAC Foundation 2010, Mortality statistics and road traffic accidents in the UK. Runyan, S, Casteel, C (Eds.) 2004, The state of home safety in America: facts about unintentional injuries in the home, 2nd edition. Washington, D.C.: Home Safety Council. Sekizawa, A 2004, Proceedings of the 3rd international symposium, Belfast. London: Interscience: care of vulnerable populations: who are vulnerable to fire and what care is needed for their safety? Read More