Signs, Symptoms and Causes of Collapse of Building both During and Post Fire-Fighting Operations - Assignment Example

Fire Investigation Name: Roll No: Class: Subject: Teacher: Date: 27th July 2008 University Signs, symptoms and causes of collapse of building both during and post fire fighting operations. Hazards that may be encountered by the Fire Investigator whilst conducting an examination of the fire scene. Fire investigation is a work that is quite challenging and demanding and the fire investigators are required to evaluate the reasons for the fire that is set either intentionally or intentionally. Fire investigation is done to analyze the causes that are behind the accident of fire at any workplace, building, residential area or locality. The job of fire investigators is quite difficult as they face a number of problems during investigation. The problems that the fire investigators encounter are related to physical health as they face a number of physical traumas after reaching at the location where the incident of fire has happened (Petrovich, 1998). They are many indications that point towards harmful and injurious situations such as breaking of wires, breakage of gas and water lines, cracks in the building’s floors and roofs, spoiled staircases and other building material because of fire outbreak (IFSTA, 1998). It is generally been suggested by some people that the job of fire investigation is not as injurious and detrimental as that of fire fighting operations but in actuality, fire investigation is as prone to difficulties as the job of fire fighting (IFSTA, 1998). The fire investigators should not forget that they should be dealing with difficulties and physical problems like the fire fighting team as after fire extinguishing; there are still many problems at the locality where there is fire outbreak (Donahue, 2000). The problems can be chemical procedures that can be there because of some burning effects, broken and damaged stairways, collapsing ceilings and broken floors, there can be outflow of gases and there will be suffocation problems, there can be problems of slippages while investigation and there can be serious injuries and they should make use of personal protective equipment to secure themselves from injuries of different kinds (ICMA, 1988). According to HSE (Health and Safety Executive), personal protection equipment is obligatory for any work environment for the security and health of the employees of the institution (2005, p.11). Fire investigation is a job that is very risky and the fire investigators are subject to much bodily harms and should be dealt with proper usage of personal protective equipment, which are mentioned as following: 1. Eyes are endangered to be subjected to chemical or metal splash, dust, projectiles, gas, vapour and radiation on the fire scenes. Therefore, the personal protection equipment required to make certain eyes’ safety is spectacles, goggles, face shields and visors (HSE, 2005). In that case, fire investigators should use the mentioned equipment so that there can be no risks in terms of injuries to their eyes. 2. Head can be injured by the impact from falling or flying items. There is also a risk of head bumping and hair can also be entangled so to avoid such harms and safeguarding the head, there are helmets and bump caps (HSE, 2005). The fire investigators are required to use the equipment fixed for the head region as if to eradicate the risk of head injury during investigation. 3. For noisy environments, the fire investigators should make use of personal hearing protection. For the protection of ears and hearing capability, the personal protection equipment used can be earmuffs and plugs (HSE, 2005). 4. Breathing can be troubled because of dust, vapours, gas and oxygen-deficient atmospheres. For avoiding such disturbance, the personal protective equipment required is disposable filtering face piece or respirator, air-fed helmets and breathing apparatus (HSE, 2005). The fire investigators are prone to danger related to breathing problem, so, they should make use of breathing equipment in order to avoid the risk of breathing problem. 5. For the protection of body against extreme temperatures, adverse weathers, chemical or metal spray, contaminated dust and excessive use of own clothing, the personal protective equipment needed is disposable overalls, boiler suits and aprons (HSE, 2005). The fire investigators are need of overalls that can secure them from the injuries that can be there in the fire outbreak locality. 6. Hands and arms can be injured in case of abrasion, extreme temperatures, cuts and punctures, chemicals, electric shock, skin infection and contamination. All these injuries can only be avoided by the use of personal protective equipment such as gloves, gauntlets, mitts, wrist cuffs and armlets (HSE, 2005). They must make use of equipment related to hand and arms safety as if to minimize the threat of hand and arms injury. 7. Feet and legs can be harmed because of electrostatic shocks, slipping, cuts, metal and chemical sprays and punctures. For legs and feet, safety boots and shoes with protective toecaps and penetration-resistant mid-sole, gaiters, leggings and spats are needed (HSE, 2005). Because of the injuries concerning feet and legs, the fire investigators are needed to use the protective equipment fixed for feet and legs. Signs and symptoms of collapse of building are numerous in number as with the setting on of fire, the building goes through a large of damage. If the fire spreading is there for a lengthy time period, the damages will be more and in case of controlling fire in less time, the number of damages in the building will be lessoned (Petrovich, 1998). Signs of collapse can be the cracks that are there in different parts of the building after fire extinguishing, falling of stones of any part of the building, collapsing of windows, gap generation between the walls, floors and ceilings of the building, there can be expansion of metallic building material because of outbreak of fire and toppling of floors, ceilings and walls (Donahue, 2000). The fire investigators are needed to scrutinize all kinds of cracks, holes, expansions, deposing and other predictable signs to judge the collapse of building. Fire investigation should be done with evaluation of all the hazards that may be there while investigating. It should also be remembered that there are many injuries that are threatened to be there while investigating (Donahue, 2000). The fire investigators should remember that fire investigation can only be successfully done without any harm if the fire investigator keeps record of all the probable dangers that can be there while investigating (Cooke and Ide, 1985). There can be breakages on the fire scene, there can be broken wirings, there can be broken ducts, and there can be hanging ceilings and slippery floors and many other havocs that can cause serious injuries to the fire investigators (IFSTA, 1998). There should be an in depth assessment of all the vulnerabilities that can be there before commencing the job of fire investigation. The questioning of witnesses and scene examination, paying particular attention to fire spread directional indicators and the preservation and recording of evidence. While scrutinizing the fire scene where there is outbreak of fire, the fire investigators should keep in mind that they should collect all the relevant information with the help of a full-fledged methodology (Cooke and Ide, 1985). The people who are concerned to the fire outbreak incident should be interrogated in order to bring together the information related to the fire outbreak incident. The questioning of witnesses and scene examination is the most important aspect in terms of fire investigation as it reveals the source or root behind the setting on of fire (ICMA, 1988). There can be many causes related to the setting on of fire such as electric failure, breakage or smouldering of electrical wiring, misuse of official stuff, electric breakthrough, dissemination of gases, extensive heat and many other causes that can cause accidental setting on of fire (Donahue, 2000). There can be intentional attacks on any building in terms of setting on fire such as some person can lit on fire for criminal purposes by any destructive means. The fire investigator is required to keep a check on all the possible dangers that are identified by the supervision before the outbreak of fire. There should be proper recording in both hard copies as well as soft copies to facilitate higher authorities about the outbreak of fire and the sources behind the setting on of fire (Petrovich, 1998). The law enforcement officials should be interviewed to collect information regarding to the outbreak of fire and the clues that they have collected until then. The fire investigator should look for clues and should record everything in some written form to keep a track of every probable information regarding fire outbreak (Cooke and Ide, 1985). There are many pointers that facilitate the fire investigator to collect information regarding the outbreak of fire. The fire investigators have to look for the indicators of fire outbreak to judge intentional or unintentional attack. The people who inform about witnessing the incident with their own eyes should be interrogated in order to get all the information related to the outbreak of fire (ICMA, 1988). Evidences should be collected together to evaluate the root cause of outbreak of fire. The property owners should be questioned in order to gain information about any kind of suspicion related to the outbreak of fire (IFSTA, 1998). Documentation related to the risk assessment about the building’s probable outbreak of fire should be measured to check what were the probable risks related to the outbreak of fire previously identified by the supervision of the building (Donahue, 2000). The accommodators of the building and the working staff of the building should be interrogated in order to get information about the outbreak of fire. The indicators to fire spread can be the smoke signals, the marks of smoke and fire on the walls and damage that is there in the building (Cooke and Ide, 1985). The direction of the fire spreading can be noticed and observed by the investigators be analyzing that which way the fire has adopted, the ways where fire has spread are those where maximum damage is there, the direction of wind is also an indicator to inform about which, direction the fire has spread (Petrovich, 1998). Indicators of a deliberately set fire (arson) and management actions that can avoid an arson attack on their business. In terms of learning about deliberately set fire or arson attack by some person, the fire investigator has to assess all the details concerning outbreak of fire to judge what the major causes of the fire outbreak are. There can be many indicators to arson attack or deliberately set fire such as the video cameras that are set for making videos of the persons entering in confidential or private places of the building (Petrovich, 1998). Video cameras are straightforward means to judge the evidences related to deliberately set fire. The management of a building or workplace should consider major concerns related to the arson attack and should be able to monitor all kinds of dangers associated to the arson attack (Cooke and Ide, 1985). There are many threats to a business associated to fire from different people. The people involved in arson attack can be the ill wishers to the business, can be related to people who are against or the competitors of the business, the people involved in arson attack or deliberately set fire can be among the staff members of the business firm who are being bribed by some external person in order to cause an arson attack, there can be persons involved in arson attack who have criminal motives and there can be many other kinds of people involved in arson attack on the basis of some unknown reasons (Donahue, 2000). The management of a business should identity all such kinds of threats in order to safeguard the people working in the building or with the business from upcoming risky situations in terms of outbreak of fire (ICMA, 1988). For analyzing arson attack, forensic technique is adopted by fire investigators generally, as it is thought as the most common and the most workable methodology in order to assess the on set fire as deliberately lit or accidental (IFSTA, 1998). The small clues that are present in the business locations where there is an outbreak of fire are collected and evaluated by the fire investigators who assemble all the evidences for identification of fire causes (Cooke and Ide, 1985). Management of a business should be able to monitors all the threats that can be there in terms of future arson attacks to the business as it is their responsibility to ensure that the people working at their business should be working in safe environment and conditions (Cooke and Ide, 1985). The management should arrange safe passages for the people to be evacuated in case there is some arson attack by some criminal authority (Petrovich, 1998). While designing the business places, the business authorities should ensure that the construction of safe passages is there along with other constructions. The staff members working at a business location should be fully informed about all kinds of arson attacks that can be there. In addition, the working people should also be used to the alarm sounds so that in case of fire alarms, they can be able to identify the extremity of the situation (ICMA, 1988). The security personnel of the business should be fully trained in order to stop any unauthorized entry. They security personnel should also be able to identity and guard the business in terms of reducing the risks of arson attacks to the business (Cooke and Ide, 1985). Fire investigation is a hard task to perform and the duty of fire investigators is as difficult and prone to injuries as that of the fire fighters. Fire investigators have to identify the indicators that indicate towards the root cause of the outbreak of fire. Before investigating, the fire investigators are required to make out the future dangers that can be there while investigating. They can suffer injuries to nearly all the body parts such as head, arm, hand, feet, eyes, legs, breathing systems and others. For controlling the injuries, the fire investigators have to make use of personal protective equipment that is able to secure them somehow from would-be damages. The eyewitnesses, law enforcement professionals, property owners, workers, security personnel and other associated people should be questioned in order to collect information regarding to the outbreak of fire. The management of a business should make sure the security of the people working with the business and should take actions to avoid arson attacks. References HSE. (2005). Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Second Edition). USA: HSE Books. pp.11-39. Donahue, Michael L. (2000). A Structured System for Fire Investigator Safety. Oklahoma: Oklahoma State University. pp. 56-78. International City Management Association (ICMA), (1988). Managing Fire Services (Second Edition). Connecticut Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.: Fire Protection Publications. pp. 25-37. International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA). (1998). Fire Inspection and Code Enforcement (Sixth Edition). Washington: Fire Protection Publications. pp. 48-60. Petrovich, Wayne P. (1998). A Fire Investigator's Handbook: Technical Skills for Entering, Documenting and Testifying in a Fire Scene Investigation. Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publisher. pp. 74-83. Cooke, Roy A. and Ide, Rodger Fl. (1985). Principles of Fire Investigation. New York: The Institution of Fire Engineers. pp. 124-138. Read More