Management in the Fire Service - Assignment Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Community Safety Project Course: Institution: Date: Community Safety Project Introduction Integrating theory with practice is fundamental for students in ensuring they comprehend how to apply the learnt theoretical educational content into real life experiences and more significantly, offering the students the opportunity to interact with the community in addressing critical community matters. This forms the basis for facilitating work based learning projects for students. As a work based learning exercise, a community safety project was established as a task, which was meant to raise the profile of student’s fire safety and awareness. According to Great Britain, (2004) fires are real risks for both businesses and communities and every community member inclusive of students are susceptible to the risk of fires and being affected by its aftermaths. Recent reports on the UK fire statistics for 2010-2011 shows that fires remain a real threat to the safety of communities and are mostly as a result of lack of fire safety, fire awareness and poor attitudes to fire danger in the neighborhoods (Great Britain: NAO. 2010). By raising the profile of students fire safety and awareness, the community safety project aimed to highlight the true impacts of fire in terms of finances and personal terms and mobilize the student community in getting involved in enhancing fire prevention and safety as a means of effective prevention, management and response to the risks of fires in the community level. This is because, everyone is at risks of fire particularly when living around neighborhoods where no one mind about fire safety since, one can easily be put at risk against threats and hazards of fire, thus making fire safety awareness an essential process for any community member, and for this case, every student (Great Britain: NAO. 2010). This report therefore, highlights the objectives and content of the task undertaken and critically analyzes the work undertaken. In addition, offering a reflection on the work undertaken and making effective recommendations to improve the practice. The Task What the task was about The community safety project was a task meant to raise the profile of students’ fire safety and awareness. The theme for the task was safe places, safe communities. The selection of the task follows the sustained rise in the number of people and property that are lost as a result of fire threats. The task was meant to raise the profile of students on not only the harmful effects of fire and educating them on how to avoid these hazards, but also, engaging them on a one-to-one basis in regards to the issue in order to generate the desired impact on the students. The project was essential in creating more fire safety and awareness among students to help enhance their access to knowledge about prevention, management and response to fire hazards. The task was primarily utilized as a suitable medium to enhance safe fire prevention practices within and outside school communities and to enlighten students about the real costs of fire at an individual and community level. This could be achieved by showing the students how fatal fire can be and demonstrating to them varied ways they can participate to prevent fires and ensure they duly comply to fire safety and protection best practices and are informed on what or what not to do in case of fire emergencies (Carter & Rausch, 2007). Since the University has more than eight thousand students both graduate and undergraduate exclusive of faculty staff members, the high numbers provided a good base for information sharing on fire safety and awareness, which could easily translate to wider and broader knowledge impartation on the subject matter from the participants to other, many people particularly outside the University to whom the students relate. The task provided an opportune moment to help students in making choices that impact on their individual safety and ensure each of them is equipped with vital information on fire prevention, management and response strategies and techniques to ensure their own personal safety which translates to community safety and help prevent anyone, both students and the neighbouring communities from being victims of fires. Target audience The task targeted students How the profile was raised In a bid to raise the profile of students’ fire safety and awareness, there was varied activities incorporated within the community safety project that included an exhibition where skilled and professional fire fighting personnel from the local fire stations were invited to showcase varied systems in fire safety and offer free but useful information on fire safety and awareness vital in educating the students and creating broader student awareness on the threat of fire, costs of fire, ways and means of preventing fires and contingency measures the students can take as individuals to prevent occurrence of fires and ensures fire safety for themselves and those around them. In the exhibition, the students were supplied with fire safety and awareness journals and newsletters from the local fire stations. To ensure the awareness efforts are sustained, during the exhibition, the students were asked to sign up for free fire safety and awareness alerts and information from the attending local fire stations through their regular email account addresses. In addition, members and stakeholders to the community safety project distributed pamphlets to the student community and having one on one discussion with the students on issues regarding fire safety and particularly placing greater emphasis on the need for students to equip themselves with information on fire prevention measures. Among issues discussed and covered by the fire fighting and response personnel attending the exhibition included talks and information sharing on fire preventive initiatives, effective operation and maintenance of fire fighting systems and tools, discussions on emergency preparedness and evacuation procedures. During the exhibition, fire victims affected by fires on varied fire incidents were invited to not only share their horrifying ordeal with fire but also, highlight some of the mistakes they did that contributed to the fire threats and more significantly, highlighting what they should have done to avert the situation. The fire victims invited as part of the exhibition were meant to not only create the awareness required, but appease to the emotional and psychological aspects of the students and compel them to not only know more on fire safety but also, drive them to practice what they had learnt about fire safety and safeguard themselves from experiencing the same ordeals as the fire victims. Despite the great success generated from the exhibition, the number of local fire stations and the number of fire fighting personnel who attended were not as many as earlier anticipated owing to various personnel attending to their services and duties in serving the community elsewhere. In collaboration with the University administration, a fire drill was conducted to not only help establish the awareness level of the students on fire response strategies but also, demonstrate how lack of fire safety awareness can result in disastrous outcomes. Integration of theory and practice The main reason for carrying out this task was to not only save lives and comply with applicable local and state laws and regulations on fire and safety protection, but also, the task was meant to impart life skills and knowledge on students about fire safety and more importantly, helping students participate in developing and sustaining safe communities and neighborhoods. As recommended by Great Britain, (2004), students just as any other members of the society have a legal mandate to be informed of emergency preparedness and emergency procedures in preventing, managing and responding to the threat of fire, complying with the findings of school’s risk assessments and more significantly participating actively in identifying fire risks and ensuring the risks are effectively and efficiently minimized. Since students are prone to causing fires due to various reasons such as careless smoking, incorrect use of electrical, leaving unattended flames and lights and in some instances involvement in arson, educating them and raising their profile on awareness on the impact of fire and particularly fire safety is fundamental in overall fire prevention efforts at both individual and community level (Carter & Rausch, 2007). Primarily, raising the profile of students’ fire safety and awareness is a more cost effective initiative in minimizing the risk of fire related accidents, near misses and incidents at learning environments and in the community in genera (Great Britain, et al., 2006). Key information focused on in the task is enlightening the students on the principle of combustion, spread of fires and safeguarding against fire, establishing and reporting on generic risks in the environment to relevant authorities, establishing the significance of fire drills and efficient responses, identifying appropriate actions to take upon noticing a fire and more importantly on correct reaction to fire warnings (Great Britain: NAO. 2010). Among other things, students were educated on the correct use of firefighting systems and equipments and discussing general issues such as adhering to set smoking zones. Nevertheless, despite the great efforts placed by the project members on ensuring the task is a success, there were still students who despite the fire safety awareness initiatives were reluctant in participating in the discussions and their attitudes towards fire safety was a do –not- care attitude, which was informed by their perceptions that fire safety issues is and should be handled by the fire and response services and fire fighting professionals and not be a responsibility of the students themselves. Reflection and Recommendations From the community safety project, my perceptions and outlook on fire safety were greatly changed since, from the fire safety and awareness information conveyed by the fire fighting professionals, the students and the fire victims, it was clear that averting the risk of fire begins at a personal level where as an individual I become accountable and committed to ensuring I keep my environment safe, which transcends to the community and then national level. From the task, I learnt that I was as safe as the next person because, by securing my own house against fire is not enough and that I need to constantly communicate to those who live around me on the need to comply with fire safety measures and being on the know on what to do incase of fire emergencies to minimize damage to property and lose of life. In addition, greater collaboration between the community, the fire fighting fraternity and the students produce better outcomes (Carter & Rausch, 2007). From the task, it was apparent that the best measure in fire safety is adoption of preventive measures where fire risks are prevented and averted. However, when fire does actually occur, proper response and management are fundamental to minimizing damage to both life and property (Great Britain, et al., 2006). Other than learning about fire safety, there are other ways I can contribute to ensuring safer places and safe communities which include offering voluntary fire services to my local fire stations and sharing knowledge on fire safety wherever and whenever possible as supported by (Great Britain, 2004). With proper planning, teamwork, creativity, commitment and accountability, students have the potential and ability to engage and participate in developing solutions to real life modern day problems and challenges facing the communities they live in as evidenced by the community safety project where mobilizing students and raising their profile of fire safety and awareness could mean overall safety in the community. The most influential aspect of the whole task was the impact the fire victims had on me since I had contact with victims who had first hand experience on the real cost and negative impact of the fire threat and from them, I took matters relating with fire safety with renewed seriousness, of which the subject deserves. The experiences that I have carried with me since the completion of the task is that I am more vigilant in ensuring that I reduce as much as possible any possible cause of fire risks as much as possible such as ensuring I do not leave fires and open flames unattended, ensuring I switch of the cooking gas and electrical appliances and more importantly, following fire response and emergency procedures as effectively and as efficiently as possible during fire drills to ensure I know what to do and what not to do incase of a real fire emergency. From the task, there are two recommendations that can effectively and efficiently be used to ensure broader and deeper access to students in raising their profile of fire safety and awareness, which includes the use of modern technology-based systems such as social networks to educate, inform and engage students in actively participating in creating wider fire and safety awareness among themselves and within the community. Other than the exhibition, the one –on- one discussions with students and the fire drills, the task of raising profile of students’ fire safety and awareness were carried out through social network Facebook and Twitter, of which majority if not all of the students are account holders. Through the social networks, discussions and comments can be carried out on fire safety through the project’s Facebook page and Twitter page called safe places safe communities where students will be invited to inquire, tweet, post and comment on issues relating to fire safety. Other than the use of technology-based systems to raise the profile of students’ fire safety and awareness, more participants need to be addressed such as faculty members, the media and the community which can be achieved by holding and facilitating fire safety and awareness symposium and fire safety and awareness week, which discusses broadly on all issues relating to fire safety. More significantly, to ensure sustainability and long-term results, the symposium should be a regular activity in the school calendar and not done as a one time thing (Carter & Rausch, 2007). Owing to the huge impact the fire victims had on majority of students in reviewing their contributions to the risk of fire, I would recommend that such guests are regularly invited to hold talks in forums and in the symposium in order to give weight to the issues regarding the cost of fire on life and help mobilize both students and the community in general to engage in ensuring everyone is safeguarded against the risk of fire. Conclusion The risk of fire as discussed in the report is a real threat to businesses and communities owing to the great lose of life and property they generate. As a work based learning initiative, community safety project was a task developed with the main aim of raising the profile of students’ fire safety and awareness. Through exhibition, one-on-one discussions between project members and students, talks with fire victims and facilitation of a fire drill, the task succeeded in creating the much needed student awareness on fire safety and how they can ensure safer environments from an individual level. As highlighted in the report, the task was an opening experience for me that fire safety begins at an individual level and transcends to the community and then to a national level. My safety depends not only on what I do but also on what others do thus, necessitating community awareness on fire safety. To ensure increased awareness, I do recommend continued use of fire victims to educate students on the dangers of fire, use of technology based systems such as Twitter and Facebook to engage students in discussing issues relating to fire safety and finally facilitation of regular symposiums and fire safety and awareness week to ensure the awareness efforts are long term and are not a one time thing. References Carter, H., & Rausch, E. 2007. Management in the Fire Service. Sidney: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Great Britain: NAO. 2010. Reducing the Costs for Procuring Fire and Rescue Service Vehicles and Specialist Equipment: Department for Communities and Local Government. London: The Stationery Office. Great Britain. 2004. Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. Elizabeth Ii, Part 21. London: The Stationery Office. Great Britain, P., HC, C & LGC. 2006. Fire and Rescue Service: Fourth Report of Session 2005- 06. London: The Stationery Office. Read More