Strategy to Reduce the Number of Injuries in Multi-Occupancy Temporary Housing for Migrant Workers - Report Example

COMMUNITY SAFETY Strategy to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities in multi-occupancy temporary housing for migrant workers 1. Introduction There are many events in our history that would remind us how a raging fire can destroy cities, homes, and killed a significant number of people (Craythorne 2006, p.329). Today, fire still happened and the major causes of fire in dwellings are careless cooking habits, faulty electrical installations, overheating equipment, smoking, and fire starting (Kiurski 1999, p.14). Similarly, overpopulated high-rise temporary housing is vulnerable to these major causes of fire as migrant workers also cooks and using electricity. Moreover, fire occurring in high-rise temporary housing may be more problematic than dealing with fire in homes, as the height of the building and lack of fire suppression facilities may add up to the difficulty in fire fighting, rescue, and evacuation. Analysis of the problem may be required to understand the risks of having a significant population of migrant workers in a high-rise temporary housing which is under construction and do not have adequate facilities for the workers. This report will discuss the problem with significant number of workers are living in a high-rise temporary housing. Recommend an effective and robust strategy to reduce fatalities caused by fires in multi-occupancy building which is under construction. Moreover, it will include discussion on strategic partnership with other concern agencies in effectively promotion and implementation of fire safety practices. 2. Causes of Fire in High-Rise Temporary Housing for Migrant Workers 2.1 Cooking Anywhere High-rise temporary housing means living in a building that is still under construction. In other words, migrant workers are living in a place with inadequate basic facilities such a water supply, electricity, and suitable place for cooking. Moreover, since the temporary housing is overpopulated, most of the workers will be likely make use of any available place to cook. The problem with high-rise temporary housing in terms of fire safety is the danger of cooking outside the kitchen such as the improvised bedroom and living room where highly combustible materials are present. Furthermore, because there is limited electricity supply and electrical outlet, workers tend to devise and alter electrical wiring or use a single outlet for a number of appliances and equipment. The apparent disregard to safety contributes greatly to the possibility of fire particularly when cooking near highly combustible materials. Although some migrant workers may be aware of the danger, the overcrowding and present condition of the building prevent them from doing the right thing. Cooking is one of the main causes of fire and in the United States for example, one-third of all dwelling fires are cooking-related (Kiurski 1999, p.35). In the United Kingdom, main reasons for fires in almost all type of occupied buildings are cooking-related such as cooking oil ignition and defective cooking appliances (Jain 2001, p.15). Moreover, in both countries, misuse of cooking appliances, smoking materials, and heat sources near combustible materials contributed to accidental fires (Rasbash & Kandola 2004, p.177). In an overpopulated high-rise temporary housing, the situation is much more dangerous as a there are significant number of people cooking in unlikely places where a considerable amount of highly combustible materials are present. Anytime, a fire could start and without a fire fighting equipment or facility, properly planned escape routes and evacuation procedures, the lives of workers are in great danger. Moreover, the height of the building will prevent fire fighters and rescuers from effectively fight the fire and evacuate people trapped in the upper floors. For this reason, the situation and arrangement in the overpopulated high-rise temporary housing must be rectified as soon as possible with the help of the building management and local authorities. 2.2 Altering Electrical Installations and Abuse of Appliances Aside from cooking-related fires in occupied buildings, electricity is another major cause of fires. According to Rasbash & Kandola (2004, p.1777), electrical wiring in one of several specific cause of fire along with abuse of home appliances such as television, washing machines, heaters, and others. For example, the UK Fire Statistics Monitor report in 2003 reveals that faulty electrical equipment and portable heaters are two of the most common causes of fire. Moreover, out of 111,400 reported fires in buildings, 68,000 were used for dwellings (Perry 2003, p.9). Building regulations requires designers to ensure fire safety thus most buildings electrical installations are required to have minimum standards. For example, they must ensure that cables do not overheat, circuits would not overload, wires are properly insulated, and correct fuse rating is use (Department of Communities and Local Government 2006, p.47). Clearly, the reason for these regulations is to ensure that no fire could start from electrical-related installations. However, when migrant workers in an overpopulated high-rise temporary housing tampered or alter electrical wiring and other installation, the reliability of these installations is being breached. For example, when a worker needs to plug-in an electrical appliance into a wall socket, he will likely to improvise and tamper electrical wires because there is no wall socket available. In other situation, he may plug his electrically powered appliance into an already overloaded extension cord or outlet being use by other workers. Aside from improperly connecting electrical appliances, workers may use them from a long period of time and overheating the appliance. These faulty practices if left unchecked will more likely lead to fire as heat coming from these electrical wires and appliances would ignite highly combustible materials near them. These faulty practices apparently require fire safety orientation and education particularly in the area of electrical safety and proper use of equipment and appliances. 2.3 Height and Lack of Fire Safety Features of the Building Considering that the two problems discussed in the previous section contributed to fire occurrence, the height of the building may make it difficult to fire fighters to reach and control the fire. In addition, it will take some time for fire fighters to conduct an evacuation and other fire fighting activities due to the lack of facilities they can use for these purpose. For example, fire fighting lift is not yet available; the building has no riser or fire fighting water supply yet, fire extinguishers and hoses are not present, and water sources are limited. Moreover, there is no clear evacuation procedure yet and occupants are not aware of designated escape routes and area of absolute safety. These and other possibilities can make fire fighting difficult and consequently fire will like to spread rapidly resulting to large number of injuries and fatalities. High-rise building inherently possess some factors affecting fire growth and smoke movement such as the influence of strong winds not present in low-rise buildings. In addition, exterior rescue is difficult in tall buildings (Craighead 2009, p.31). According to Garcia et al. (2006, p.191), high-rises frequently put the life of fire fighters in great danger since smoke and hot gases in this type of building often block escape routes and delayed fire suppression. When a fire occurs in the upper floors, the only available water for fire fighters is from the standpipe system but apparently, an under construction high-rise building do not have such facility (Fornell 1991, p.72). High-rise building fires although very rare can have devastating effect when automatic fire detection and alarm are not installed because there will be delays in notifying occupants of a fire and evacuate sooner. Moreover, if automatic sprinkler and fire resisting compartments is not yet present, fire and smoke spread rapidly to other floors (Kramer & Bahme 1992, p.202). There are actually several problems associated with high-rise building fires and particularly when the building is still under construction and being occupied by a large number of workers. As mentioned earlier, the major ones are fire notification, suppression, and evacuation which are clearly life saving activities. For this reason, a fire in high-rise building must be avoided at all cost and clearly, fire prevention education is most important at this point. This is because rather than evacuating and rescuing workers, fire prevention avoids fire occurrence and prevent further problems from a fire. 2.4 Summary of the Problem Cooking and electrical-related fires are the major problems in an overcrowded high-rise temporary housing and because migrant workers are living in a condition that is not suitable for them, they would all try one way or another to cook anywhere or tamper electrical installations for their convenience. Carelessness and outright neglect often lead to accidents and in an overpopulated high-rise building with inadequate or completely zero fire safety features, these attitudes are hazardous. In terms of human participation in creating destructive fires, carelessness is a major cause (Simmers et al., 2008, p.343) which may be affected by a number of factors such deviant behaviour (Jessor et al. 1968, p.201) or an advanced level of anti-social behaviour (Forehand et al, 1991, p. 29-128) or just plain curiosity (Kolko & Kazdin 1991, p.32). For example, carelessness in smoking and with matches, carelessness in using electricity such as overloading circuits, frayed electrical wires, improper grounding, and abuse of heating equipments. All these practices and several others can lead to fire and for this reason carelessness or neglectful use of the facility can be considered a major problem in an overpopulated high-rise temporary housing for migrant workers. Altering electrical wiring or making use of unrated fuse and improvised electrical outlet are carelessness and total disregard to fire safety. Similarly, cooking anywhere particularly in the living room and bedroom where high combustible materials are present is carelessness and ignorance of fire safety practices and laws. Moreover, a large number of people are in great danger when a high-rise building fire occurs because of fire fighting and rescue is very difficult in high-rise building. 3. Strategy to Reduce the number of Injuries and Fatalities Taking into account the likely causes of fire in an overpopulated high-rise temporary housing for migrant workers, an effective and robust strategy to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities must make use of fire prevention concept. In recent years for example, there are a number of fire prevention initiatives such as the NFPA’s “Learn not to Burn” and the UK’s “Fire Kills: campaign. Media campaign such as these generally is to make the public aware of fire hazards, make the public learn fire prevention technique, and how the fire department can help them (Cote & Bugbee 1988, p.40). The strategy in mind is one that would educate the public concern or group of people such as the migrant workers and building management about fire prevention and fire safe practices. Moreover, it is a strategy that would make use of other relevant agencies such as the local authorities, social groups, health services, and concern individuals particularly building contractors and building owners. The strategy to reduce the number injuries and fatalities will be supported by media in terms of dissemination of messages and frequent reminders for the concern groups. Fire safety education can bring a number of benefits such as awareness of fire hazards and safe practices. These would include information regarding the danger of living in high-rise building and safety procedures that the workers can do to minimise the chances of fire occurrence. More importantly, it can elevate workers level of concern to safety and reduce the effects of carelessness and ignorance. As part of the strategy, the fire and rescue service in cooperation with the local authorities would visit the overpopulated high-rise temporary housing and conduct a meeting with building management about the law and compliance with safety regulations and practices. These include discussions on various fire hazards in this type of building, the danger of being overpopulated, and the well-being of migrant workers. More importantly, the building owner will be asked to cooperate in educating its workers about fire prevention and conduct a risk assessment of the facility. A risk assessment can help identify hazards in the workers accommodation that can be mitigated as soon as possible. Volunteer groups from the local community may be invited to participate in worker’s fire safety education by personally conducting an informal meeting with worker’s representative. This approach will make workers a part of a larger community that is concern with fire safety. The media, in cooperation with the fire and rescue service will take care of the larger effort to constantly remind and educate workers on fire safety through television and print. Fire safety flyers may be distributed by the community volunteer groups while the fire and rescue service provide the important information required. The fire safety education strategy is not only limited to prevention as best practices during a fire can also help reduce the number of injuries and fatalities. These may include basic but safe fire fighting, evacuation procedures and proper behaviour during a fire that will be provided by the fire and rescue service. The local health service may also provide some information about first aid and smoke inhalation avoidance, and what to do in case a worker suffers a burn or suffocation. More importantly, orient workers on fire notification procedures and become familiar with emergency numbers. 4. Conclusion Fire destroys homes and has taken a significant number of human lives. The main causes of fire in dwellings are careless cooking, electrical fault, and abuse of equipment and appliances. Overpopulated high-rise temporary housing is more vulnerable to these hazards because of the significant number of people carelessly cooking outside the kitchen due to lack of space. Alteration of electrical installations is also dangerous but being practiced because of limited electrical outlet and other services. The building is under construction and do not have fire detection and suppression facilities. The people occupying the building are not adequately trained for such situation and there is a strong possibility that no evacuation procedure is in place. When a fire occurs, the height of the building will prevent fire fighters to perform an effective fire fighting and rescue thus rapid spread of fire and large number of injuries and fatalities is expected. Previous studies show that high-rise building fire fighting and rescue is difficult and very dangerous to fire fighters and other responders. Escape routes are often times blocked by smoke and hot gases due to the effects of strong winds in the upper floors. Moreover, water supply is limited and there is no standpipe system available. Similar to fire prevention initiatives launched by the NFPA and the UK government, the strategy will make uses of fire safety awareness concept where various relevant agencies will participate. The strategy will make use of the local authorities, social or community groups, health services, and concern individuals such as building contractors, management, and worker’s representative. The strategy will educate the workers and the building management about the importance of fire safe practices and complying with laws and regulations. In coordination with various agencies, the fire and rescue service would lead the awareness campaign and provide the necessary safety information to participating agencies. The fire safety strategy is not only limited to prevention campaigns but include safety practices during a fire that can also help reduce injuries and fatalities significantly. 5. 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