Risk Management Assessment in a Building with Modern Fittings - Report Example

Risk Management Assessment Name: Institution: Professor: Course: Date: RISK MANAGEMENT Fire is a tremendous phenomenon that can consume a building in a few minutes either by filling the whole room with billing clouds of smoke or burning the materials into ash. Fire is also a major cause of deaths inhalation of the product of combustion or asphyxiation. When burning different materials produce different types of gases ranging from carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide to sulfur dioxide and depending on the conditions under which the fire is burning and the environmental factors, the fire and its heat intensity increases and at the same time a combination of different gases from the burning materials is given off. Thus, there is a low chance of a person trapped in a burning room to come out. A fire in a building with modern fittings like plastic pipes, glass and materials like wall papers, furniture generates smoke that is thick and black thus obscuring vision causes great difficulty in breathing and can exits. Accommodation centers for students are one of places at high risk of fire breakouts. When these happen, life is lost, injuries sustained and property worth million of dollars is raised down. Nationally, fires in students’ accommodation centers occur when the students are in session and this clearly shows that they are largely to blame on students. According to a report by U.S fire Administration’s report in Topical Fire Administration, Volume 1 Issue 14 March-December 2001, 33% of dormitory fires result from arson, which is more than twice of arson fires in residential structures. The reports says that most injuries (56%) from dormitory fires occur while the victim tries to put off the blaze and also smoke alarms operated in dormitory fires, are 79% ,which is the number as in residences. For a fire to start, three things are needed: 1. a source of ignition; 2. fuel; and 3. Oxygen. Under uncontrolled circumstances, these three are the conditions for a keeping a flame burning. If anyone of them is removed, the fire ceases. Thus taking the necessary caution to avoid these three coming together reduces the risk of a fire break out. Causes of fires in the Accommodation centers In general, a fire can start in one of these ways: 1. by accident, when a smoking material is left lying while burning , the explosion of a gas cylinder, faulty connections of electric wires 2. when a lit lamp or light is knocked over and left to lie untended; 3. A fire starts by act or omission, especially when electrical appliance is not well maintained or is handled poorly. 4. When waste material is left to accumulate near to a heat source, it can catch fire resulting to a fire breakout. 5. Sometimes fire is caused deliberately, through an arson attack involving setting fire to a building intentionally for malice. Fires in student accommodation centers are caused mainly due to lifestyle factors. A fire hazard is any type of jeopardy that causes harm to both the health and safety of an individual and arises from lack of an essential requirement .A hazard increases the probability and the level of harm that happens. The principle fire hazards in a student accommodation centers When a students discards carelessly any form of smoking materials which comes into contact with combustible materials. For example, a lighted cigarette stub might take a long time to ignite any combustible materials, but when it does, it might be in the night thereby increasing the number of deaths, injuries and property loss. A way of curbing such dangerous and careless mistakes is the use of stern warnings and signs prohibiting smoking of cigarettes in buildings. Electricity is our major source of light and energy in the daily routines of students thus cannot be avoided inside our rooms. However this electricity can be source of fire due to faulty connections. To avoid such mishaps it is recommended to have all electrical equipment tested annually and the users kept updated of the possible dangers associated with the different types of electrical equipment. Kitchens inside or near the student accommodation centers when not well supervised increase the chances of fire breakouts, since this is where, most electrical appliances, gas cylinders, candles, matchboxes, highly ignitable materials are found. A small kitchen stands at a higher risk of burning down fast as compared to a larger one. Store rooms provide a high risk of fire. Clothing, plastic wares, cartons, highly combustible materials and cleaning equipment are stored here and ignitable materials in the presence of a chemical cleaner may result in a higher fire risk if not store correctly and handled correctly. To reduce such high risks it is recommended that good house keeping and ensuring the storage and arrangement is neat will effectively reduce the risks. Sometimes there is a shop inside or near the accommodation center that uses equipment like blow lamps, candles, pressure lamps and metal angle cutters amongst others provides a fire hazard. In such a place there is need for close and constant supervision during and after their activities inside the center to make sure that no hot spots or small fires have been missed. Arson is the leading cause of fire breakouts in student accommodation canters and is closely followed by cooking inside the dormitories by the students (21%).Smoking cigarettes and other substances that require fire to light is the third leading cause of dormitory fires (14%), more than twice the incidence as that in all residential fires. Open flame fires occurrences in the dormitories are high and have several causes including fire from candles mainly due to increased use of candles for decorative purposes during the evenings by college students. In this case fire risk assessment is an organized and methodical look at the accommodation center, the activities carried on there and the likelihood that a fire could start and cause harm and even death to those in and around the premises and cause loss of property worth billions of dollars. In order to make a conclusive risk assessment, the activities of all the students accommodated by the center is considered. People who may be especially vulnerable, such as disabled students, expectant students and employees are also considered. The Aims of the Fire Risk Assessment • To identify the fire hazards within the accommodation center. With proper identification, fire preventive measures are much easier to implement, thus curbing the frequency of fire breakouts. • Another important factor is to reduce the frequency of those hazards causing minimum harm, as low as possibly practicable. • To outline what physical fire safety measures and management organization, are necessary to ensure the safety of students in the accommodation centre if a fire starts. It is important that the fire risk assessment is carried out in a practical and systematic way and enough time is allocated to do a thorough assessment. It must take the whole of the accommodation center into account, including outdoor locations and any rooms and areas that are rarely used There are several things to do and follow in five steps to risk assessment[6] Pointing out the fire hazards in the surrounding environment. Knowledge of such fire hazards is important in preventive measures Decide who might be harmed and how in cases of a fire breakout. This is to ensure minimum harm and injuries to the people within and without the building. This considers people who might be hired in a building as employees, contractors and even visitors. Evaluate the risks involved and take the necessary precautions to ensure that only minimum damage is done incase of fire breakouts. Taking and recording the findings. These are very important in guidance to the necessary steps to be taken Review your risk assessment for future purposes and investment in fire equipment and insurance. Effective implementation of fire safety is important to ensure that no kind of fires, accidental or intentional occurs. In cases where the fires occur, then they are quickly put under with minimum injuries and damage to the property. In unfortunate cases where the fires get out of hand, then everyone within and surrounding the building should be able to escape to a place of safety very quick and out of danger. The risk assessment that is carried out ensures three most important factors in fire out-breaks reduction; 1. the fire safety procedures, 2. fire prevention measures, and 3. Fire precautions (plans, systems and equipment) are put up in place and in good working condition. The risk assessment should identify the weak areas and seen to it that they are corrected, faulty equipment replaced and lacking equipment installed. There is need for a follow up review and this period between reviews depends on: • The type of hazard and its implications, there is change to the task, activity or process • have there been any accidents, near misses or plant defects from the time of assessment? Have the people been transferred or addition of new equipment? • The level of change in economic development and population growth that is taking place within the accommodation center. The assessment records should be regularly updated and changes made in cases where a fire hazard has ceased or another one has arisen or there is any other significant change in the situation. Methods Applied in Controlling Risks 1. ELIMINATE –this is removing the identified hazard and replacing it with equipment considered to be of less risk. 2. REDUCE: the nature of the hazard is altered to reduce the level of threat it poses and this can be done by use of lesser voltage. 3. ISOLATE: this is the removal of the hazard away from the environment where it poses as a greater threat 4. CONTROL: this is managing and monitoring the exposure of the hazard to the people or situations where it has a higher probability of causing harm. 5. PPE issuance of personnel protective equipment e.g. gas masks to fire fighters, fire extinguishers installed in rooms. 6. Discipline and Culture: this tends to limit some careless behaviors that may result to fire break-outs for example, smoking. Mitigating the Impact of Risk on Communities in a Cost Effective Way Fire safety is one of safety issues which management of a student accommodation centers addresses to decrease the risk of injury or death to students and staff. Comparing with other safety concerns, fire has the greater potential to injure or kill large numbers of people within a short time. Where the building has been recently constructed or altered in modification, the fire detection and alerting measures, escape ways and fire fighting facilities should be designed, constructed and installed in accordance with current building regulations. The enforcing authority, Fire Rescue and Service department have the authority to inspect the accommodation center to ensure that it has all the followed all the regulations in fire management tasks. This is done by checking for a suitable fire risk assessment and if the results of the assessment have been acted upon. If the situation is still wanting, the authorities make their recommendation which they expect to be followed strictly or they may issue an enforcement notice that the accommodation centre to be improved in certain ways and, in extreme cases, a prohibition notice that restricts the use of all or part of the center until the necessary measures are taken. The provision of a fire and rescue service is a good risk management strategy and increasingly expands the role to encompass risk reduction areas that concern safety. There is need for the Fire and Rescue Service to make important progress through the introduction of a service-wide water rescue capability, a nationally recognized environmental protection strategy for emergency response, and a growing commitment towards achievement of safety. A Fire and Rescue Service should work in partnership with other agencies on shared objectives, thereby permitting the organisation to better address the needs of hard-to reach places that might be in danger across the country. The key component for the planning and delivery of every services should continuously be the risk management planning processes and the Community Safety Strategy, through which there is focus on activities in a span duration of about three years and beyond. The reduction in fires and the damage it causes will remain a core concern of each Fire and Rescue Service. To respond to fire emergencies, the staff of the Fire and Rescue Service should be fully and adequately trained equipped with the most up to date equipment. To ensure achieving the objectives the Fire and Rescue Service should drive continuous improvement through effective performance, management. To ensure that there is maximum use of resources efficiently, a Fire and Rescue Service should target its activities in risk management at those geographical areas, and/or specific groups of people for example the old, the expectant, those who have been identified as being at greatest risk of harm. There is a great need to increase the effectiveness of how the Fire and Rescue Service capture and analyze information so the people are able to understand the nature of risk, both geographically and demographically. To make a Fire and Rescue Service achieve its objectives fully, it is important to build on the success of our Home Fire Safety Checks, Child safe programme and fire safety inspection regime, there is need to promote and create awareness and educate communities regarding the risks from fire and the measures to take and which can reduce the exposure to the risks. Fire and Rescue Service should continue to promote the great essence of benefits of smoke detectors and sprinklers thus increasing safety and minimal damage to life and property in the accommodation centers and other places. For a long term solution in safety measures there is a need to invest in a much needed enforcement of the law in respect of fire safety in both public and commercial buildings. The intention of the fire and rescue management team should be to develop a system that takes into account both the nature of frequency of the hazardous occurrence and the potential danger of the consequences which can be identified and that there are a range of possible outcomes that could result from the hazardous occurrence and allowed comparison of the widely differing hazards that could be found in places of accommodation and other buildings that are occupied. There are main objectives that every intergrated Risk management plan should be able to accomplish in the long run and these include the reduction of emergency incidents and intentional incidents and when they occur there should be the minimum loss of life and less harm to property. The consequences of the dangers posed by various threats in our surroundings should be reduced to the minimum. The plan should result to a healthy, competent and a representative work force which is dedicated to reduce the impact of those threats on the environment and should be geared towards building stronger and more sustainable communities so that there is good service provided for the money of the community. References Furness, A., & Muckeh M. 2007. Introduction to fire safety management. London: Butterworth-Heinemann publications. Kemshall, H., & Pritchard, J. 1997. Good practice in risk assessment and risk management. New York: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Perry, P. 2003. Fire safety questions and answers a practical approach. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. RMP Team. 2009. Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service; Risk management Plan. The NEC Birmingham. 2009. Volume 203. 4th /April/2009 Read More