Fire and Rescue Services in Identifying any Potential Fire Risks - Literature review Example

Running Header: Community Safety Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Name & Code: Date of Submission: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Fire and Rescue Services Interrelationship 4 Risks and Control Measures 6 Fire Hazards and Associated Risks 7 Fire precautions and awareness 7 Resources to be used 8 Fire Safety awareness 10 Methodology and Evidence 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Introduction Fire and rescue services departments and organizations have a great role of dealing with emergency and non-emergency situations. Such situations include pumping out floodwater, assisting air and rail crashes, rescuing people trapped within buildings and lifts, and attending chemical spills. However, fire and rescue services have the main roles of providing advice on fire prevention, inspecting premises in ensuring they meet fire safety regulations and advising people on fire escape routes as well as fire hazards at homes and working places. It also works with schools and communities in teaching people and students on the dangers of fire and ways of preventing it in case it occurs. Fire and rescue services provide guidance in identifying any potential fire risks. They will guide in reducing and preventing those risks associated with fire. They assist in developing an escape plan for the residential areas. However, this is achieved through conjunction and inter-relationship between fire and rescue services, emergency services and other supporting agencies. This report will describe the roles and interrelationship of the fire service, other emergency services, and supporting agencies in a range of community safety events. It will also assess the risks as well as apply relevant control measures within a range of community safety events. It will also appraise the selection, location, and access to a range of resources used in achieving objectives at community safety events. The report will analyze the causes of the fire including poor cooking facilities, lack of proper fire equipments, as well as lack of awareness of basic fire precautions by the migrant workers. It will evaluate on various ways towards reducing the occurrence of these fire incidences in the accommodation residences of the migrant workers. Fire and Rescue Services Interrelationship Fire and rescue services should collaborate towards with other emergency services and supporting agencies towards effective achievement of the intended purposes. Collaboration of fire and rescue services, emergency services organizations, and supporting agencies leads to effective and efficient achievement of fire assessment and an effective fire management plan. Fire risk assessment is an organized way of evaluating a building, and activities carried out in the buildings. It also involves evaluating the likelihood of fire occurrence and its possibility of it causing harm in or outside the building. Fire safety management is crucial towards maintaining fire maintenance standards. This is through implementation, controlling, monitoring, and reviewing fire safety standards. However, this can be achieved efficiently through collaboration of various agencies as a way of improving the provisions of required services. Some of the supporting agencies involved include government fire agencies and community volunteers. Government fire agencies should ensure it assists fire and rescue services with enough materials to be used by migrants in their areas of residence. Such materials include fire-fighting facilities like fire extinguishers, notices, and fire awareness posters among other necessary facilities. Government should work together with fire rescue and services in ensuring all the residential areas that migrants stay are inspected. This is towards ensuring they are to the required standards as a way of minimizing fire risks. Government should prepare an inspection program of the migrants’ houses while putting a lot of emphasizes on exit routes as well as installing fire fighting facilities. According to Arthur (2003), Community volunteers are other agents that should work with fire and rescue services towards providing the required risk reduction plans to the migrant workers in their areas of living. Community volunteers will play a key role of educating migrant workers on how to reduce fire incidences in their living houses. Community volunteers will also educate them on various ways of reducing fire risks and incidents. Community partnership with government and fire and rescue services will ensure public awareness and safety programs are well utilized. Other emergency volunteers that will work with fire and rescue services include Red Cross. This international organization ensures people affected by fire incidents are rescued and provided with the required first aid services. This emergency services organization will collaborate with government, community volunteers, and Red Cross. It will provide migrant workers with enough and relevant information regarding fire safety. This is through education materials and firefighting equipments. All those organizations, agents, and government should prioritize on ensuring enough education on fire safety is provided to the migrant workers. The fire and rescue services should ensure the collaboration plays a key role towards providing necessary knowledge on fire prevention skills. Governments have established the Fire and Rescue National Framework as argued by Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008-11 (2008). This sets out the expectations of government to be met by the fire and rescue service authorities. This framework covers a broad range of responsibilities and activities of fire and rescue service such as resilience and prevention, protection and response. The governments have a responsibility of producing the framework under FRS act as well as keep it current. They are other organizations that will play a crucial role towards assisting in the reduction of fire risks among migrant workers. They include manufacturers of fire fighting equipments and other independent fire brigades like Defence Fire Services like military and ministry of Defence. They will assist in improving the skills of migrant workers towards fire-associated risks. Manufacturers of fire fighting facilities will assist fire and rescue services in installing and teaching migrants of how to use them. Such equipments are fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and properly installed cooking facilities. They will also assists in providing basic fire precautions to the migrant workers. Collaboration of all those agencies and organizations will play a key role towards reducing the number of domestic fires in properties occupied by migrant workers. It will make it easier for fire and rescue services to work effectively when in partnership with all those organizations and agencies. Risks and Control Measures Charles (2006) argues that migrant workers may be exposed to various fire risks in their areas of residence. They are various types of risks that migrant workers are exposed to in their areas of residence. Such risks include exposed sources of fire. In identifying the risks within the areas that migrant workers live, it is important to assess fire risk in steps. This includes identification of hazards, identification of people at risk, evaluating, removing, reducing and protecting people from risks, recording, planning, informing, instructing and training, and reviewing the assessment. Identifying fire hazards will assists in knowing where the fire is likely to start. In order for the fire to start, they are three main hazards required that include fuel, oxygen, and sources of ignition. The main crucial aspect will be towards ensuring the three hazards do not get together as a way of reducing the fire risks. Sources of ignition may include faulty electrical appliances, burning cigarettes, and naked flames of gas, matches, and hot machinery surfaces among others. Identifying them will assist in reducing chances of fire occurrence within the premises. Cooking appliances are the major sources of fire risk for migrant workers. Fire Hazards and Associated Risks International Association of Fire Chiefs 2008 argues that fuel, as another fire hazard that causes a great risk to migrant workers, is anything that burns. Identification of various things that burn easily within a building or house of residence for migrant workers is crucial step towards reducing the fire incidents. Some of common fuels include furniture stored permanently or temporary, laundry including beddings, linen, textiles, soft furnishings including hanging curtain displays, and towels. Other includes waste storage facilities, refuse containers, and plastics. Other types of fuels that require to be taken into consideration in areas of residence for migrant workers are cooking oils, cigarette lighters, ethylated spirit, white spirit, flammable cleaning products, ceiling materials and fittings. Gas as a cooking fuel is known to contribute largely to fire incidences. Therefore, it is important to use, manage, and distribute cooking gas properly as a way of reducing its occurrence and risks associated with it. Oxidizing materials are the main sources of oxygen in migrant workers houses. Such oxidizing materials or chemicals should be kept in areas where they do not pose high risk to the people living in the building. They include cylinder storage facilities for oxygen used for welding or fireworks that have oxidizing materials that require great care when handling and storing them. Fire precautions and awareness Migrant workers have no awareness of basic fire precautions in their areas of their residence. This is due to lack of enough knowledge and someone to guide them with the required and necessary information. These migrants have been fully occupied by the work they are doing hence they do not have enough time to familiarize themselves with fire precautions and other fire risks associated information. Insufficient intervention by government and other agencies including fire and rescue services has led to lack of awareness concerning basic fire precautions. Most of the migrant workers do not have sufficient knowledge on how to use the fire fighting equipments. They do not know on basic fire risk and hazard reduction strategies. This is a clear indication that fire precautions awareness requires to be put into practice fully among these migrant workers. There is need to establish campaign awareness involving fire as a way of ensuring they become aware of how to reduce fire risks and hazards. It is important for these migrant workers to be informed on various fire safety aspects of the country they are working. This can be well achieved through an effective collaboration of various agencies including community volunteers, government, and fire and rescue services among others. This will improve the basic understanding of fire risks and hazards among migrant workers in country. Resources to be used It is crucial to put into consideration some of the basic materials or resources necessary in ensuring the set objectives of educating the migrant workers is achieved. This is through providing the necessary fire training posters, equipments and other related materials. Some of the resources that will be utilized in ensuring migrant workers get the required knowledge and information include fire extinguishers, smoke detecting signals, fire bells, reading materials, fire safety posters, and human resource or personnel for spreading the required knowledge among the migrants. Reading materials including posters and fire safety related magazines or journals would play a key role towards informing migrants on various ways of reducing fire incidences. They will have extensive knowledge and information regarding fire safety. Reading materials will provide theoretical information regarding fire prevention strategies. Fire fighting equipments will be used to practically demonstrate and train the migrants. This will be an easier way of ensuring they get the required knowledge. Human resource or personnel will be used in transferring knowledge and ensuring the migrants are able to understand clearly. The trainers will be professionals on fire knowledge. They are expected to bring change in the minds of migrants on how they tackle fire related incidents, risks or hazards. Other human resources or personnel required are fire investigators detectors or fire engineers. These will assist in inspecting the residential areas of migrant workers on any fire threat within their residential areas. As illustrated by Great Britain: H.M. Fire Service Inspectorate (2007), facilities like fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and alarms, and fire bells will assist in providing practical knowledge on how the fire can be controlled easily in case it breaks out. Posters put on the walls of the buildings will play a great role on informing people concerning the safety measures that should be undertaken. All the entrances and exit areas of the buildings should be clear with no obstacles that may hinder the routes to safety. The fire notices and posters should be placed near cooking areas as well as at the exits where they can be seen clearly. Smoke alarms indicate when there is fire occurrence inside a building. This is an initial signs of informing anybody around in order a quick action to be undertaken before it spreads to a large area. Working smoke alarms are the vital fire fighting equipments in ensuring the spread of fire is tackled and stopped before any destruction is done. However, migrants must be informed on how to respond to the smoke alarms by doing some drill practices in order to familiarize themselves with them. This is towards ensuring there is reduced confusion in situations when fire breaks out. Fire Safety awareness Andrew & Martin (2007) argues that lack of safety awareness among the people in community in general has been the major contributing factor behind the spread of fire. There is high likelihood of fire occurring in situations where people are not well informed on fire awareness aspects. Collaboration of various agencies will ensure fire safety awareness is created in all aspects and directions. However, it is important to note that fire safety awareness can be effective through combination of various aspects of learning including practical, theory, and combination of both. It should also be carried out through demonstrations and drill practices as a way of ensuring the message becomes clear to those concerned. It is worthy to note that the higher the fire awareness people have, the lower the incidences of fire in their living areas. Therefore, it is advisable to make sure that people are well informed and prepared for any matter related to fire. Creating fire awareness among the migrants involves informing and teaching them on how to avoid risks, evaluate the risks that cannot be avoided, and combating the fire risks at source. This should be followed by adapting to technical progress of reducing fire risks. This should then be followed by reducing the dangerous to less or non-dangerous. This should be followed by providing protective measures and finally giving appropriate instructions to the people regarding the fire control measures. Methodology and Evidence After a comprehensive creation of awareness among the migration workers, there was, need to evaluate whether it was effective. This is through carrying out an analysis towards verifying whether there have been any achievements of the project. Collaboration of various agencies including government has made fire and rescue services be able to achieve its objectives of creating awareness among the community and migrant workers. However, this has been made successful with various reading materials, books, and posters as well as trainers. This success has been verified with interviews and questionnaires to the migrant workers. They have questioned on various aspects involving fire and its prevention strategies. Various practical demonstrations towards evaluating whether there has been any impact of fire awareness knowledge were also carried out. This assisted in determining whether migrant workers have been able to get the necessary knowledge. This was a clear indication that people gained enough knowledge or awareness concerning the fire risks prevention. Conclusion The main strategy of creating fire awareness in the migrant workers community towards reducing fire incidences and fire risks in their areas of residence was achieved. This has been achieved through the collaboration of various agencies such as Red Cross, fire equipment manufacturers, government agencies, fire and rescue services department, and military emergency units among others. Community volunteers to educate people on the aspects of risk reduction play a great role as well in providing practical and theoretical knowledge on fire. The migrants will be able understand the fire related laws and guidance of the country where they are working in. However, this was well achieved through proper utilization of necessary resources including necessary human resource, fire related posters, and reading materials. It also included fire-fighting facilities including smoke alarms, fire extinguishers among others. They have also been a lot of advice concerning the use of cooking materials or fuels such as electrical and gas cookers. However, the vital part involves the identification of risks that exposes building and occupants to fire hazards. This is achieved through the identification of those hazards and the ways of controlling them. Basic knowledge on fire precautions and fire prevention awareness is crucial because it plays a critical part in reducing and preventing the occurrence of fire incidences. This is not only crucial to migrant workers, but to the whole community in general. References Andrew, F & Martin, M 2007, Introduction to fire safety management, Elsevier, New York. Arthur, E 2003, Organizing for Fire and Rescue Services, Jones & Barlett Learning, London. Charles, S 2006, Fire and emergency service administration: management and leadership practices, Jones & Barlett Learning, London. Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008-11 2008, BPR Publishers, California. Great Britain: H.M. Fire Service Inspectorate 2007, Fire and Rescue Service manual: Vol. 2: Fire service operations, Incidents involving rescue from road vehicles, Volume 2, The Stationery Office, Michigan. International Association of Fire Chiefs 2008, Fundamentals of Fire fighter skills, Jones & Barlett Learning, Massachusetts. Read More