How People Behave in Situation of Fire Breakouts - Literature review Example

Community Safety Student’s Name Grade Course: Tutor’s Name Date: Community Safety Report Introduction Fire safety in residential buildings has been an important topic of discussion among scholars and researchers for a period of time now. Human behaviour indicates that faced with imminent danger, people will try to find the fastest escape route. When fires break out in residential buildings therefore, it is expected that some people would use the staircase to escape the fire, while others would try other risky methods like jumping to the ground. Still, others would underestimate the intensity of the fire and therefore spend some time trying to get their possessions before deciding how to get out. It is such behaviours that require the occupants of a multi-occupancy high-rise building to learn the most effective response to a fire breakout. Human behaviour in case of fire breakouts In order to come up with an effective strategy to be passed to the residents of a multi-occupancy multi-storey building, it is vital to understand the conditions they live in and how they are likely to behave should a fire break out. This report has already identified that the storey building is occupied by immigrant workers. Further, the building is partially complete and the occupants do alter electricity or gas supplies in an attempt to have several cooking points in the same residence. This in turn places them at an increased danger of causing residential fires from overheating or short-circuits. Having established that the risk of fire is real, this report now seeks to uncover how people behave in case of fire break outs. Yatim (n.d) has analyzed several studies that address how people behave in case of fires. His findings indicate that people are motivated by other cues rather than the fire itself when evacuating from a building that caught fire. He also established that people use the exit point that they are most familiar with. This means that if a person normally uses an elevator to and from the building, his first choice when faced with a fire will be the elevator. People in higher floors in the building are also most likely to take the elevator as their first exit choice especially because they consider the distance from the top floor to the ground floor too long. Kolko & Kazdin (1991) also found out that though most buildings have horizontal fire escape routes, most residents rarely know of their existence and even those who do, do not fully appreciate the importance of the escape routes. Strategy The safety of residents of the multi-storey building is the first thing that this report has considered in the strategy. According to Fineman (1995), safety is the contrast of risk. As such, to maintain safety in the building, there must be an established way of identifying risks and establishing how they can be mitigated. The first step on the strategy therefore would be to identify the likely sources of fire and find a way to ensure that occupants know how to manage the risk involved. As identified elsewhere in this report, the tendency to alter electricity and gas supplies in the building in order to provide the residence with more cooking points in the residential area poses the immediate danger. As such, the building owner should engage the services of an electrician in order to professionally fix more sockets in the building where residents can cook without necessarily having to alter or overload existing sockets. If this is not possible for any reason, then the building owner needs to talk with the residents about the dangers posed by overloading sockets or altering gas outlets. He should encourage them to take turns in cooking using the available cooking points rather than create additional ones. The building owner can engage the services of safety and fire prevention experts in the area in order to inform the residents on the best way to handle existing energy supplies in the building. Possible fire causes The most likely cause of fire in the identified multi-storey building would be accidental, mainly from the alterations made to the energy supplies. According to Canter and Frizan (1998), although most accidental fires are caused by children aged below 11 years, adult carelessness, neglect or ignorance can also cause accidental fires. Considering the congestion and the entire population in the residential building, the safety and fire prevention experts could also engage the services of health workers to identify residents who may have schizophrenia, conduct disorder, anxiety disorder or post-trauma stress disorders as Jones et al (1994) state that people suffering from such conditions may have a fixation with starting fires. This is not to mean that all people with the above named conditions are more likely to start fires. Moore et al (1996) observe that mental disorders especially in teenage and young adults as well as the older patients trigger some kind of sensory reinforcement whenever a mentally disturbed person sees a fire. Pyromaniacs also fall into this category of mentally disturbed people. Their only difference however is the fact that they light fires in order to derive some sexual reinforcement from the same. The presence of mentally unstable people among the residents means that there is an increased likelihood that they would start fires in order to experience the reinforcing sensations. More caution should be paid to the mentally sick individuals who would engage in self-harm fire setting. Having established the likely causes of fire, the next step in the strategy would be to educate the residents on how to identify and prevent the occurrences of fire. This would not only help in identifying and cautioning risky behaviour, but may also help them to form support groups for the mentally disturbed people among them therefore reducing the chances of deliberate or accidental fires occurring in the building. As noted by Yatim (n.d) however, a building can never be entirely safe regardless of the cautionary measures that people take. As such, the next step in the strategy would be to identify the mitigation measures that should be adopted in case a fire breaks out. According to American Fire Protection Association, the most important objectives in fire management should be to protect human life first and secondly, to protect the structure from damage. Among the measures identified in this report for use in the strategy include installing fire detection equipment in the building, installing fire extinguishing equipment, training residents on how to behave should a fire occur, marking all the available exit points and training residents on fire containment techniques in order to prevent spread. Since fire starts at a single point in a building, it is important for all residents to be equipped with the necessary techniques that would combat its spread. More to this, occupants of a room should be taught to identify the extent to which they can manage fires. Should they realize that the fire is beyond their ability to extinguish, the next step of action should be to alert the fire department in the locality. This however should be done after all the occupants of the houses have been alerted of a fire in the building and evacuation is already underway. With smoke detectors in place, the fire alert can be set off immediately a fire starts thus prompting the residents to start evacuation. Residents should also be made to understand that smoke is just as equally dangerous as the heat released from a fire. As the Barnett et al (1997) established, 90 percent of deaths that happen in burning houses are a result of heat and smoke as opposed to direct burns. Because heat and smoke increase as the fire spreads, this strategy would ensure that residents understand the importance of fast and prompt evacuation. The motive of this approach is to discourage people from doing anything else apart from finding the nearest exit route and getting out of the building. This is informed by a research by Canter and Frizan (1998), who established that only 59 percent of people consider evacuating a building the immediate thing they would do after a fire alarm goes off. The remaining 41 percent stated their immediate action would be trying to extinguish the fire or safe some of their possessions. Having established that the building discussed herein houses immigrant workers, it is notable that they would most likely want to save the few belongings they have. The safety and fire experts charged with educating the residents should make the consequences of being in uncontrollable fire apparent to the residents in order to ensure that they make the most appropriate decision should a fire occur. When training occupants about response measures that they should adopt should a fire occur, it is important to consider the building materials used in the construction of the building and their flammability. According to Yatim (n.d), a building constructed of highly flammable material would give the residents less time to try put out the fire or salvage any of their belongings. When advising residents of such buildings therefore, the safety and fire prevention experts should stress the need to exit the building above anything else. The time that evacuees would take from their different floors to a safe place outside the building is also a consideration paid in the formulation of this strategy. People in lower floors will no doubt have an easier access out of the building than people in upper floors. When estimating the time that would be used to get out of the building, several factors need to be considered. Among them is the structure of the building as well as human factors. Considering that the building discussed herein is housing more that its capacity of immigrant workers, it is important to let everyone know that the earlier they evacuate the building the better since a lot of people would be using the escape routes at the same time. To compliment this, the safety and fire prevention experts would need to work with the property owner, architects, engineers and builders as well as the building safety officials in order to ensure that though the building is still incomplete, all the exit routes are in good condition and that the residents are aware of all exit alternative routes in and out of the building. Finally, residents should know the numbers to the local fire department for emergency purposes. Together with the safety and fire prevention experts, the property owner should carry out a fire drill every six months in order to gauge the residents’ response. This would allow them to identify loopholes in fire response and hence improve on the same. Justification for this strategy This strategy was formulated with the knowledge that an overpopulated, partially complete building poses unique challenges to the residents therein, and agencies or persons who may come to their assistance should a fire break out occur. As such, this report identifies the residents, the building owner, the safety and fire prevention experts in the area, the local building safety officials and the architects, engineers and builders involved in the construction as the core players in the strategy. Further, this strategy was adopted with the knowledge that the residents of the building were best placed to identify, and mitigate risks that may arise from their use of energy supplies in the building. However, this strategy also acknowledges that the building safety officials should work with the property owner in order to ensure that the house is occupied by people who can use the energy fixtures without overloading the same. The extra immigrant workers can be provided with alternative accommodation in order to prevent the dangers of more fatalities due to congestion should a fire break out. Equipping the building with smoke detectors and fire extinguishing equipment was adopted as part of the strategy since as identified elsewhere in this paper, the damage to life and property can be mitigated if fires are prevented from spreading. The building safety officials should ensure that the building has these equipment in place and that the residents can access all the exit routes in the building easily. More to this, the exit points should be cleared of any blockages that may prevent people from exiting the building fast in case of a fire emergency. Role of fire service department & other services Yatim (n.d) observes that fire safety requires a combination of passive safety measures, quantitative and qualitative risk analysis, and fire fighting techniques. This calls for a combination of services and decision making approaches. The role of the building safety officials in many local authorities is to ensure that buildings meet the basic safety standards. Most importantly, officials working in this department ensure that a building has enough entry and exit points as well as enough ventilation and lighting. Where possible, the exit ways should have natural lighting since most power lines are cut off when a fire occurs. The property owner’s responsibility is to ensure that the building is occupied by a maximum number of people who can utilize the energy supplies therein without overloading or averting gas supplies in order to provide for their extra needs. Considering the presence of children in the families therein, the adult occupants should be encouraged to teach their children about fire safety. According to Putman and Kirkpatrick (2005), fires started by children cause just as much damage and loss of lives as fire started by careless or ignorant adults. As such, parents have a responsibility to detect destructive behaviour in children and take up measures to curb the same. The health care workers as identified elsewhere in this report need to identify any residents, especially the youth who suffer depression or other mental instabilities since such are more likely to start fires either accidentally or deliberately without the realization of the damage it would cause. The identified people would then be provided with the necessary medical or emotional support necessary to ensure that they keep off any anti-social or self-risking behaviour which may also jeopardise the safety and welfare of others living in the same building. Conclusion The fact that the building houses immigrant workers could mean that most of the residents are not aware of the local departments that would help in case of an emergency. In this case, this strategy has made a point of ensuring that each household is given a copy of the telephone number to the local fire department, the local police and the property managers. By ensuring that safety and fire prevention experts have sensitized the residents on risk identification, control measures and safety rules to observe should a fire break out, this strategy has not only acknowledged that the risk of fire is real in an overpopulated building whose residents are already engaging in power-altering behaviour that may cause fire, but has also set steps and measures of mitigating risks that are involved. As Canter and Frizan (1998) notes, a building cannot be entirely safe from fires as long as combustible items and energy sources continue to be used therein. The best approach therefore is to ensure that the residents are sensitized on the best way to avoid, limit the spread and evacuate from fire scenes. References Barnett et al. (1997) ‘Pathological fire setting 1952-1991: A review,’ Medicine Science and the Law, 34(1), 4-20. Canter, D. & Frizan, K. (1998) ‘Differentiating arsonists: a model of fire setting actions and characteristics,’ Legal and Criminology Psychology 3(1), 73-96. Fineman, K. (1995) ‘A model for qualitative analysis of child and adult deviant behaviour,’ American Journal of Forensic and Psychology, 1(1), 31-60. Jones, I., Ribbe, A & Cunningham, D. (1994) ‘Psychological correlates of fire disaster among children and adolescents,’ Journal of Traumatic Stress 7 (1), 117-122. Kolko, D. & Kazdin, A. (1994) ‘Children’s description of their fire setting incidents: characteristics and relationship to recidivism,’ Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 33 (1), 114-122. Moore, J. M., Thompson-Pope, S. K., &   Whited, R. M. (1996) ‘Profile of adolescent boys with a history of fire setting,’ Journal of Personality Assessment, 67 (1), 4-20. Putman, C. T. & Kirkpatrick, J. T. (2005) ‘Juvenile fire setting: A research overview,’ Juvenile Justice Bulletin, retrieved June 15, 2010 from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/207606.pdf Slavkin, M. (2000) ‘Juvenile fire setting: An explanatory analysis,’ dissertation.com publishing Yatim, Y. M. (n.d.) Fire Safety in High-rise residential Buildings, retrieved June 15, 2010 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/14160641/Fire-safety-in-highrise-residential-buildings Read More