Laws, Ethics and Globalisation in Fire Safety Services - Assignment Example

Laws, Ethics and Globalisation in Fire Safety Services: A Report The report takes into account the laws regarding fire safety services in United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates’. The UK Fire safety and prevention services are well developed and internationally accepted while those of UAE are developing well. 1. UK fire service laws: The major UK fire safety laws are FSO 2005 and Fire and Rescue service act 2004(http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/), the provisions under these are presented below: The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) came into effect in October 2006 and replaced over 70 pieces of fire safety law. The FSO applies to all non-domestic premises in England and Wales, including the common parts of blocks of flats and houses in multiple occupations (HMOs). The law applies to a person if he or she is responsible for business premises: As an employer or is self-employed with business premises Is responsible for a part of a dwelling where that part is solely used for business purposes Has a charity or voluntary organisation Is a contractor with a degree of control over any premises Is providing accommodation for paying guests Under the FSO, the responsible person must carry out a fire safety risk assessment and implement and maintain a fire management plan. The current target for the fire and rescue service is to reduce the number of accidental fire-related deaths in the home by 20 per cent and the number of deliberate fires by 10 per cent by 2010.Community fire safety and the prevention of fire and incidents through community involvement, education, research and awareness-raising all play vital roles in helping to achieve this target. To make people aware about fire safety campaigns such as Fire kills -safety campaign is run . The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 received Royal Assent in July 2004 and came in to force on 1 October 2004. The Act replaces the Fire Services Act 1947. It puts the prevention of fires at the heart of legislation by, for example, creating a new duty to promote fire safety and by providing the flexibility for fire and rescue authorities to work with others in the community to carry out this duty.Under the new Act, fire and rescue authorities now have a range of statutory duties to: • promote fire safety; and • to prepare for: fighting fires and protecting people and property from fires; rescuing people from road traffic accidents; and dealing with other specific emergencies, such as flooding or terrorist attack, which are set out by Statutory Order and can be amended in line with how the role of the Service may change in the future. In addition, all fire and rescue authorities will be able to do other things to respond to the particular needs of their communities and the risks they face. The Act achieves this through: • ensuring that fire and rescue authorities can do things that are not specifically set out in the Act but which will help them meet their statutory duties; • giving authorities powers to prepare properly for other risks to life and the environment - for example they can buy equipment and train and deploy staff to undertake activities that they judge to pose a risk to life or the environment in their area; and • allowing authorities, where they have capacity, to use staff and equipment for any other purpose they believe appropriate. The fire departments put emphasis on fire prevention since Fire remains a major threat to sustainable communities. Research has estimated that the overall annual cost of fire to the economy in England & Wales is around £6.6 billion. The costs of arson alone amount to around £2.2 billion per year. 2. Globalisation affecting legislation and working of Fire and Rescue services: The reform in public services to make these more market oriented, can be dated back to Thatcher era. The labour government’s need to ‘roll back the state’ to begin process for a series of counter-reforms that time formed a broadly rational strategy; legislation aimed at weakening trade unions; privatisation of public enterprises, utilities and services; changes in the welfare system; and reforms of the structure of taxation. All these were intended to allow the market to work more fully and more efficiently. In public services, neo-liberalism has meant ushering a process of privatisation and the attempt to create markets or pseudo-markets where they do not exist. It has also seen the never ending expansion of private sector style management techniques in the public services. The evidence can be seen in health, education and elsewhere and the past few years have shown the Fire Service is not resistant (Wrack, 2008). The process of privatisation began with the following: Audit Commission reports: This report emphasised that the system within which the service function needed to be changed so that substantial savings could be made. For example, since fewer incidents of fires occur at night, the Commission argued that fire cover could be reduced at night, i.e. fewer firefighters and fewer fire engines. It was the start of argument for the application of a type of ‘just-in-time’ production to the Fire Service (Wrack, 2008, p7). Pay dispute: The opportunity for change came with the pay dispute of 2002/2003 and the Labour government’s Bain report which developed the pre-existing arguments of the Audit Commission. Bain had made a few rather sharp comments in the report as: while it will be important to maintain the partnership between employers and unions, which has been a feature of the Fire Service arrangements in the past, there must be a clear demarcation of the management role from that of representing members of the service. The Central Fire Brigades’ Advisory Council (CFBAC) should be replaced and – The new board would not be concerned about consensus building. Beside, it is required from the fire departments that their services go beyond fires and road traffic accidents to cover other forms of emergency under the Civil resilience. These can range from major transport accidents, to serious environmental disasters and dealing with the aftermath of a terrorist incident. The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 puts in place a way of setting out wider duties for the. It will propose to confer statutory duties on fire and rescue authorities in England with respect to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attack (CBRN); serious flooding; incidents requiring major search and rescue; and major non-road traffic incidents (Civil Resilience, 2009). 3. Ethical consideration in fire and rescue services and changing role of practitioner: International Association…et al (2008) has highlighted the role of fire instructors in providing ethical guidelines during training of fire fighters. Ethical considerations are important part of fire service instructor’s job. These are ethics of fire department as well as your own. Firstly, the fire department should have clear standards and fire extinguishers conduct should meet these expectations. The ethical standard should be set by teachers during training and they should act as role model. The education and safety should be given priority while training fire fighters. An environment to be created that promotes growth through challenges. The fire fighters should be made aware of the law regarding discrimination and criminal conduct such as taking bribe. Jerry Quayle, director of certification at UK-based International Fire Consultants commented that Gulf States regulators do not have the resource available to effectively ‘police' companies applying for trading licenses, or indeed construction sites in order to verify correct manufacture and installation. As a result traders cheat people and ignore authorities. Consequently, the ethical suppliers suffer and poor fire control standards come into market at cheap price. Since the construction market is growing as population densities and tourism are increasing, the authorities need to be tough with the offenders (Conford, 2007). 4. UAE law in relation to UK law: In United Arab Emirates (UAE), The General Directorate of Civil Defence (GDCD) was established to meet the growing needs arising from the urban expansion and industrial development taking place all over country. The following legislation forms the legal basis of the GDCD (ICDD, 2009): - Law no.3 of 1979 on Federal Civil Defence; - Federal law no.1 of 1992 amending certain clauses of Law no.3 of 1979; - Federal law no.1 of 1995 amending certain clauses of Law no.3 of 1979; - Ministerial Decision no.154 of 1991 on fire prevention in public and private premises. In UAE, the Civil Defence has applied regulations concerning fire prevention in accordance with existing international norms and on the basis of Ministerial decision n.154 of 1991 on the prevention of fire risks in private and public premises. It is responsible for fighting fires, organising assistance, rescue, preventing risks and the functioning of alarm systems over all the territory. The new federal law concerning the control of radioactive resources and the prevention of risks arising from their use has also been adopted like the UK fire safety and rescue law 2004. Regulations concerning the handling of dangerous materials and toxic waste have been drafted. Civil Defence in the UAE ensures the protection of people and public and private property, guarantees the normal functioning of communications and transport, and ensuring the continuity of social activities in public premises. It must also protect the national heritage and other sources of wealth in times of war and of peace, and during disasters and emergency situations. Civil defence must take all measures necessary to prevent disasters and limit their consequences. Thus similar to UK law the UAE fire safety law also covers fire and other disaster prevention services. 5. How community and fire safety policy is communicated in both Abu Dhabi and UK: Lancashire county applies Fire and Rescue Services Bill 2004 and ensures that fire and rescue authorities must make provision for the promotion of fire safety in their area through following objectives available from its website: (http://www.lancsfire.gov.uk/IRMP/FireSafetyPolicy/FSPolicyCommunity.pdf) : The Fire and Rescue Service will support national fire safety campaigns coordinated by the National Community Fire Safety Centre The Fire and Rescue Service receive many requests to attend or take part in community based gatherings such as open days, fêtes, carnivals and public services events. It will adequately address these demands. WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP: The Fire and Rescue Service will work with partners, where appropriate, to develop planned programmes of community fire safety work, responding to the needs and risks identified within the Integrated Risk Management Plan. the Fire and Rescue Service will work in support of and in partnership with Lancashire Constabulary and other authorities/agencies to reduce deliberate fire setting and fire related nuisance and disorder. Community Safety Partnerships (derived from the Crime and Disorder Act 1998) and Local Strategic Partnerships are the major structures through which partnership work will be planned and orchestrated. Lancashire Combined Fire Authority also runs programmes to develop young people whilst simultaneously achieving other core objective. It involves youth in avoiding fire related incidents through Youth Development as Schools Education Programme: an annual programme of education to all public schools in the County Arson Programme: Arson Programme is to prevent young people who have been found guilty of a crime involving fire from re-offending. FACE Programme: A programme to individual children aged 4 to 12 who have demonstrated a fascination with fire. Firewise: The Fire and Rescue Service will provide a programme of diversionary activity to young people, between the ages of 12-16, who are known to be offending or who are at risk of offending. In Abu Dhabi and other Emirates of UAE, though the domestic and business rules are to be followed but unlike UK fire services and community partnerships no flexible and innovative communication approaches, to involve communities in prevention of fire campaigns, are reported. 6. Ethical Impact of new civil defence stations, in UAE, better equipped to deal with emergencies: The GDCD (ICDD, 2009) renews its equipment regularly so as to guarantee that its operations are undertaken under the best possible conditions. It has available modern equipment such as fire-fighting vehicles using water, foam or powder and water tankers. The regional centres are also well equipped and have vehicles with hydraulic or telescopic ladders, ambulances, vehicles for the transport of the injured, means of communication, and first aid vehicles. The General Directorate and the regional centres also run workshops for teaching the use of and repairing equipment. The centres also have modern and efficient equipment such as robots for detecting explosives and victims buried under rubble, ambulances and other vehicles and equipment adapted to the climate and relief of the regions covered as well as the most up to date means of communication. The definite advantages are there for well equipped department and trained personnel. The standards expected from firefighters are maintained. Besides the efficient services minimize the loss of life and property. 7. CASE STUDY: It was a fire in 16-story building in Abu Dhabi as reported by Absal (2008). The fire injured 67 persons including 14 fire fighters. The fire erupted from illegally constructed shack on the roof of the building. The roof was meant only for water tanks and air conditioner vents. The building was old, without proper fire alarm system or warning devices. The number of residents in the building was also very high. Quick intervention teams from two stations, fire-fighters from four Civil Defence stations, paramedics and ambulances from Emergency and Safety Department and two mobile clinics took part in the rescue operation. Besides, army helicopters also helped in the rescue. The ethical consideration of this fire incident points out that illegal constructions led to huge fire and such construction went unnoticed, deliberately or otherwise, by both fire safety department and the premise owner. The former has to make regular inspections to ensure adequate fire safety while the latter must adhere to fire safety norms about construction. The fire alarms were not installed despite the fact that building being high and accommodating large number of residents. However the combined rescue operation by fire department, police, army and medical personnel was adequately done to avert major damage. References Absal, R (2008, Sep 17). Dozens injured in Abu Dhabi blaze. Gulfnews from www.gulfnews.com Civil resilience. From http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/128932.pdf [ 4 May 2009] Conford , R (2007, 24 Feb). Fire protection becoming big business in UAE. http://www.messefrankfurtme.com/intersec/downloads/Fire_protection_becoming_big_business_in_UAE.pdf [2 May 2009] The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, From: http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/fire/[2 May 2009] Fire safety law and guidance documents for business-. From http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/firesafety/firesafetylaw/ [ 2 May 2009] International Association of Fire Chiefs, National Fire Protection Association & International Society of Fire Service Instructors (2008).Fire Service Instructor: Principles and Practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. INTERNATIONAL CIVIL DEFENCE DIRECTORY (ICDD), UAE . General Civil Defence Directorate , FROM: http://www.icdo.org/pdf/struc/uae-en.pdf[3 May 2009] LANCASHIRE COMBINED FIRE AUTHORITY :COMMUNITY FIRE SAFETY POLICY, from: http://www.lancsfire.gov.uk/IRMP/FireSafetyPolicy/FSPolicyCommunity.pdf[2 May 2009]   Wrack, M (2008). Neo-liberal reform of the Fire and Rescue Service in Britain. From: https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2299/2696/1/S103.pdf [2 May 2009] Read More