History tells us that fires were useful for heating and cooking but caused major damage in many cities. Many houses, major buildings and sometimes whole cities were destroyed by fire. One of the first fire prevention measures was a requirement to extinguish all fires before nightfall. For example, in 872 in Oxford, England, authorities ordered a curfew bell to be rung at sunset to remind citizens to extinguish all indoor fires for the night (Bugbee 1978). Indeed, the word curfew is derived from the French couvre feu which literally means “cover fire”. The cause of fires is often a result of human action bringing fuel and an ignition source together (e.g., waste paper stored next to heating equipment or volatile flammable liquids being used near open flames).
Fires require fuel, an ignition source and some mechanism to bring the fuel and ignition source together in the presence of air or some other oxidizer. If strategies can be developed to reduce fuel loads, eliminate ignition sources or prevent the fuel/ignition interaction, then fire loss and human death and injury can be reduced. In recent years, there has been increasing emphasis on fire prevention as one of the most cost-effective measures in dealing with the fire problem. It is often easier (and cheaper) to prevent fires starting than to control or extinguish them once they have started.
This is illustrated in the Fire Safety Concepts Tree (NFPA 1991; 1995a) developed by the NFPA in the United States. This systematic approach to fire safety problems shows that objectives, such as reducing fire deaths in the workplace, can be achieved by preventing fire ignition or managing the impact of fire. Fire prevention inevitably means changing human behaviour. This requires fire safety education, supported by management, using the latest training manuals, standards and other educational materials. In many countries such strategies are reinforced by law, requiring companies to meet legislated fire prevention objectives as part of their occupational health and safety commitment to their workers.
Fire safety education will be discussed in the next section. However, there is now clear evidence in commerce and industry of the important role of fire prevention. Great use is being made internationally of the following sources: Lees, Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, Volumes 1 and 2 (1980); NFPA 1—Fire Prevention Code (1992); The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (ECD 1992); and Fire Protection Handbook of the NFPA (Cote 1991). These are supplemented by many regulations, standards and training materials developed by national governments, businesses and insurance companies to minimize losses of life and property.
Fire Safety Education and Practices
For a fire safety education programme to be effective, there must be a major corporate policy commitment to safety and the development of an effective plan that has the following steps:
(a) Planning phase—establishment of goals and objectives;
(b) Design and implementation phase; and
(c) Program evaluation phase—monitoring effectiveness.
Goals and objectives
Gratton (1991), in an important article on fire safety education, defined the differences between goals, objectives and implementation practices or strategies. Goals are general statements of intent that in the workplace may be said “to reduce the number of fires and thus reduce death and injury among workers, and the financial impact on companies”.
The people and financial parts of the overall goal are not incompatible. Modern risk management practice has demonstrated that improvements in safety for workers through effective loss control practices can be financially rewarding to the company and have a community benefit.
These goals need to be translated into specific fire safety objectives for particular companies and their workforce. These objectives, which must be measurable, usually include statements such as:
· reduce industrial accidents and resulting fires
· reduce fire deaths and injuries
· reduce company property damage.
For many companies, there may be additional objectives such as reduction in business interruption costs or minimization of legal liability exposure. The tendency among some companies is to assume that compliance with local building codes and standards is sufficient to ensure that their fire safety objectives are met. However, such codes tend to concentrate on life safety, assuming fires will occur. Modern fire safety management understands that absolute safety is not a realistic goal but sets measurable performance objectives to:
· minimize fire incidents through effective fire prevention
· provide effective means of limiting the size and consequence of fire incidents through effective emergency equipment and procedures
· use insurance to safeguard against large, unforeseen fires, particularly those arising from natural hazards such as earthquakes and bushfires.
Design and implementation
The design and implementation of fire safety education programmes for fire prevention are critically dependent upon development of well-planned strategies and effective management and motivation of people. There must be strong and absolute corporate support for full implementation of a fire safety programme for it to be successful.
The range of strategies have been identified by Koffel (1993) and in NFPA’s Industrial Fire Hazards Handbook (Linville 1990). They include:
· promoting the company policy and strategies on fire safety to all company employees
· identifying all potential fire scenarios and implementing appropriate risk reduction actions
· monitoring all local codes and standards that define the standard of care in a particular industry
· operating a loss administration programme to measure all losses for comparison with performance objectives
· training of all employees in proper fire prevention and emergency response techniques.
Some international examples of implementation strategies include:
· courses operated by the Fire Protection Association (FPA) in the United Kingdom that lead to the European Diploma in Fire Prevention (Welch 1993)
· the creation of SweRisk, a subsidiary company of the Swedish Fire Protection Association, to assist companies in undertaking risk assessments and in developing fire prevention programmes (Jernberg 1993)
· massive citizen and worker involvement in fire prevention in Japan to standards developed by the Japan Fire Defence Agency (Hunter 1991)
· fire safety training in the United States through the use of the Firesafety Educator’s Handbook (NFPA 1983) and the Public Fire Education Manual (Osterhoust 1990).
It is critically important to measure the effectiveness of fire safety education programmes. This measurement provides the motivation for further programme financing, development and adjustment where necessary.
The best example of monitoring and success of fire safety education is probably in the United States. The Learn Not to Burn® programme, aimed at educating the young people in America on the dangers of fire, has been coordinated by the Public Education Division of the NFPA. Monitoring and analysis in 1990 identified a total of 194 lives saved as a result of proper life safety actions learned in fire safety education programmes. Some 30% of these lives saved can be directly attributed to the Learn Not to Burn® programme. The introduction of residential smoke detectors and fire safety education programmes in the United States have also been suggested as the primary reasons for the reduction in home fire deaths in that country, from 6,015 in 1978 to 4,050 in 1990 (NFPA 1991).
Industrial housekeeping practices
In the industrial field, Lees (1980) is an international authority. He indicated that in many industries today, the potential for very large loss of life, serious injuries or property damage is far greater than in the past. Large fires, explosions and toxic releases can result, particularly in the petrochemical and nuclear industries.
Fire prevention is therefore the key to minimizing fire ignition. Modern industrial plants can achieve good fire safety records through well-managed programmes of:
· housekeeping and safety inspections
· employee fire prevention training
· equipment maintenance and repair
· security and arson prevention (Blye and Bacon 1991).
A useful guide, on the importance of housekeeping for fire prevention in commercial and industrial premises is given by Higgins (1991) in the NFPA’s Fire Protection Handbook. The value of good housekeeping in minimizing combustible loads and in preventing exposure of ignition sources is recognized in modern computer tools used for assessing fire risks in industrial premises. The FREM (Fire Risk Evaluation Method) software in Australia identifies housekeeping as a key fire safety factor (Keith 1994).