The Fires Occurring at an Accommodation Centre Caused by Student’s Lifestyles

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Hazard identification
People prone to the hazard in and around the accommodation centre
Hazard reduction and removal
Findings and implementation
Review
Integrated risk management plan
Conclusion
Works cited

Introduction

An outbreak of fire in a building can be very disastrous at times as it not only kills but it is costly as well. In serious fire outbreaks the consequences can be very bad and often result to, business closure, the destruction of property worth lots of money, lose of livelihoods, displacements, damage of property, causality in human beings and even the loss of life. As shown by Bluff (16) “In 2004 (England and Wales) fire and rescue services attended to over 33,400 fires in non-domestic buildings. These fires killed 38 people and injured over 1,300, the cost of these fires was estimated at £2.5 billion”. With the situation of this accommodation centre it was relevant to carry out a risk assessment with reference to the health & safety legislations which shows that “requirements need to be encouraged or many organizations would not act upon their moral obligations, especially to occupational health and safety acts” (Bluff 72).

This assessment report is therefore going to focus on fires occurring at an accommodation centre caused by student’s lifestyles, which made students have inhalation problems and 2 firemen being burned. The report will analyze and identify potential hazards, evaluate risks posed by the identified hazards, and show how to control and reduce the impacts. The report will also show how this objective fits in the Fire & Rescue Service Integrated Risk Management plan.

Hazard identification

In the accommodation centre students have a rather careless lifestyle and do not really take into consideration the risks a fire outbreak can cause. The students use different electrical appliances, use match sticks, lighters, smoke cigarettes and they misuse electrical equipments. These are the main sources that ignite fires in the accommodation centre.

The fuels for these fires are in the materials that can catch fire easily which are not properly arranged. This comprise of wooden furniture, clothing, mattresses and blankets, baskets for storing wastes, flammable substances used by students (body lotions, creams, spirits and cigarette lighters), reading books and papers.

“Fires are started after ignition where there is fuel and oxygen” (Grayson, p. 21), the source for oxygen in this case was identified as the natural oxygen in the air that filters into the room through openings and the oxygen coming from the installed air conditioners such as fans. Other oxidizing agents on the other hand were not found in the premises.

People prone to the hazard in and around the accommodation centre

The people found around and in the accommodation centre are mainly students who reside in the premises, the caretakers, cleaners, friends of the students; relatives who come to visit the students, construction and routine management workers and the people passing by. People prone to this hazard are mainly the very students who ignite the fires. They are highly prone as they are the ones who live, sleep and do their activities there. Sleeping people are always slow to act in response to an emergency making them highly prone, it was recorded too that some students use alcohol and drugs putting them at risk in the event of a fire. However no report of disability individuals was recorded. The second group of people likely to be affected is the care taker and the cleaners. The care taker is more prone as he/she is in the building most of the time while the cleaners have specific periods in which they can be found in the buildings. Another group that is prone to this hazard is that of persons’ visiting the students and either spends a night there or is found in the premises at the time of the fire outbreak. This group comprise of friends and relatives. The last group that must be included is the fire brigade personnel or firemen who are called upon to put out the fires in the premises. Construction and routine workers plus the people passing by are not highly prone as the times they are around the premises are limited. This is illustrated in figure 1.

Figure 1

Level of the hazard
Highly prone	Relatively low	Low or no risk
Students, caretaker and firemen	Cleaners, friends, visiting relatives, construction and routine management workers	passersby’s

Evaluation of the risks of a fire stating came up with the following. It was found out that most fires do happen because of carelessness but no case of deliberate arson was common. Some cases were accidental thou like in the event of ignition material being knocked or smokers throwing cigarette butts near waste materials that are flammable. Other sources of these fires were found to be malfunctioning electrical appliances and electrical appliances which are not properly maintained or are used carelessly. According to this evaluation the probability of a fire occurring is very high. This is illustrated in figure 2.

The evaluation of risk to the people affected was as follows; the accommodation centre is relatively big and houses a lot of students. When a fire breaks out in such buildings smoke coming from it poses a great risk. That is the reason why most students were affected by smoke in the fires that took place earlier. “Smoke produced again contains toxic gases which are very harmful. A fire in a building like this with modern fittings and materials generates smoke that is thick and black, obscures vision, causes difficulty in breathing and blocks the escape routes” (Simons, 197). This is mainly because, the smoke gets entrapped in the building and the situation is also made worse at night when doors and windows are closed. The smoke then spreads to all directions having no place to go thus forming thick layers engulfing the whole building. In such situations again there will be no adequate aeration as “the smoke will pass through any holes or gaps in the walls, ceiling and floor into other parts of the building. The heat from the fire gets trapped in the building and the temperature rises” (McElroy, 76). Another effect is in conduction where metallic materials conduct heat retaining it for long periods while transmitting it to other areas in the building. The heat transmitted can in turn ignite other flammable materials which come in contact with the heat thus putting all the people in the building at risk. Radiation can also occur which causing all flammable materials to catch fire and spread more risks to the people in the centre.

This risk assessment also found out that although there are no people with disabilities, the routes for escaping in the event of a fire outbreak are not designed well to cater for such a building together with its population. The presence of flammable materials (furniture, clothing and wastes) that is placed in places which would otherwise be used as escape routes, can cause inconvenience to escape and rescue operations. There is also an aspect of faulty fire precautions and badly maintained fire appliances this compromises with the safety of the people prone to the fire outbreaks.

Hazard reduction and removal

With the hazard removal and reduction for this case the best way is to address the issues of ignition reduction, the removal of fuel sources and the reduction of oxygen sources. With ignition reduction the ways of going about it are as follows:

Operation of a safe smoking policy in designated smoking areas and prohibiting smoking in the accommodation areas, ensuring sufficient ashtrays are provided and cleaned appropriately, replacement of radiant heaters with fixed convector heaters or a central heating system. Restrict the movement of and guarding portable heating appliances. Ensuring that electrical and mechanical equipments are installed, used, maintained and protected in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions e.g. electric blankets and electronic appliances. Ensuring that all electric fuses and circuit breakers are of the correct rating and suitable for the purposes being carried out. Ensuring that electric sockets are not overloaded, checking that all areas where hot work (e.g. welding) from maintenance workers has been carried out to ensure that no ignition has taken place or any smoldering materials remain that may cause a fire. No one carrying out work on gas fittings that involves exposing pipes that contain or have contained flammable gas should use any source of ignition such as blow-lamps or hot-air guns. Operate a permit-to-work system for maintenance contractors who carry out hot work. Precautions should also be taken to avoid arson. Removal of any unnecessary sources of heat and/or replacing them with safer alternatives should be done (Devani, p. 233).

For the flammable substance removal and reduction the following steps should be embraced. The reduction of flammable materials or storing them away from sources of heat is highly advisable to mitigate this situation, some items are supposed to be kept away from students while others are arranged properly to avoid an incident of them catching fire. These flammables include cloths, wooden furniture, papers, and books, materials made of plastic, waste products and highly flammable personal products. Another thing that needs to be embraced is the making sure that all students are made aware of cleaning stuffs the likes of aerosols, spirits, the left paper products that might bring about the risk of catching fire. Flammable furnishes are also supposed to be replaced, a policy must be developed for proper and regular waste management and disposal. Combustible materials are supposed to be kept apart (Liquids and solids), reduction of the combustible materials and their safe storage is highly advisable, keeping enough security to curb any issue of arson particularly in the stores that house flammable substances and the ensuring that regular maintenance works especially welding is carried out in the proper way making sure that on hot materials can start a fire. When all this is taken into consideration, the issue of combustible materials can be properly managed.

Oxygen reduction or removal on the other hand can only be reduced during an outbreak. Oxygen can be cut off by closing all sources supplying it to the building by deactivating systems of ventilation especially those that are not essential, keeping oxidizing materials away from the building, ensuring there is no leakages in oxygen storage containers and discouraging the keeping of oxygen cylinders in the accommodation centre.

Risk reduction to the people prone to any possible fire outbreak is also very important; this may be carried out in the following steps. The standards of risk reduction in this particular accommodation centre are supposed to “provide early warning of fire using automatic fire detection, reduce fire by the removal of combustible materials, control of the number of people in the accommodation centre and increase awareness and student training” (Bronson, 64). This accommodation centre needs a decent fire warning system that electronically detects and ones of fire outbreaks. There is need for manually operated systems. This warning system should also be able point out the specific area from which the fire is. Recommendation for this system is that it should be fitted with smoke signals and a control panel for better monitoring. The biggest risk here is at night when people are asleep but this does not mean that incidences cannot happen during the day as fires can break out during maintenance activities or during the weekend. Another major concern here is false alarms activated maliciously to address this problem activation should be monitored to make sure only genuine alarms are activated. All this risk reduction measures must comply to the fire and rescue services act 2004.

Equipments for combating fires are necessary for any kind of fire that could possibly erupt in this building; these equipments are supposed to effectively extinguish all kinds of fires from a small fire to a big one. The equipments should include adequate fire extinguishers put in strategic places for easy accessibility with signs showing where they can be found; signs showing the directions of usage and the kind of fires for each specific cylinder (for example powder extinguishers for electric fires). The horse reel is also required which will need a special person trained to handle it. The extinguishers are supposed to be checked regularly if they are operational and for refills. The fire equipments should also be compliant with the integrated risk management plans for effective preventive measures.

Escape routes on this building are important and needs to be redesigned in such a way that any individual in the accommodation centre, “should be able to turn away from any fiery incidence and escape to a place of reasonable safety. From there they will be able to go directly to a place of total safety away from the building” (McElroy, p. 97). The escape routes are supposed to be adequate (at least two) and should be able to provide for the quickest and shortest routes out of the buildings.

Signs are essential especially in guiding people to ways of escape, location of fire extinguishers and warning systems. This building is supposed to be furnished with this as they are required by the health and safety regulations. This signs are supposed to be in picture form to enable everyone to know the meaning easily. With notices on the other hand they are necessary as they give instructions on fire equipment usage and they help fire personal go about their business with ease. All this is supposed to be strategically placed for better viewership and understanding.

The replacement of outdated equipments and the installation of new ones are supposed to be done by an expert in the field of fire management services. It is also recommended that all equipments provided should be kept and only used for the purposes designated. These again should be in good working conditions, checked, serviced regularly and maintained as required. This work again should be assigned to a specific individual for proper management.

Another proposal for this accommodation centre is the regular checking of the overall safety of the building as much as fire hazards are concerned. This checks are supposed to be carried in stages, some checks are supposed to be done daily, some weekly, monthly and yearly. Daily checks are mainly done on the escape routes to make certain that inflammable substances are not placed there and the making sure that there are no obstructions in this. There is also the ensuring that fire exit doors open easily and are operational, making sure that notices and signs are properly placed and that warning and alarm systems are in order.

For weekly and monthly tests checks should be done on manual warning systems, extinguishers, the operation of the horse reels and the emergency lighting systems. There should be an adequate allocation of time for carrying out these checks and they should be done by a specialist. Some of these checks are supposed to be done after six months who is supposed to make sure that all checks are up to date.

Yearly tests comprise of all these other checks, those that had not been done initially, fire extinguisher refills and routine maintenance. This includes all equipments, warning systems that are supposed to be done by a fire specialist. “All structural fire protection and elements of fire fighting should be inspected and any remedial action carried out. Specific guidance on the maintenance of timber fire resisting doors should also be given” (Devani, p.82). The checks must make sure that all safety measures are compliant to the health and safety legislations.

Findings and implementation

The hazards identified by this assessment are mainly brought about by student’s carelessness in the accommodation centre. This is then facilitated by a combination of factors involving igniters, fuels and oxidizing agents. The assessment identified the sources of fire to be electrical appliances, matchsticks, lighters and cigarette butts. The fuels were identified to be wooden furniture, clothing, mattresses, blankets, books, personal combustible materials and waste materials kept in the buildings. These factors together with the oxidizing agent (air) were responsible for the fires in the accommodation centre.

The people prone to these hazards were mainly students. This is because they are the ones residing in the accommodation centre, they are the ones causing the fires and are found there most of the time. Another group of people who are highly prone are the caretaker and fire men coming to put out the fire. It was identified that passersby’s relatives and friends coming to visit, routine maintenance workers and cleaners were also prone but on a lower level.

The actions identified for reduction of this fire hazards included:

Operating safe smoking zones,, the ensuring of proper installation of electrical installation, ensuring that electrical fuses and circuit breakers are in good conditions, making sure sockets are overloaded, checking on maintenance hot work (welding), the removal of all flammables, arranging rooms properly, proper waste disposal and secure monitoring to prevent arsons (Devani, 233).

The actions people should take to mitigate these hazards are in the embracing of disciplined practices that do not encourage fire outbreaks. They should also be trained in countering these fires, in the use of fire equipments and how to raise alarms. Other measures include first aid training, evacuation measures, training on what exactly to do in the case of an outbreak and how to call rescue services (fire brigade). Most important of all a person should be assigned the mandate of managing and coordinating rescue and safety measures.

Review

The review of this assessment touches several important matters. One of this is the introduction of new students into the accommodation centre who might not be informed about safety and other fire concerns. The new students should be adequately informed about the dangers of fire outbreaks, shown how to act in the event of an outbreak and instructed to adhere to safety regulations. Changes on the buildings should also be counter checked to make sure they adhere to safety regulations, new and old fire equipments should be checked to make sure they are in good conditions and the safety concern brought out by the inhabitants of the accommodation centre should be scrutinized and addressed accordingly. When all this is put into consideration the fires in this accommodation centre will be effectively mitigated.

Integrated risk management plan

The integrated risk management is necessary in such situations as it plans for an effective and efficient fire and rescue service because it reduces fire occurrences together with its overall effects. “This also reduces loss of life, accidents, reduce severity of these hazards, and safeguard the environment. The integrated risk assessment plans also identify risks of these hazards in a given area and carries out the evaluation of the preventive measures” (Bluff, p. 42).

Conclusion

Therefore this report shows that, with proper risk assessment and management together with the following of available legislations these hazardous fires can be curbed. The report also concludes that:

When the evaluation of risk is done, hazards causing fire are removed or reduced ,ignition sources removed or reduced, sources of fuel removed or reduced sources of air or oxygen checked the need for fire detection and for warning addressed, the need for firefighting equipment addressed, determining whether escape routes are adequate, determining whether emergency lighting are adequate, checking that there is adequate signs and notices, regularly testing and maintaining safety equipment is done and considering whether any other equipment or facilities are needed and the following of legislative requirements can mitigate the whole risk (Devani, p. 233).

Works cited

Bluff, Ronald. Roles of a fire fighter. London: Oxford university press, 1987. Print.
Bronson, Joel. Fire risk reduction. Nairobi: East African Publishers, 1987. Print.
Devani, Patel. Fire hazard mitigation. Delhi: Kathak and sons publishers, 2002. Print.
Grayson, James. “Causes of fires.” International journal of fire control 12.2 (1996): 42-78. Print.
McElroy, Daniel. Fire rescue management. London: Oxford university press, 1998. Print.
Simons, Amos. Effects of fire breakouts. New York, NY: Oxford university press, 2002. Print.

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