Fire Safety Management

1. Fire Safety Management

2. Pre-Assessment • Do they have a Fire Safety Program/Plan? • Is it written or not? • Is it functional? (Meaning there are organized employee specifically tasked to do some activity during fire emergency) • Are involved employees trained and skilled to handle their respective functions? • How are they trained and who trained them? • Do they have equipment/tools/devices to be used during emergency? • How do they maintain the equipment? • Do they have safety committee?

3. INDIRECT CONSEQUENCES OF INDUSTRIAL FIRE: • Suspension of production can force customers to seek alternate suppliers with whom they remain even after the damage from the fire has been corrected and production has been resumed. • Business records may be destroyed, requiring a costly, time-consuming process of reconstructing accounts, mailing lists, sales records, inventories, etc. • While repairs are in progress, employees who are laid off may find permanent employment elsewhere. • Insurance may be insufficient to cover property reconstruction and equipment replacement thus forcing the corporation to draw from its assets to these costs. • If the fire spreads to neighbouring properties, the owners may sue to recover damages. • Large claims paid by insurance companies are often the stimuli for increasing insurance premiums. • In some cases, the cumulative effect of these possibilities may leave no alternative but declaring bankruptcy and permanently closing the facility.

4. The community also may directly suffer from industrial fire, from the initial cost of extinguishment to other, more long-lasting results, such as environmental damage, lost corporate taxes, personal income remove from the local economy, and unemployment compensation payments. Sound fire prevention practices help to protect a company and the fire community from the many difficulties that can result from an industrial or commercial fire.

5. OBJECTIVES OF A FIRE PREVENTION PROGRAM: • The primary goal of a fire in the workplace by heightening the fire safety awareness of all employees. While it usually is the specific responsibility of one person in the plant to institute, teach, and monitor sound fire prevention practices, a fire prevention program should provide all employees with the information necessary to recognize hazardous conditions and take appropriate action before such conditions result in a fire emergency.

6. Introduction to Fire Safety Program • Legal mandate: Sec 1.103 PD 1185 Fire Code of the Philippines • Fire Prevention Policies • Means of Notification • Evacuation Plan • Organize Volunteer Fire Brigade (Trained and equipped to handle first aid firefighting initiative) • Written response guidelines and procedure • Formation of Safety Committee

7. Fire Hazard and its Prevention HAZARD + VULNERABILITY = DISASTER Types of Hazard • Hazard caused by people • Hazard caused by equipment/devices/tools • Hazard Operations (activities/conditions)

8. FIRE SAFETY AUDIT ON: • Smoking habits of employees in the facility as well as in the administrative offices. • Electrical equipment, wiring, and controls. • Fire alarm systems. • Fire extinguishing equipment. • Integrity of plant construction. • Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. • Storage of combustible material. • Housekeeping practices. • Use of flammable and combustible liquids and gases. • Security. • Industrial processes, such as painting, cutting, welding, and creating flammable dust. • Removal of wastes from industrail processes.

9. GENERAL PRECAUTIONS: 1. Trash and other waste should be stored on covered metal containers. 2. Work areas should be kept clean and free of flammable debris. 3. Hazardous materials should only be stored in designated locations and in properly capped or ventilated containers, depending upon the material. 4. Most flammable liquids should be kept tightly covered and must be in grounded and bonded containers if transferred from one container to another; gasoline requires vented containers. 5. Gas cylinder valves should be closed and cylinders secured when not in use. 6. Trash should be prevented from collecting in corners, under machinery, in stairwells, and in other out of the way locations. 7. Oily or greasy deposits and condensates should be wiped up.

10. OFFICE SAFETY: • Use and disposal of smoking materials. • Checking for frayed electrical cords and faulty appliances. • Proper use of electrical equipment and appliances. • Unplugging coffee pots and other heat-producing equipment when not in use, and portable heaters at the end of each work day. • Correct storage of flammable and combustible materials.

11. All employees should be instructed on the location and proper use of fire extinguishers in their work areas. They should also know how to activate the facility’s fire alarm system, and be familiar with evacuation plans and routes. Failure to give this instruction is an indication that the fire prevention program is deficient in some respect.

12. Operators of mechanical equipment have a special responsibility to themselves and others with respect to fire safety. A fire prevention program should alert them to: • Variations in the operating pressure and temperature of equipment from levels recommended by the manufacturers. • Potential sources of ignition from cutting, welding, faulty wiring, friction due to such factors as belt operating at the wrong tension or poorly lubricated bearings, and mechanical sparks caused by the moving metallic parts of a faulty or poorly maintained machine. • Corrosion of motor parts, or build-up of dust or lint around machinery. • Leakage of lubricants from motors or drip pans onto floors and walls. Employees should be urged report any of these and other hazardous conditions to their supervisor. Preventing such conditions requires adherence to a schedule of regular periodic equipment inspection, maintenance, and testing.

13. EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE INSPECTION: 1. Prior mechanical inspections. 2. Failure history of the equipment. 3. Length of time the equipment has been in service. 4. Significance of the equipment to the entire operation and any possible problems associated with its failure. 5. Conditions under which the equipment operates. 6. Any regulations or laws of the authority having jurisdiction. 7. Recommendations by insurance carriers.

14. Fire Alarm and Detection Systems Assessment of the following: • Fire Alarm • Fire Detection System • Fire Suppression System

15. Fire Protection and Warning System These are devices intended for the protection of buildings or persons to include but not limited to built-in protection systems such as sprinklers and other automatic extinguishing systems, detectors for heat, smoke and combustion products and other warming system components, personal protective equipment such as fire blankets, helmets, fire suits, gloves and other garments that may be put on or worn by persons to protect themselves during fire.

16. Fire Suppression Devices, Equipment or Systems

17. Fire Responders Organization Fire Marshal Assistant Fire Marshal Support Teams Rescue/EMS Team Security/Traffic Teams Property Conservation Team Firefighting Teams Bucket Handlers Fire Extinguisher Handler Team A Team B Team C Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 4

18. DETERMINING FIRE FIGHTING PROCEDURE For successful firefighting the following information, which can be acquired through inspection, is necessary: • Type of building and occupancy • Life hazard • Rescue problems • Entrance and exit facilities • Methods required for forcible entry • Exposure protection

19. Firefighting Procedure Initial Procedure • Upon discovery: • Sound the Alarm and inform everybody regarding the fire • Report to the nearest fire station • Conduct initial First Aid Firefighting initiative using Portable Fire Extinguisher • Vacate the area once portable fire extinguisher was already exhausted of its contents (close door behind you) • SAFETY IS FIRST PRIORITY

20. Firefighting Procedure: Strategic Implementation • Provide safety “net” for the responding emergency team • Plan your action • Brief emergency party and support group of their action and individual task • Control – same can be attained through the use of communication equipment to coordinate and synchronize activities • Support activities should be in place such as conduct of Cover Exposure and Boundary Cooling and activation of support teams such as Security/Traffic enforcement team, Rescue/EMS, Salvage team, and Property Conservation • Information – As to Fire Ground factors should be properly disseminated to all operating teams as well with the responding BFP Personnel • Evaluation – Evaluation of the entire activity should be done from time to time and properly recorded

21. Firefighting Procedure: Tactical Implementation • Size-Up – this is done by FGC to estimate, evaluate and analyze fire situation as basis for sound decision-making. • Rescue – removal of any fire victims and bring them to safer ground • Cover Exposure – is an activity zeroed-in on preventing fire from extending to adjacent buildings/structure • Confinement – is an activity focus on preventing fire from extending to adjacent rooms/area of the same building which exposed from fire • Extinguishments – is the actual firefighting containment operation or actual putting out of fire. (Attacks may either be direct and indirect) • Overhauling/Mapping Operation – it refers to activities which make sure that the fire scene is free from rekindling fires and no possible re-ignition can take place when firefighters leave the area. • Post Fire Analysis – is an activity which investigate the cause of fire, and other surrounding circumstances that contributed to the fire. The main purpose of which is to prevent similar fire from recurring.

22. Implementing Plan F – Find the fire. I - Inform others about the location of the fire. R – Restrict the fire to its location. E – Extinguish using available firefighting equipment devices such as fire extinguisher or buckets filled with water.

23. TECHNIQUES: F – Fight the fire aggressively together with your employees pending the arrival of BFP contingent. I – Initiate all actions based on current and expected fire. R – Recognize fire potential to avoid being trap. E - Ensure that proper instruction use given to every member of the family as their individual role in the fire incident.

24. TECHNIQUES: O - Organize employees into attack team and support teams. R – Remain calm in conducting firefighting initiative to confine the fire. D – Disenergize electrical circuits. E – Extinguishment methods shall be in accordance with implementing plan. R – Remain in communication with responding firefighters to provide vital information such fire ground factors. S – Stay alert, keep calm, think clearly and act decisively.

25. SECURITY MEASURES THAT ENHANCE FIRE PREVENTION: • During a regular work day, a facility is susceptible to fire hazards associated with production and with the expenditure of high levels of electrical or mechanical energy. However, it is wrong to assume that a facility is less at risk from fire at off periods, such as evenings, weekends, and vacations; this is why the facility maintenance crew and security force need to be totally integrated into the fire prevention plan. The custodians and security guards must be trained to notice and correct hazards or sound the alarm. Often it is their diligence that leads to the discovery of an overheated motor, faulty wiring, or a smouldering cigarette. • The security force especially must protect the facility from intruders and potential arsonists. Security personnel making their rounds throughout the facility should pay special attention to places where a person might hide or where combustibles are generally stored. Every point of possible entry by an intruder should be checked, including doors, windows, and loading docks.

26. EVACUATION DRILL: • Have a plan that includes a primary and secondary exit. • Have a meeting place outside the building. • Establish a method of determining the presence or absence of employees. • Assign the people who will have the responsibility of calling the fire department. • Know the alarm sound. • When the alarm sounds, stop everything and exit safely, quickly, and quietly.

27. 7. Employees should be taught to respond as if every fire drill were the “real thing”, even if they were planned and announced in advance. 8. Once out, stay out until notified it is safe to go back inside. 9. Have an alternative plan in case you cannot follow your original plan. 10. If possible, incorporate the fire department in the office fire drill and have a fire fighter discuss fire behavior with the employees. 11. Evaluate your drill performance, and alter your plans, if necessary.