(English captions by Trisha Paul, University of Michigan.)
Institutional fires have become a major public health problem in the Eastern Africa region,
either affecting schools, prisons, office blocks, and buildings.
Fire refers to the uncontrolled burning of settlements, or forests, or vehicles or
vessels, and it is a very frequent form of hazard in Eastern Africa.
It may be accidental or deliberate.
It may be natural or technological.
Elements of fire include fuel, heat, and a supply of oxygen.
If any one of these three is removed, then the fire will not exist.
Fire causes burns and shock, disabilities and deaths, damage and loss of property, environmental
degradation and pollution.
It may result in a mass casualty incident.
Factors that influence fire include vegetation and weather, availability of combustibles and toxicity
of flammables, absence of warning and lack of knowledge, magnitude of exposure and age
of victim, availability of fire fighting equipment, and housing characteristics.
Causes of fires include electrical causes.
These may be broken and dirty insulators, loose flexible wiring, perishable or damaged
insulation of wiring, bad connections including overloading, incorrect fusing and poor earthing,
current or electricity traveling via a gas pipe.
Human causes include smoking, cooking and unattended fire, appliances left on including
cookers or irons, aerosols, careless handling and playing with fire, arson, and misuse of
appliances.
These are the major classes of fires.
Class A fires result from ordinary combustible materials such as wood, paper, grass, cotton,
or cloth.
The extinguishing media is usually water, or dry chemical powder, or sand and fire beating
for these types of fires.
Class B fires result from flammable liquids such as kerosene, petrol, spirit, cooking
fats.
The most effective extinguishing media is foam and dry chemical power.
Class C fires involve gases such as methane, propane, butane.
These gases can produce explosions.
Extinguishing methods involve closing of the valve or the source of the leakage of the
gas, but you can also use dry chemical powder
Class D fires result from metal heating such as Aluminum and Magnesium.
The main extinguishing media is dry chemical powder.
These fires are capable of reaching very high temperatures.
As we can see, dry chemical powder is a form that is useful for all classes of fires.
Electrical fires do not constitute a class on their own but may be either A, B, C, or
D types of fires.
Extinguishing involves cutting off electricity if possible, and the recommended media is
dry chemical powder or carbon dioxide.
Methods of fire extinguition include smothering, starvation and cooling.
If you have some fire extinguishers where you work, try and look at them and examine them.
What is their content?
What classes of fires are they indicated for?
Kindly check the expiry dates and service of these gadgets.
If possible, you can have a demonstration on the actual use of an extinguisher.
Portable fire extinguishers are the 'First Aid Fire Fighting Appliances', FAFFA, normally
operated by one person.
Water containing extinguishers usually have a red label.
Foam containing extinguishers usually have a cream label.
Dry chemical powder extinguishers usually have a blue label, and carbon dioxide extinguishers
usually have a black label.
Nowadays most extinguishers are red in color but are only differentiated by a color code.
That is, if extinguishers are red in color, then a color code is placed on them to indicate
their content.
Look at a fire extinguisher near you and try to check for some of these.
Safety implications of hand held extinguishers.
Always note the following hazards when using extinguishers:
The possibility of electrocution, inhalation of dry chemical
powder, frostbite from carbon dioxide, their failure rates are usually higher, and then
the issue of weight.
Noise, a lot of noise, especially from the carbon dioxide fire extinguishers.
Dry chemical powder extinguishers may cause impaired vision when used.
Pre-hospital fire management is an important adjunct to fire control.
Organize and establish and incident command structure, extinguish the fire, conduct a
Rapid Needs Assessment, search and rescue is necessary for evacuation of victims.
Initial triage and first aid to the victims if necessary, transporting the victims to health
facility. Use available resources and mobilize for others if needed.
Hospital based operations are also an important adjunct to fire management.
Establish a receiving mechanism and emergency management for serious victims of fires.
Fire prevention is an important aspect of fire control.
What factors do you think increase fire risk and how do you think fires can be prevented
in institutions in your district?
Fire prevention includes building standards that incorporate hazard reduction, no smoking
signs, orderly arrangements of goods to avoid spontaneous ignition, providing space
between goods and avoiding congestion in dormitories.
Others include fire segregated walls and preventive measures against easy spread of fire.
Fire prevention also involves good house keeping, an awareness creation to create a sense of
community responsibility.
There is need to strengthen fire rescue departments, enforce legislations, and set
bylaws to prevent fires.
Fire protection ivolves installation of fire equipment inside and outside of buildings,
fire escapes, exits and escape signs, protect buildings from extensive damage resulting
from fires.
Hand appliances include extinguishers and buckets of sand that are in easy reach.
We also have fixed installations depending on availability of resources including risers,
hose reels, and external private hydrants.
Fixed installations include foam, gases, and dry chemical powder.
Advanced systems include automatic sprinkler systems and fire warning gadgets.
Fire drills should cover fire alarm effectiveness.
Whether a physical alarm is installed or we depend on a human alarm, this should be tested.
They also cover timeliness of notification, fire teams conformance with established fire
procedures, safe evacuation and assembly.
Emphasis should be on orderly evacuation rather than speed.
Evacuation is the removal of people from an area of danger to a safe area in an orderly
manner to prevent confusion and panic.
It is important to provide an evacuation assembly point that is for any workers involved in
fire management, and also the place where affected persons should assemble.
If a staff member or other members from the building or students or pupils
are not seen during the roll call, then the fire team conducts a search and rescue.
All these should be tested in the fire evacuation procedures.
There is also the rendezvous point for evacuation, which is the meeting point for the first responders
such as fire fighters, or people designated to address fires in an institution.
These should be carefully selected.