01 introduction

Fire Safety

Mohd Zubairy Bin Shamsudin

mohdzubairy@unisel.edu.my

What is Fire?

Introduction

• Fires can strike any type of workplace at anytime, resulting in property damage, injuries,and deaths.

• The adverse financial effects can be felt by anorganization long after the fire is extinguished.

• Fire is a hazard that can potentially strike anyworkplace.

Introduction

• Safety science is a twenty-first-century termfor everything that goes into the prevention ofaccidents, illnesses, fires, explosions, andother events that harm people, property, orthe environment (ASSE and BCSP 2000, 3).

• Fire losses can be one of the greatest threatsto an industrial organization in terms offinancial losses, loss of life, loss of property,and property damage.

Fire Prevention vs Fire Protection

What is the differences?

Fire Protection and Prevention

• Industrial fire protection and preventioninvolves recognizing those situations that mayresult in an unwanted fire, evaluating thepotential for an unwanted event, anddeveloping control measures that can be usedto eliminate or reduce those fire risks to anacceptable level.

Fire Prevention vs Fire Protection

• Fire prevention is the elimination of thepossibility of a fire being started. In order tostart, every hostile fire requires an initial heatsource, an initial fuel source, and somethingto bring them together (NFPA 1997, 1–9).

• So, how to describe the term ‘elimination’ infire safety point of view?

Fire Prevention

• Prevention can occur through successfulaction on the heat source, the fuel source, orthe behavior that brings them together (NFPA1997, 1–9).

• Give me an example, anyone?

Fire Prevention

• Examples of programs that can be instituted inthe workplace to prevent fires includehousekeeping programs and inspectionprograms.

• Housekeeping can eliminate unwanted fuelsources and ignition sources.

• Inspection programs can effectively identifyfire-ignition and fuel hazards, then takeappropriate steps to eliminate them.

The answers

• Effective fire prevention requires vigilance, action, andcooperation (OSHA 2004, www.osha.gov).

• Vigilance involves regular inspection of the workplaceto identify fire hazards.

• Action is necessary to correct hazardous situations bycleaning up debris, installing effective storage andventilation systems for hazardous materials that couldignite or fuel a fire, establishing and enforcing workrules and maintenance policies that prevent hazardoussituations from arising, shielding or ventilating heatsources, and repairing or replacing faulty equipment orelectrical systems.

How to ensure effective fire prevention program?

Fire Protection

• Fire-protection strategies are those activitiesdesigned to minimize the extent of the fire.

• Fire protection includes reducing fire hazardsby inspection, layout of facilities andprocesses, and design of firedetection- and-suppression systems (ASSE and BCSP 2000,23).

• Give me an example?

The answers

• Cooperation between employers andemployees is necessary to ensureunderstanding of their common interests infire prevention and to ensure maximum effortby all concerned to see and correct firehazards (OSHA 2004, www.osha.gov).

Fire Protection

• Fire-protection engineers use the basic toolsof engineering and sciences to help protectpeople, property, and operations from fire andexplosions (ASSE and BCSP 2000, 23).

• Aspects of fire-engineering-safety jobs includeevaluating buildings to determine fire risks,designing fire-detection-and suppressionsystems, and researching materials andconsumer products.

Fire Protection

• Fire-extinguishment systems include sprinklersystems, rated fire doors and walls, portablefire extinguishers, and standpipe hosesystems.

• Evacuation of persons includes means ofegress, detection-and-notification systems,and emergency planning and preparedness.

Fire Protection

• Therefore, to include in workplace fire-safetyplanning considerations for fire suppression orextinguishment and for evacuation of personsin the event of a fire emergency.

• What are examples of fire protection devices?

Fire Protection

• Fire protection requires the development ofan integrated system of balanced protectionthat uses many different design features andsystems to reinforce one another and to coverfor one another in case of the failure of anyone.

Fire Protection

• The National Fire Protection Association(NFPA) describes fire protection as a series ofsix opportunities to intervene against a hostilefire, arrayed along a time line of potentialgrowth in fire severity (NFPA 1997, 1–3).

Fire Protection

• Prevent the fire entirely.

• Slow the initial growth of the fire.

• Detect fire early, permitting effective interventionbefore the fire becomes too severe.

• Provide ability for automatic or manualsuppression.

• Provide ability to confine the fire in a space.

• Move the occupants to a safe location.

Passive and active systems?

Fire Protection

• Fire protection includes the use of activesystems such as automatic detection systemsand passive fire-protection systems that stopfire and smoke.

Assignment 1

• Case studies on the statistics of fires incidentsin Malaysia between 2008 to 2011.

• Discuss the pattern of the incidences.

• Opinions and recommendations.

• In order to prevent fires from occurring and toextinguish them successfully after they havestarted, an understanding of the chemical andphysical characteristics of fire is important.

• The chemistry of fire involves the ways inwhich fires can be started and sustained at themolecular level of the fuel source.

Chemistry and Physics of Fire

Chemistry and Physics of Fire

What is it?

• The physical aspects of fire involve its thermalproperties, methods of heat transfer, andmethod of extinguishment.

Chemistry and Physics of Fire

• Because fire is a chemical reaction, it isimportant to understand not only whichhazardous materials pose fire hazards in theworkplace but also the by-products of thecombustion process, which can often be morehazardous than the hazardous materialinvolved in the fire.

Chemistry and Physics of Fire

• Fire Triangle

• Fire Tetrahedron

Chemistry and Physics of Fire

Next class: Fire Triangle and Tetrahedron