Fire Safety Laws of the UK - Coursework Example

Introduction In this report, fire safety laws of UK are assessed and it is studied that how the law operates internationally as it applies to the fire service. At the same time role of globalisation is analysed in affecting the legislative and substantive work of those in the fire & rescue service. Ethical considerations in the fire safety issues are identified and seen how they are dealt with in the fire & rescue service. At the end of the report summarise the role of the practitioner in a changing world environment is summarised. The component parts of this report include comparison of UAE law in relation to UK law, communication of community & fire safety policy in both Abu Dhabi and UK. http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire elaborate that the fire safety regulations in UK are presented through a strict compliance with regulatory reforms (fire safety) order 2005. This fire safety order is promulgated in England and Wales alike. While in Scotland general fire and safety is delivered through strict compliance with part three of the fire act of 2005 and fire safety regulations of 2006 as implemented in Scotland. The municipalities and local governments have responsibility for general fire safety in all the domestic premises, as a policy matter that includes all non-domestic buildings and common housing units and blocks and flats, including houses which are occupied by multiple residents. There is a risk based approach while dealing with fire safety issues and operations in these buildings. These issues in the UK fire safety operations include the Fire Safety in the Community, Fire Safety in Industrial Premises and Fire Safety in Business Premises, whereas the legislation requires a responsible person to carry out a fire risk assessment, Implement appropriate fire precautions and protection measures and to maintain a fire management plan. http://www.warringtonfire.net gives the details these responsible persons are usually the owner of the business, the occupier of the premises or a competent person appointed by either of the above. The requirements of the UK’s fore safety order include the Emphasis on preventing fires & reducing risk and the responsibility to ensure the safety of everyone who uses your premises and anyone in the immediate vicinity that in turn requires including the general public and the local community, including housing, shops & others. The Principle Enforcers are Fire & Rescue Authorities. They have a statutory duty to enforce the requirements of the legislation. The enforcement procedure requires the Fire & Rescue Safety order is enforced by periodic inspections, visits and audits, by the enforcing authority, The Fire & Rescue Service. A. P. Mouritz and A. G. Gibson, 2006 mentioned that while the community service caters for The Fire & Rescue Service will also be active within the Community helping and advising the general public on fire safety issues. http://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/workplace.htm elaborate that smoke alarms are freely available and will be fitted free of Charge by the Fire Service, DVD’s and other materials are also available as educational material and Free home safety checks. This is pertinent to mention that t The Principle Enforcers for Fire & Rescue Authorities are The Health & Safety Executive (HSE), and The HSE no longer have responsibility for premises under the issuance of The Fire Certificate (Special Premises) Regulations 1976, in revocation of October 2006, The HSE still have responsibilities under the Health & Safety at Work Act, for working environments and work procedures where there is a risk of fire. This is further to elaborate that The Fire & Rescue Services Act 2004 imposes 4 key responsibilities on the Fire & Rescue Service including Community & Fire Safety, Fighting Fires, dealing with Road Traffic accidents and responding to other emergencies such as flooding, natural & man-made disasters. In order to satisfy the requirements of Fire safety order, every Company or business must have an Emergency & Disaster Plan, Implemented under The Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations. The requirements of An Emergency & Disaster Plan include way of reducing the impact on the community & others who may be affected by your acts or omissions. While according to the Emergency & Disaster Planning it’s necessary as a moral, ethical and legal obligation to protect the safety of people, and to the plan also protects jobs and the economics of the company. This Emergency & Disaster Plan ensures a regular review of risks, Safe working systems and Management & employee co-operation on safety standards. www.lancsfirerescue.org.uk explains that In UK the Emergency Conditions most likely to arise in a workplace are Fire or explosion, Release of substances - gas, liquids, chemicals (toxic & corrosive), Combinations of the above conditions and Natural and man-made factors from inside and outside the works. In UK fire safety regulations an Emergency is a situation is defined as a situation that Produces or threatens to produce a fire of whatever size or damage to plant & equipment or injury to people, release of chemicals/gas/toxic conditions likely to affect people’s health, immediately or later and Requires the mobilisation of the Fire & Rescue team, Police, First Aiders etc. while a major emergency is a situation which produces multiple casualties that may require hospital treatment, release of material likely to render unusable, a significant proportion of the works, release of material likely to affect the surroundings of the works or Any combination of the above. However, as per recent available statistical record the following situation is submitted in the fire safety situation of England and Wales. http://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/workplace.htp explains that in the field of Community Fire Safety every year there are almost over 50’000 accidental house fires in the UK and the Fire Services Authority aim to reduce fire related deaths in the home by 20% by March 2010.While they are also working to make sure the UK is equipped to deal with major emergencies such as terror attacks or natural disasters. United Arab Emirate Government is responsible for the legislation on fire and safety issues in the country. The legislation is done as a consultative process between stake holders, experts on the subject, government functionaries and elected members of the assembly. www.gulfnews.com have elaborated that the legislation on fire and safety issues produced by the government of United Arab Emirates involves the already in vogue laws on fire and safety in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia and Hong Kong for banking on the basic parameters and standards. However the standards of the national fire protection agency (NFPA) are more relied upon. Mostly the fire safety engineers in the United Arab Emirates like to depend upon, next to NFPA on the British or U.K Standards as contained in the British fire safety regulation and legislation in the Reform (Fire Safety) Regulatory Order 2005 and Fire & Rescue Services Act 2004. There are two basic departments in which the fire safety engineers are delegated powers to enact, implement and execute the laws and regulations on the fire safety issues in the United Arab Emirates. This department is called department of civil defence protection. This department is also responsible for production of different regulations under the main umbrella of fire safety regulation. Each one of the Emirates in the UAE follows and implements the national legislation that governs the fire safety in the country. Although each Emirate has its own ruler who in his own way enjoys a proper degree of autonomy and can also legislate on various local laws. As every Emirate is required to shun out or relinquish some areas of authority to the federal government, therefore fire safety rules, regulations and legislation are such an example where federal government has prerogative to make laws and ask the individual Emirates to implement in entirety. This is because of the reason that fire safety issues are such important national issues that federal government wants to have uniformity in the country. There is another significant example of such a unification of armed forces in 1970. This is significant to mention that Sheik Saif bin Zayed is the incumbent minister for police and civil defence in the United Arab Emirates. He is solely responsible for the issues on the fire and safety services in the country and both the departments of police and fire safety service work in close coordination with each other. The police is responsible for the implementation of emergency services and also responsible for the execution of quick intervention teams (QIT) which are deployed in the emergency situations in the cities, factories, oil wells and other sensitive installations. The deployment of QIT and emergency services had been necessitated where there is an eminent disaster and where there is a high risk of personal injury. There are numerous examples when deployment of QIT’s and emergency services were necessitated on immediate basis. In an incidence there were five people who were killed when a huge explosion occurred with the ripping out of fire works in Dubai’s Al Quoz industrial area in March 2007. In this incidence 70 buildings were smashed by fire. Again in March 2007 two warehouses in the Al Jaddaf area of Dubai were gutted by fire. Yet in another incidence in March 2007 Four people sustained minor injuries. there was another fatal incidence when In April 2008 a fire gutted 183 shops in Naif Souq in Deira. The other incidences notable when the QIT’s and emergency services were deployed are given as below. Miraculously , no one was injured because the souq was closed when fire broke out.2-In September 08 a massive fire broke out at a storage facility of an oil refining company located in Shajah’s Port Khalid. 3-Two people were badly injured.4-In May 08 a fire broke out in a building under construction Dubai’s Internet city.5-No casualties were reported in the blaze at Tecom B construction site. It is pertinent to mention all the departments that are closely involved in the implementation of fire safety regulations in the United Arab Emirates. For this purpose civil defence departments works closely with the fire and rescue services of the Emirates enclose collaboration with environmental agencies that have a major regulatory role in all the safety requirements of these states, foe instance fire suppression devices such as fire doors, alarms etc. the fire safety certificates for new buildings are issued by these departments jointly under the head of fire safety departments. By these departments fire safety inspections are done for the large and new buildings, whereas the older buildings that are converted into the hotels and picnic spots make difficulty in fire safety inspections due to their old and complicated procedures and that more costs are also involved. However these departments are jointly responsible for ensuring such safety inspections with mutual consensus of owners of these buildings. And their fire safety standards have also to be upgraded. However this is also pertinent to mention that in the public and private building the requirements of alarms and evacuation drills are not required. Whereas in new buildings a new system has been introduced and recommended for announcement on immediate basis whenever people ignore the fire alarms in the nearby buildings and hospitals. This system is called Tannoy system. It is a prerequisite that private hospitals must have one formal fire audit in a year and must have one snap fire inspection in one year. The new housing blocks, hotels and the hospitals are required to have the fire safety inspections. There are different forms that are required to be filled on formal and informal visits of the fire system inspectors and these inspected buildings are not essentially required to report fire alarm faults etc. as far as fire safety in homes is concerned, this due to the cultural considerations, burning of small strips of wood and installation of smoke and fire detectors is not considered viable. http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_companylist have discussed the role of federal government and the local governments vested in the Emirates regarding legislation powers etc. these governments have released the strategic documents that contain major economic policies that are listed in the federal strategies and are aimed at the economic growth for making the UAE economy strong and competitive. In this way various regulations including fire safety regulations are also upgraded. As the economic growth is being achieved on a fast track the expected economic growth has also to be matched with the fire safety regulations in the country because of the reason that fast development of infrastructure also involves development of new buildings and their fire safety requirements on crash footings. The fire safety and police departments in the Emirates have always to remain on a constant vigil and regular alert. Therefore it is, but necessary that the fire safety rules regulations and legislation are kept at par with the fast economic growth in UAE. Failing which there can be a serious mismatch in the development of infrastructure ensuing from the economic growth. In order to have a complete picture of the development and implementation of fire safety regulations coming out of the legislative process it is necessary to have a look on all the components of social; sectors that are six in number and are enumerated as below. These are economic sector for social development along with public sector social development department. These departments are supported by the justice department of the Emirates. The fire safety department is one of the linchpins in these departments. The infrastructure and rural development departments are the two other departments of economic development in UAE. The fire legislation is basically embedded within the public sector departments, fire safety departments and the infrastructure department of UAE. Humera Naz, 2008, p 160, said that it is vary important to mention that a separate policy agenda for Abu Dhabi was announced for 2008. This policy agenda for Abu Dhabi was inclusive of the policy statements for health and safety issues and police and emergency services. This policy announcement of Abu Dhabi was in view of the most rapid economic growth that necessitated the development and mushrooming of a lot of high rise buildings in the city including office complexes, housing flats and apartments and big hotels even on the beach sides. This for such emergency requirement that the government of Abu Dhabi was compelled to immediately work on a ire safety and improved rescue plans as a result of 2008 policy agenda. http://www.government.ae/gov/en/biz/resources/sites.jsp have further elaborated that there are various issues which emerge from the development of new agenda of fire safety regulation of Abu Dhabi in 2008. The globalization of economic growth and rapid foreign direct investment in Abu Dhabi from all over the world especially from Europe America and Asia has brought in a lot of capital investment in Abu Dhabi in the last one decade. The investors are more interested in the real estate development of the hotel industry and housing units. There are more and more people who are interested in buying the real estate in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. This phenomenon was unprecedented during the period just before the recession in Europe and America. The investors had lost interest in investing in Europe and America and they brought in their money to invest in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Thus this process of globalization of businesses necessitated the fire safety regulations announcement in Abu Dhabi in 2008. The ethical issues involved in a fire and safety issues of this rapid economic growth was that the lives, property and assets of the local and foreign investors had to be saved protected and promoted at all costs. This was but necessary that the investors’ confidence had to be restored and ensured in the process of investment in the UAE and especially in Abu Dhabi. Up to now this is achieved by providing support, equipment and training to the Fire & Rescue Service. However Communities & local Government aim to reduce the level of damage, injury and death caused by fires. With a missionary zeal to achieve this they are working closely with the Fire & rescue Services. Therefore there are many comparisons drawn between UK and UAE fire safety legislations on the basis of ethical requirements of the safety, preservation and protection of the lives and properties of the investors in these countries owing to the trends and prime movers of globalization in the world, especially in Europe and Middle East. Summary fire safety practitioner The role of a fire safety practitioner along with ethical consideration of a civil defence station and ethical impact of fire in an apartment can be summarised as below. The safety practitioner is the responsible person to execute the fire safety rules in the area of his responsibility without discrimination to any class, creed, gender, religion or cast. He has to discharge his duties with full impartiality and professional competence. Ethical consideration in a civil defence station Ethical consideration in a civil defence station is the indiscriminate, swift and sympathetic service to all the affected of fire in a best possible manner. The equipment has to remain tidy, ready and operational. The staffs have to be ready, fresh and willing with full and fresh energies. Ethical fire impact in an apartment Ethical fire impact in an apartment is the maximum effort to save lives, minimum energies, rescue of women, children, patients and elderly first. Full care for the precious goods and property of the affected household. Moral boosting efforts and positive work attitude on part of fire officers are very important in the affected flat. Source 1-http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire 2-www.lancsfirerescue.org.uk 3-http://www.warringtonfire.net 4-WWW.gulfnews.com 5-http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_companylist 6-http://www.government.ae/gov/en/biz/resources/sites.jsp 7-http://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/workplace.htp 8-http://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/workplace.htm 9- A. P. Mouritz and A. G. Gibson, 2006, Fire Safety Regulations, publisher’s Springer Netherlands. 10- Humera Naz, 2008, “A detailed survey of Fire safety legislation in Middle East”, First edition. Egypt Book centre Cairo. ISBN 34578765 Read More