Prevention as a Key Way of Eradicating Conditions - Assignment Example

Student Name: Tutor: Title: Work Based Learning Course: Institution: PART 1 (1500) Report on the task undertaken Introduction Community fire safety is a planned program of outreach, intervention and raising awareness to avert fire related deaths and to lessen the incidence, cost and risk of fire in the broader community. Community fire safety is aimed at reducing the hazard of fire happening and not simply attempting to fight fire once it has occurred. Residential fires, environmental and workplace fires lead to fatal and severe burn injuries. Fires also result to psychological distress, property loss and at times loss of life Fire and rescue service in UK has been recognized as an efficient public service and in the latest years has been working beyond its conventional role of fire suppression to making a broader contribution to community safety. Fire and rescue services are engaged in home fire risk checks and installation of smoke alarms and several forms of fire to ensure that the community is safe from fire. What the task was about Prevention is a key way of eradicating conditions which might cause any form of fire. The purpose of the community fire safety project was to help students to establish a fire safe environment in schools and also at home and how to respond just in case of a fire. The purpose of the information offered is to raise consciousness of fire safety as well as to lessen the figure of potential fire events in schools According to IFSTA, (2008), the general community particularly students does not retain a sufficient level of fire prevention and safety knowledge and thus engage in dangerous actions such as leaving cooking unattended and putting flammable materials close to fire sources which places them at a higher hazard of causing a fire. Students, especially the younger children do not have adequate knowledge on fire safety and act in manners that places them at a higher hazards of fire related deaths and burns. Students have a higher fire risk as a result of their reduced capability to accurately respond in the incident of fires. The aim of the community fire safety project was to create awareness among individuals and to offer information on fire safety as well as ways of responding to a fire. Apart from equipping people on fire knowledge, the community fire safety project was intended at modifying the behavior of people for them to be prevented and be prepared to appropriately respond to any form of fire. Fire disasters are hectic events because is they occur abruptly, are immense and need an instant response. Through creating awareness on response measures, people will be able to quickly evacuate form the origin of a fire. Therefore, adequate fire safety awareness is essential to inform individuals on the significance of instant evacuation from buildings of the fire origin. The project was also aimed at mitigating the hazard of fire resulting to damage and loss of life and property. One significant objective of the project is to educate the general public to be self sufficient in securing their personal lives and helping others during emergency cases thus imparting education along with encouraging the general population to be more concerned with fire prevention and safety. How the task was undertaken The community fire safety project utilized various strategies for attaining access to the wider community entailing utilization of community volunteers and advocates as well as establishing partnerships with organizations that have frequent contact with communal groups. Majority of community fire safety campaigns have certain target audiences. Usually, these groups are perceived to be at greater fire risk particularly students. Community fire advocates mainly help in creating referrals for the home fire risk checks via presentation and through liaison with community groups and leaders through undertaking door to door campaigns. The utilization of volunteers is aimed at building capacity for the home fire risk checks, especially in rural regions. This strategy entails looking for volunteers who are familiar with the local community and community members that might be at the risk of fire. These champions are allowed to undertake risk checks them or to accompany fire fighters and to introduce them to residents. We actively engaged in community fire safety campaigns at local as well as national level. The project was focusing more attention on educating people, and raising awareness among the most susceptible individuals in the community so as to lessen the suffering that occurs as a result of fires and additional emergencies. We increased fire safety and protection awareness within our communities through encouraging and educating communities to be more conscious about fire safety and partnership with local in raising awareness on fire safety. We also performed community fire safety awareness through team building spirit and motivation via fire fighting. Our team building activities comprised of a wide range of tasks that are intended in developing group members along with their capability to effectively work together. There are several forms of team building tasks such as sports, problem solving exercises that entail novel tasks designed for particular needs and also to help the teams in being unified units of persons who can efficiently work jointly to complete fire protection and safety tasks. We are creating partnerships with local governments to raise fire protection awareness and creating fire safety clubs and organizations within the community particularly in schools. We are constantly communicating with businesses, schools and communities on the importance of fire protection and several effective and efficient ways of preventing fire accidents along with how to respond in case of fire out brakes Integration of theory and practice Involvement in a fire incident is a distressing experience and the outcomes are always fatal and distressful. The community fire safety awareness is undertaken to equip keep with the knowledge required on fire prevention and safety. Community fire safety awareness is helpful because it equips people with the knowledge required in fire safety as well as vigilance to deal with fire. It is thus fundamental that the community is offered with fire safety knowledge as well as training so as to maintain a sufficient degree of fire safety knowhow. In addition, it is important for people to have and retain a sufficient level of knowhow on the significance of maintenance of well designed and efficient fire safety equipments such as fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and fire sprinklers. The community fire safety project is undertaken in order to comply with UK legislation on fire safety. The regulatory reform (Fire safety) order reform 2005 requires a fire and rescue service to create fire prevention and protection in its local communities to ensure that people takes practical steps in reducing fire risks and that people are able to safely escape just in case of a fire break out. The reform have replaced present fire safety laws with a constant risk based model that covers all buildings utilized as work places or to which the general population have access. Under the regulatory reform (Fire safety) order reform 2005, it is the responsibility of building occupiers and owners to undertake a risk assessment and take necessary measures to reduce the hazards recognized during the assessment. Community fire safety is a requirement of the Fire and rescue Act 2004. Fire and rescue services have been required by this national legislation to take part in community safety awareness programs as a portion of the overall nationwide strategy of improving fire prevention and safety. According to Great Britain House of Commons, (2004), every British fire and rescue service is required to take part in fire prevention. The best practices that have emerged from this new fire prevention strategy entail identification and the analysis of households that are at great fire risk, making home fire safety visits, increasing the utilization of fire stations for communal fire safety programmes and coordinating local and national local fire protection campaigns. Local fire and rescue services utilize nationwide developed risk analysis to link fire data with the socioeconomic data in order to establish high risk areas and target fire protection programs to the households and groups at are at high risk. The local fire and rescue services undertake integrated risk analysis to establish the best blend of suppression and prevention for the community (Great Britain House of Commons, 2004). The UK government requires every fire and rescue service within United Kingdom to come up with an integrated risk management plan. UK Government (2002) notes that every year, the fire and rescue service develops an integrated risk management plan, a plan on improving public safety, lessening number of fire and other emergency events and protecting and saving lives. Integrated risk management planning is an evaluation all every hazard to life and injury to community , leading to a lasting plan of making the fire and rescue service highly responsive to th locally recognized needs. This implies targeting the resources we have in order to prevent fire incidents from occurring, whilst also ensuring that the resources we have are utilized in the appropriate locations to effectively safeguard the community. Integrated risk management planning is undertaken by each fire and rescue service in the United Kingdom to make sure that the local plans are directed towards meeting the needs of the local communities. An integrated risk management plan takes into consideration the economic, environmental, heritage and commercial concerns of the local communities (UK Government, 2003). PART 2 (1000 Words) Reflection on the report and recommendations to improve practice (1000 words) Fire and rescue service conduct rescues, mitigates fires, handles perilous incidents and materials and responds to other forms of emergencies that act as a threat to property loss, environmental protection and life safety. These emergency responses are undertaken by firefighters who are well trained on specialized rescue techniques and proper usage of fire fighting equipments. Life safety and community fire educational and awareness are of great importance to the work of a fire and rescue service. Through providing life safety and public fire educational and awareness programs and training people on the evacuation and rescue procedures along of use of fire detection and fire fighting equipments such as fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers and smoke alarms, the fire and rescue service makes sure that people are able to quickly detect fires and to effective respond and evacuate to improve their safety. Fire rescue and service also installs fire detection and suppression systems such as fire alarm system and fire sprinklers in buildings and structures to ensure early detection of a fire along with early activation of a fire repression system to extinguish or control fire. In order to ensure that people are able to effectively use these systems, the fire and rescue service educates and trains people on how the systems work and how to safely use them. To ensure functional and effective utilization of fire detection and suppression systems, I recommend the fire and rescue service to offer regular training to the local community on the appropriate use of these systems and also on fire fighting techniques. People should also be educated on handling hazardous materials in order to ensure their safety along with the safety of their properties and the environment. Proper identification of hazardous materials and preparation of people in undertaking mitigation operations in an appropriate level of protective clothing should be greatly emphasized during the community fire safety and training campaigns. Starting with protective clothing, fire fighters demonstrate and understand how to utilize protective tools to offer the outmost level of safety. The community fire safety campaigns undertaken by the fire and rescue safety must create awareness on how fire behaves in order to forecast situations that might already be highly risky or have the probability to be threatening to life. In order to improve community fire safety awareness, the community fire safety program can include team building along with first aid and fire training exercises that will cover techniques and skills that are needed to securely respond to an emergency situation. These training exercises can cover team building and effective communication, secure utilization of breathing apparatus and fire fighting equipments, external and internal fire fighting techniques, casualty handling and first aid. Children are particularly great potential fire initiators and should therefore be taught on fire risks. With their innate interest, playing with fire comes automatically to them at a certain point of their life. In addition to the community fire safety awareness program, parents must also be encouraged to equip these children with the knowledge of fire safety and fire prevention as well as the outcomes of fire. In order for the adults to attain this fire knowledge themselves, fire and recue services and the pertinent authorities must organize fire prevention safety campaigns and courses about fire safety. The fire and rescue service should engage the media in creating fire safety awareness to the masses. The media, entailing magazines, television, radio and newspaper also take an active role in getting the fire safety and prevention message to the public. The message provided by the media must be capable to get to the people and embed in the significance of fire prevention. Community fire safety awareness and the delivered message of fire safety must be continuously undertaken over a long duration of time. Fire safety campaigns must be considered as successful only when individuals regard fire prevention and safety a natural task to do. It should become a habit as well as a everyday way of living, and through thing properties and lives can be secured. Fire related accidents lead to injuries and at times death and this can be hugely prevent through community fire safety awareness campaigns along with fire safety training. Therefore training programs on fire safety pertinent for all groups should be developed. The fire and rescue service should assess the level at which training is offered and the degree of knowledge on fire safety within communities. It is vital to undertake this evaluation so as to approximate the level of training that is needed by the communities along with their extent of preparedness in regard to equipments, response and knowledge to deal with fire. Community safety awareness is part of work of the fire and rescue service. The fire and rescue service should offer checklists that people can utilize to see how secure they are in their home s and schools. The checklist will help people to recognize any danger around the buildings in which they reside in and have access to, as well as the environment around them. Through integrated risk management planning the fire and rescue service is able to develop a balanced approach to minimizing risk in the community. This is attained through combining emergency response, prevention and protection, within a risk assessed basis so as to improve safety of communities and also to develop a secure working environment for the fire fighters. The plan also takes measures to assist communities to quickly recover the aftermath of the emergency and reduce the effect both to the local economy and people. United Kingdom fire and rescue service integrated risk management plan is public safety other than fire fighter safety. The by product of minimizing the number of fire emergencies and other events is the reduction in exposure to people and fire fighters risk to fire , therefore promoting their safety. Integrated risk management plan also makes sure that optimum operational response is performed to any particular incident. The operational response is optimal in context of lessening injuries and death in the community. Conclusion The community fire safety project is intended at raising awareness on fire safety in order to prevent fire related deaths and injuries in the community. Through creating awareness on fire safety and response measures we are helping students and the broader community to establish fire safe environments. We are equipping people with the knowledge and skills they require in fire prevention and the best ways of responding to fire incidents. The community fire safety project is also in compliance with UK fire legislations such as the Fire and rescue service Act 2004 and integrate risk management plan which requires all fire and rescue services in United Kingdom to ensure safety of their communities. References Great Britain House of Commons, 2004, Fire safety and rescue service Act 2004, The Stationary Office, UK. UK Government, 2002, The future of the fire service: Reducing Risk-saving lives, Retrieved on May 3, 2012 from www.irfs.org.uk. UK Government, 2003, Integrated risk management plan. Retrieved on May 3, 2012 from http://www.odpm. Gov.uk/index.asp? IFSTA, 2008, Essentials of fire fighting and fire department operations, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Read More