It’s that time of year when we can shed the winter hats, coats and gloves and focus on cleaning up and renewing our fire safety plans. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a structure fire is reported every 62 seconds and a fire death occurs every two hours and 23 minutes. Are you prepared in the event of a fire? This year, the Fire Equipment Manufacturers’ Association encourages everyone to focus on rituals that will improve fire safety in the workplace.
Do some spring cleaning and take stock of storage areas and discard unneeded packaging, cardboard and paper. Sweep storage areas, server rooms, stockrooms and properly store hazardous materials. Make sure exit ways aren’t blocked and clear areas at least three feet from electrical equipment and heat sources.  Check your fire extinguishers. Make sure there are fire extinguishers located throughout your workplace and inspect pressure gauges to make sure they are fully charged. If they are not charged, contact a local fire equipment service company in your phone book to help you. Around your work area, assess where the closest fire extinguisher is located, as well as the standpipe fire hose station. Make sure they appear to be operational and not tampered with.
Focus on education and provide employees with information on how to use important fire equipment at http://www.fireextinguisher.com/, http://www.rackhosetraining.com/ and http://www.firesystemstraining.org.
Take the time to learn about the critical role fire extinguishers play in fire safety: Download printable materials on fire extinguishers and post them in a central location at work. You may even consider hosting a fire safety training event with the local fire department. They can hold actual fire extinguisher demonstrations upon request.

The Role of Fire Extinguishers

Each year, there are approximately 1.6 million fires reported in the United States. These fires cause 3,600 deaths, 18,000 injuries, and $10.7 billion in property damage every year, according to NFPA.

Portable fire extinguishers can mean the difference between life and death — a single flame and a tragedy. When a fire is put out in the first three minutes, lives are saved and property loss is minimized. A portable fire extinguisher is your first defense against fire when it is small, contained and everyone is safe.

While fire extinguishers are inexpensive and do not take up much space, they do require that you know how to use one properly and that they be inspected every year to ensure they are still serviceable. Take notice if a fire extinguisher appears to be tampered with or damaged at work. Call a local fire extinguisher maintenance company to inspect the unit. Portable fire extinguishers are an inexpensive insurance policy that hopefully will never be used. But when a fire strikes, it is not the time to learn how to use one. Use the spring cleaning season as the time to focus on basic fire safety rituals. Also take a moment for fire extinguisher education. It could save your life.

THE National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has developed a new guide that provides general information to assist in identifying the needs of people with disabilities related to emergency evacuation planning.

According to the U.S Census Bureau, nearly 49 million Americans had one or more disabilities in 2000. The guide addresses the need for evacuation plans to include everyone, and highlights the needs, criteria and minimum information required to incorporate appropriate planning strategies for people with disabilities into these plans.

“Other than preventing an emergency before it happens, having a plan and practicing it is the best way to prepare ourselves for the unexpected,” said James M. Shannon, NFPA’s president. “NFPA developed this guide as a resource for creating an all-inclusive evacuation plan that considers everyone’s needs for evacuation, including the needs of people with disabilities.”

The document is a valuable resource for people with disabilities as well as employers, building owners and managers, and others involved in developing emergency evacuation plans. Critical information on the operational, planning, and response elements necessary to develop a well-thought-out plan for evacuating a building or taking other appropriate action in the event of an emergency are covered.

Five general categories of disabilities covered in the guide include mobility impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairments, speech impairments, and cognitive impairments. Four elements of evacuation information needed by occupants are: notification, way finding, use of way, and assistance. Basically, in the event of an emergency, a person would need to be notified of the emergency; identify a way out; assess if they can get out on their own, with the help of a device, or with assistance; and identify and express if assistance is needed and what that would involve.

Materials include a personal emergency evacuation planning checklist that building services managers and people with disabilities can use to design a personalized evacuation plan.

The Emergency Evacuation Planning Guide for People with Disabilities is available for download at no cost from NFPA’s Web site: http://www.nfpa.org/evacuationguide.

NFPA National Study Finds Some Improvement, Yet Ongoing Needs Persist In America’s Fire Departments

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) announced on March 15 the results of a second comprehensive study examining the needs and response capabilities of the nation’s fire service and accompanying reports on each state in the country. The studies, completed for the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), also compared the needs reported from the first assessment, conducted in 2001, with the resources requested under the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program and looked to see if the needs identified in the first survey had been substantially reduced as a result of the special funding.

“NFPA was pleased to conduct these follow-up studies as a way to illustrate not only the challenges facing today’s fire service, but what steps can be implemented for safer and more effective responses,” NFPA President James M. Shannon said. “The reports show only slight improvement and that is simply not good enough. The Fire Act grants have been well targeted, as the studies show, but they are dwarfed by the size of the needs. It is essential we provide the nation’s fire service with the tools to protect themselves and all of us in both traditional and extraordinary situations.”

Homeland Security Preparedness

The survey asked whether the fire department’s responsibility included a building collapse scenario and a scenario involving release of chemical or biological agents, each with a defined number of casualties or occupants in need of rescue. If the answer was yes, the survey asked whether the department could address such emergencies with local trained personnel and specialized equipment and whether the department had a written agreement to coordinate any non-local resources that might be needed in response.

• None of the homeland security related equipment needs showed marked improvement, nor did any of the personnel needs related to those situations.
• There was improvement in the existence of written agreements to coordinate the use of outside personnel and equipment in a homeland security response.
• The overall percentage of departments with written plans for a building collapse scenario increased by 7 percentage points (from 19 percent to 26 percent).
• The overall percentage of departments with written plans for a biological or chemical agent scenario increased by 9 percentage points (from 21 percent to 30 percent).

Safe and Effective Firefighting

Many of the estimated needs for personal protective equipment — self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), personal alert safety system (PASS) devices, and personal protective clothing – were reduced but there continues to be a need for additional personal protective equipment.

• The percentage of departments without enough SCBA to equip a shift declined by 8 percentage points (from 36 percent to 28 percent).
• The percentage without enough PASS devices to equip a shift declined by 13 percentage points (from 42 percent to 29 percent).
• The percentage where not all firefighters have personal protective clothing was 8 percent, but nearly 100,000 firefighters serve in those departments.
• The majority (53 percent) of departments that provide structural firefighting have not provided formal training to all their personnel involved in structural firefighting, and 42 percent of U.S. firefighters serve in these departments.
• Formal training also has not been provided to all involved personnel in the majority of departments providing emergency medical service (53 percent), hazardous material response (71 percent), wildland firefighting (74 percent), and technical rescue (88 percent).
• Despite modest progress, three-fifths to three-fourths of the nation’s fire departments still do not have enough fire stations, or the firefighters to staff them, to achieve widely recognized response-time guidelines and lack key equipment, prevention programs and training. More specifically, the estimates are 61 percent of fire departments protecting communities of 50,000 to 99,999 population do not have enough fire stations, as do 65 percent to 75 percent of fire departments protecting communities of 0 to 49,999 population or 100,000 to 499,999 population. For the small number of fire departments protecting communities of 500,000 population or more, the estimate is that 82 percent to 92 percent of those fire departments do not have enough fire stations.

Regardless of the type of need — equipment, training, apparatus or personnel — the needs are greater in smaller communities and are greatest in rural America (communities under 2,500 population).

The full national reports “Four Years Later — A Second Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service” and “Matching Assistance to Firefighter Grants to the Reported Needs of the U.S. Fire Services” — and individual state reports are available at www.nfpa.org/needsassessment. The Website also has information on NFPA codes and standards of use in homeland security preparedness and the assurance of firefighter health and safety.

Fire Kills Again – Steps to Fire Safety for the Future
By: Albert Zorn, NFPA Certified Fire Protection Specialist
Ph: (773) 539-7831 City Wide Fire Equipment Company - www.citywidefire.com

On Thursday, March 08, 2007, the headlines tell of a sad, fear-provoking story about fire consuming the lives of a family including 8 innocent children in the Bronx section of New York. The children ranged from infants to 10-year-olds.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke for the nation when he stated “It just seems
more painful and unfair when children die. Everyone around them dies a little bit, too.”
First comes the period of mourning as we all reflect on the situation and lives lost. When
the mourning period ends, we must review the events that led up to the tragedy. We must do everything possible to prevent such a loss in the future.

News reports mentioned that fire raced up the stairs of the building and trapped residents on the second floor. Early investigations show possible signs that a space heater or an overloaded power strip may have caused the lethal fire.

When reviewing the scenario, what could have averted fire, entrapment and death?
Unfortunately, not all people have the resources to be well equipped, but the truth is the
proper fire safety preparedness equipment could have saved all of the lives that had been lost.

The question is … who is responsible for furnishing these items? Should the law make
landlords responsible for providing more fire safety and evacuation equipment or should
tenants be required to supply a minimum list of such equipment? The answer is
definitely to be debated. There are limits to what responsibility landlords can take for
occupants. Yet, somebody has to do something about fire deaths as they happen
regularly and far too often in this country.

You might ask, “What can I do to protect my home and my children provided I have the
financial resources to do so?”

Following is a list of “must-have” items to have available on each level, in the garage and in sleeping areas of your living space:

• Emergency Escape Ladder
• Fire Extinguisher
• Smoke Escape Masks for Each Resident
• Automatic Emergency Flashlights.
• Smoke Alarms
• Carbon Monoxide Alarms
• Child Finder Reflective Decal System (such as Kids-N-Here)

In addition to outfitting your home with the proper equipment, have an electrician review your electrical system for safety annually, and don’t overload circuits. Never leave space heaters or cooking devices unattended as fire can start and spread rapidly without warning.

Practice evacuation procedures, especially with small children. The drill should include
everything except use of escape ladders. Practice hooking the escape ladder to the
window sill, but do not deploy the ladder as they are specially packed to guarantee
effective single-use deployment.

In a real emergency evacuation, if an infant needs to be evacuated, plan on packing a
wearable baby carrier or sling with each ladder to assist in evacuation. Small children
should be assisted by an adult when evacuating. Most escape ladders are tested to
1,000lbs capacity.

A new item called the “Kids-N-Here Child Alert Rescue Kit” was created by a
Professional Firefighter/Paramedic to help save your child and provide vital information to emergency personnel. The same light reflecting technology rescue personnel use to mark their own equipment was put to use to help identify the most important bedroom door in your home. Since most doors inside a home look alike, the Child Alert Rescue Decal clearly identifies your child’s bedroom door from all others inside your home. The low placement location is ideal for a firefighter crawling along the floor to clearly see below the smoke in the house. Every kit also includes an Emergency Contact List, an EMS Quick Look Medication List, and a Notification Card to be mailed to your local Fire Department. This kit is becoming increasingly popular and could truly save a child’s life.

Unfortunately, fires will still result in deaths…this isn’t the end for sure. If we prepare,
practice and educate, I’m sure we can save lives. For now, all we can do is pray for the
souls of those lost in the Bronx fire and hope that the lessons this tragedy teaches will
save the lives of others in the future.

Editors Note: Albert Zorn is NFPA Certified Fire Protection Specialist and the owner of “City Wide Fire Equipment Company”. Mr. Zorn has 20 years of experience in fire training, equipment, programs and systems. He is a featured writer of the Illinois Safety Council Newsletter. He may be contacted at (773) 539-7831 Website: www.citywidefire.com Consider assisting your employees to be safe at home by purchasing the “Kids-N-Here Child Alert Rescue Kit” at : www.safetysupercenter.com.

FIRE DEPARTMENT INSPECTIONS
 
 
What do you need to do to be ready?
Fire department inspections occur on a regular basis. Depending on your type of business, or “occupancy” as the fire service might say, you may see an inspector as frequently as every year, or maybe just every other year. If you are remodeling, building, changing the chemicals or hazardous materials and wastes that you store, requiring a permit, a fire inspector may be involved in that process. Unless you are what OSHA considers a high hazard occupation or experience a number of occupational injuries and illnesses, it is much more likely that you will see a fire inspector more often than you would an OSHA inspector. Since the visit from the fire inspector is more likely, what should you do to prepare for it? (more…)

OSHA Issues Final Rule on Electrical Installation Standard
 
Washington, DC — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration published a final rule in today’s Federal Register for an updated electrical installation standard.
“These are the first changes to the electrical installation requirements in 25 years, so it is important the standard reflects the most current practices and technologies in the industry,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Edwin G. Foulke Jr.
“The revised standard strengthens employee protections and adds consistency between OSHA’s requirements and many state and local building codes, which have adopted updated National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and National Electrical Code provisions.”
Changes to OSHA’s general industry electrical installation standard focus on safety in the design and installation of electric equipment in the workplace.
The updated standard includes a new alternative method for classifying and installing equipment in Class I hazardous locations; new requirements for ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs); and new provisions on wiring for carnivals and similar installations.
The final rule updates the general industry electrical installation requirements to the 2000 edition of the NFPA 70E, which was used as the foundation of the revised standard.
The final rule also replaces the reference to the 1971 National Electrical Code in the mandatory appendix to the powered platform standard, with a reference to OSHA’s electrical installation standard.