Public Safety Announcement
Fire accidents have been on the hike in the recent years. Fire accidents are often associated with may adverse effects such as property destruction, deaths, and homelessness. There is an increasing trend of property destruction resulting from wildland fires (Palazzolo, 2003). Wildland fires have casued a rise in homelessness as their occurence has spread to residential areas. Moreover, billions of money have been lost to fire accidents. Despite the rise in fire accidents, people continue to profess ignorance in the issue of fire protection. More residential areas have continued to sprung up in areas that are prone to wildland fires. Moreover, fire prevention standards have not been put into consideration in many instances.
Several factors contribute to the fire accidents. For example, Klinoff, (2011) argues that arson, poor construction, and terrorism are some of the prevalent causes of fire. However, the fire might result from other causes such as gas leakage in homes and automobile accidents. Various mechanisms of fire prevention have been formulated to curb this menace. For instance, it is prudent to handle and control wastes that may accelerate fire outbreaks and proper housekeeping practices (Cote et al., 2008). Moreover, good planning and design of buildings and protection of lighting systems are essential in fire protection. The success of the approaches mentioned above depends on an individual commitment. The public play a pivotal role in ensuring that chances of occurrence of fire outbreaks and consequential spreading are reduced. This paper seeks to create awareness of the need for fire protection through the use of a case study.
Case Study: California Wildfires
This wildfire occurred in North California after the eruption of Valley Fire (Lovett and Southall, 2015). The region had experienced drought for some time making vegetations dry. Consequently, the fire spread quickly throughout the forestation covering about 50, 000 acres after a day. The wildfire later spread into homes and commercial areas within the town of Middletown and surrounding regions.
The Valley fire ordeal spread quickly due to low manpower. According to Lovett and Southall (2015), the fire would spread to various regions as firefighters formed a containment line in one region. The fire intensified due to several factors that contributed to its spreading. Some of these factors include such as high temperatures, wind, and drought.
California fire ordeal signified the epitome of the increased cases of fire outbreaks. Lovett and Southall (2015) explain that fire outbreaks have increased immensely in the past years. About 6,800 cases of fire had been reported by September in 2015. During the prevention of the fire, Cal Fire, are responsible for fire prevention in California, were involved in 13 fire incidences. The fire would spread to various regions due to exhaustion of the manpower.
The fire ordeal resulted in a lot of adverse effects. For instance, the fire resulted in psychological disturbance of the people as they were left homeless. Lovett and Southall (2015) describe Lake County as an affordable region for living and that most of the employees lived. The fire left these people homeless and even destroyed commercial areas leaving some people jobless. Moreover, the fire caused injuries to various individuals, either directly or indirectly. It also caused death of domestic animals. Lovett and colleague explain that the region had various horse farms, and all the animals were left behind as the evacuation was immediate. The explanation above gives the aftermaths of a fire.
The California fire ordeal is an example of many similar ordeals that often occur in the country. All these ordeals leave a trail of adverse impacts to the people and the governments. However, as much as people blame poor and ineffective firefighting services, everyone has a role in containing the current trend of fire outbreaks. The following sections seek to explore some of the areas that can impact on fire and the roles of different groups in promoting fire prevention.
Fire Behavior
Fire behavior refers to the intensity and rate of spreading. Fire behavior is affected by topography, weather and availability of fuel (Bennett et al., 2010). In the case of the Valley fire, the region had a sloping topography. Fire started at the bottom of the valley. This topography contributed to the spreading of the fire due to the high chances of the fire spreading upwards as hot air from the burning regions rises. The Valley Lake region had thick dry bushes. Such bushes provided sufficient fuel for the spreading of the fire. To achieve substantive fire suppressionbe achieved, availability of fuel especially in areas with high chances of occurrence of fire has to be maintained at low amount.
Bennett et al. (2010) explains that weather conditions play an essential role in affecting both temporal and spatial spreading of fire. Weather condition is concerned with factors such as temperature, rainfall and wind presence. Lovett and Southall (2015) explain that Valley Lake had been experiencing drought that could have resulted in high temperatures in the region. Such conditions are ideal for the spreading of fire both in temporal and spatial dimensions. The regions also experienced winds that played a pivotal role in intensifying the fire. Spotting is another critical fire behavior essential in determining intensity and rate of spreading of fire. Spotting refers to instances when fire embers move upwards and spread beyond the fire front and hence igniting other areas (Bennett et al., 2010). For instance, Lovett and Southall (2015) explain that the Valley fire would spread to other areas rapidly through spotting due to the wind component of the fire.
Human Behavior and Building Impact
According to Miller (2005), panic is a common human behavior associated with response to fire. Panic often causes disorganization to the victims. Moreover, it makes people not to be responsive to any alarm related to fire menace. For instance, people can consider the indications such as smoke, flames, and vocal alarms. Such failure to respond to these early alarms exposes people to immense danger as they start running when only limited time is available for escaping to safer regions. Considering the case of California, people starting escaping from their homesteads only after the fire had already caught up with them (Lovett & Southall, 2015). Moreover, people often ignore that a fire occurrence will spread to their regions. Ignorance could be the cause of reason as to why people did not escape to safer places in assuming that fire will not reach their residential places.
Moreover, Syphard et al. (2007) explains that land use and planning is an essential factor that is critical to consider if fire mitigation measures have to be effective. This factor relates to the spatial distancing of homes and vegetation involved. These factors affect spatial and temporal patterns of fire. Dense housing contributes to the spatial spreading of the fire. In the case considered, from Mr. McLean’s statement, we can infer that the primary area affected by the fire was the Middletown town. Therefore, it would be prudent to conclude that the buildings in the town contributed to the intensity of the fire. Fuel and electrical connections in the town could have increased the intensity of the fire. This inference results from the fact that people did not have a chance to remove their belongings from their homes to prevents any accelerants of the fire.
Expectation or its lack are another essential human behaviors associated with fire (Close, 2005). Expectation can affect preparedness or other factors related to fire suppression. In his comment, McLean states that they did not expect wind to affect the spreading and intensity of the fire in Middletown. McLean statement implies that the fire contributed immensely in exhausting their attempts to suppress the fire.
Current and future fire safety issues
With the rise of instances of fire occurrence in the country, it is essential for people to develop a safety culture. According to Furness and Muckett (2007), a positive safety culture can be achieved through proactive management. In the case of Valley fire, there is no evidence of prior management of possible occurrence of fire. Therefore, the regulatory bodies that are concerned were relying on reactive means to contain the fire making it difficult due to the unexpected situations such as the wind. Proactive management can involve such as allocation of safety officers to oversee possible dangers of fire occurrence. According to U.S Fire Administration (2008), allocation of safety officers is critical in ensuring that fire safety in the workplace is effective. There is also need to undertake public education regarding fire safety. The case of Middletown portrays a situation when the public does not have information regarding fire safety. Educating the public will sensitize them to ways of preventing and reducing fire occurrences.
During the occurrence if the Valley fire, some of the commercial areas were burnt down. Safety measures in the commercial areas are not evident in the case. Safety measures is a critical safety issue that is highly championed by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA has promoted for the provision of safety measures in the workplace as a mechanism for mitigating fire incidences (U.S Fire Administration, 2008). Provision and proper maintenance of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ensuring vehicle safety are pertinent issues that should be considered by fire protection agencies. Availability of properly designed PPEs helps in ensuring safety of the firefighters. Maintenance of vehicle in good condition helps to prevent the occurrence of accidents during firefighting incidences.
Another emerging issue regarding fire safety is environmental assessment and planning. It is prudent to ensure that environment helps in curtailing the spreading and intensity of fire. Environmental planning and assessment would be of indispensable help in achieving this factor. For instance, if housing in Middletown town had been designed in consideration of fire safety guidelines, probably the fire would not have spread to the whole town. Health is also an essential safety issue that should be considered (U.S Fire Administration, 2008). It related to ensuring that the health condition of firefighters is good. Achieving this requires formulating and implementing programs that help to improve the health safety of firefighters concerning their duties.
References
Bennett, M., Fitzgerald, S.A., Parker, B., Main, M.L., Perleberg, A., Schnepf, C., Mahoney, R.L. (2010). Reducing Fire Risk on Your Forest Property. Oregon State University.
Close, K. R. (2005). Fire behavior vs. human behavior: Why the lessons from Cramer matter. International Assoc of Wildland Fire.
Cote, A. E., Grant, C. C., Hall, J. R., Powell, P. A., & Solomon, R. E. (2008).Fire protection handbook (Vol. 2). NationalFireProtectionAssoc.
Furness, A., & Muckett, M. (2007). Introduction to fire safety management. Routledge.
Klinoff, R. (2011). Introduction to fire protection. Cengage Learning.
Lovett, I & Southall, A. (2015). Moving Fast, Fire Scorches Community in California. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/us/northern-california-wildfires.html?_r=0
Miller, I. (2005). Human Behaviour Contributing to Unintentional Residential Fire Deaths, 1997-2003. New Zealand Fire Service Commission.
Palazzolo, L. (2003). Horn man: the Polish-American musician in twentieth-century Detroit. Wayne State University Press.
Syphard, A. D., Radeloff, V. C., Keeley, J. E., Hawbaker, T. J., Clayton, M. K., Stewart, S. I., & Hammer, R. B. (2007). Human influence on California fire regimes. Ecological applications, 17(5), 1388-1402.
U.S Fire Administration (2008). Emerging Health and Safety Issues in the Volunteer Fire Service. Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa_317.pdf
