An insight of the three days Fire Safety & Emergency Services as Faculty Development Program for
IIBS faculty members at
RA Mundkur Fire & Emergency Services Academy, Karnataka State Fire Safety & Emergency Services, Government of Karnataka State Bangalore from 11
th to 13
th Feb 2019.
Day One Training on 11th Feb 2019 started with the Fire safety department officers shared their knowledge and imparted training on Fire Safety & Emergencies.
An objective of Fire Safety & Emergency:
Preparedness to take to care of natural disasters /?accidental disasters
- To save life and property of people from fire & other emergencies.
- To Emergency & First Aid
- To search and rescue from manmade and natural disasters
- To render advice on fire protection, fire prevention, emergency evacuation, mock drills as Capacity Building
The three days course is to impart training i?n basic fire prevention, fire fighting, rescue operations, evacuation drills etc. The Karnataka State Fire Safety & Emergency Services department training program addressing the issues of fire, rescue and emergency responses at grass root level through program SAFE – “Students Association for Fire Education”, designed keeping in mind younger generation and student community. ??
What is the Triangle of Fire?
The triangle explains the three elements a fire needs to ignite:
- Heat
- Fuel, and
- An oxidizing agent (usually oxygen).
A fire naturally occurs when the elements are present and combined in the right mixture; A fire can be prevented or extinguished by removing any one of the elements in the fire triangle. For example, covering fire with a blanket removes the oxygen part of the triangle and can extinguish a fire. In large fires, where firefighters are called in, decreasing the amount of oxygen is not usually an option because there is no effective way to make that happen in a large area like public places viz. Offices, commercial building, schools, colleges, hospitals, factories, and such others.
Methods of Fire Fighting
- Cooling such as starvation, segregation and separation of elements of the Fire Triangle
- Blanketing or smothering i.e. Restricting, overpowering the fire
Media of Fire Fighting
- Water
- Carbon dioxide
- Sand
- Foam
- Dry chemical products such as
- Potassium Dry Carbonate,
- Sodium Bicarbonate
Note that one litre of water produces 4000-kilocalories of air coolant media. A calorie or calorie is a unit of energy. Is defined as the amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius at a pressure of one atmosphere.
Classification of Fires and media to douse the fire, Based on the intensity of the fire, its classified as:
- Class A fire: (High-intensity fire) Combustible items like cloth, paper, furniture, etc., which become ashes. Use Water to control & douse the fire
- Class B fire: (Combustible Flammable fire) Use Foam to control & douse the fire
- Class C fire: (Gas fires) LPG, Petroleum products, CNG, Electrical fires, etc. Use Carbon Dioxide(CO2) to control & douse the fire
- Class D fire: (Metals fires) Use Dry Chemicals like potassium dry carbonate, sodium bicarbonate to control & douse the fire
Common Fire Extinguisher is ABC mono phosphate – fire extinguisher type 13865. Above information would help us to take precautions to avoid spreading of fire and to douse the fire.
Day two Training on 12th Feb 2019 covered the Building Norms as specified by NBC (National Building Code). All commercial buildings, Educational buildings should have:
- Two doors of 6 feet width doors – Entry and Exit doors.
- Two Staircases
- Six metres corridors around the building
- Eight passengers (min) capacity Lift
- For electrical room use CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) fire extinguishers
- Check the working of Electrical safety - CO2 fire extinguishers regularly
- Check & keep the “Assembly Points” clean & tidy
- Storage of paper, cloth, etc., needs to be in an easily accessible place
- Check & keep the “Exit routes” clean & tidy
- Use the staircase in case of emergency – practice to use the left side of staircase while going down
Session on LPG Fire Safety: In case of LPG fire carry out the following:
- Pour water on LPG cylinder to keep the cylinder cold so that cylinder would not become hot and blast – note that the LPG inside the cylinder is cold.
- Keep windows and doors open
- Keep mobile phones OFF and do not operate mobiles
- Every night keep the cylinder’s Regulator OFF
- Change the LPG Rubber Pipe once in two years
The Fire Safety Brigade demonstrated the fire drill along with the newly recruited Fire Safety officers
Day three Training on 13th Feb 2019 covered Fire Safety & Emergency in Schools, Colleges and Hospitals.
- Practice the use of Portable Fire Extinguishers
- Display “Sign Boards” at all vantage points including near lifts, entry and exit doors
- Fire plan should be present
- Have Fire safety drill teams, Rescue Teams, and First Aid teams
Evacuation in case of Emergency :
- Signal Fire alarm “ON”
- Call State Fire Safety Service by dialling 101 or 108
- Provide the name, proper address and landline phone number and also provide location details
- Use proper, appropriate fire extinguishers to prevent spreading of fire till the state fire safety brigade/personnel arrive at your location of the fire emergency
- Use staircases to evacuate the people out of the buildings - use left the side of staircase while going down
- Use blanketing, roll the people who have caught by the fire, move them to a safer place
- Use clean, normal water to reduce heat and burning of the body.
Later the demonstration of Different types of Fire Safety vehicles at the workshop including the Breathing Apparatus Van. Karnataka State Fire Safety & Emergency Services is first in India to procure the latest Breathing Apparatus Van
14th April is observed as Fire Safety Personnel Martyrs Day
The Fire Safety Academy has a place of
Fire Safety Memorial. During the post-lunch session, the demonstration was carried out at “Fire Station” of RA Mundkur Fire & Emergency Services Academy.
