We are nothing after our death. Let us donate our body organs for the poor.

Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvelous work The moment you fear, you are nobody - Swamy Vivekananda

If you think safety is expensive, try an accident... - O.P.Kharbanda

Preventable accidents, if they are not prevented due to our negligence, it is nothing short of a murder - Dr. Sarvepalli Radha Krishna, 2nd President of India

Zero accidents through zero unsafe behaviors. Do not be complacent that there are no accidents. There may be near miss accidents (NMAs). With luck/chance, somebody escaped knowingly or unknown to the person. But, we can't be safe, if we depend upon the luck.

Safety culture is how the organization behaves when no one is watching.

We make No compromise with respect to Morality, Ethics, or Safety. If a design or work practice is perceived to be unsafe, we do not proceed until the issue is resolved. - Mission statement by S&B Engineers & Consultants Ltd. http://www.sbec.com/safety/

Human meat gets least priority - A doctor's comment on accidents

CSB video excerpts from Dr.Trevor Kletz, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQn5fL62KL8

Showing posts with label fire service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fire service. Show all posts

Apr 13, 2014

Easy to blame others for fires in our premises - what about our preparedness?

Today I read in a news paper that fire services reached late to the site of fire by which some property damage already took place. Such reasons we hear or read regularly without thinking what is that we have done to protect our property or persons before expecting others' help.

Did we keep our premises free from hazards?
Whether the house keeping in our site is well maintained?
Whether the shop floors are free from obstructions?
Whether the approach roads are free from mindless parking vehicles?
Whether we adhered minimum requirements of maintaining water storage, fire detection and control system?
Whether the persons in the building / plant are trained in basic fire fighting?
Do we have regular surveillance checks to see that the premises are safe for residing or working?

Instead of keeping our house right i.e free from hazards, we blame late arrival of fire department. For them to reach the place of incident, they have to come through congested roads. We construct our buildings without proper place for vehicle parking and we think public roads are our parking areas. Some of those who have parking space for residents do not allow visitors to park inside the premises. Big notice board will be displayed reading "NO PARKING FOR OUTSIDERS/VISITORS". Then why do allow visitors at all? All such premises and those parking vehicles on public roads should be penalized heavily. This will also be a good source of income for the local authorities. To avoid corruption / bribes, local authorities can share a percentage of such income generated with the employees making efforts to identify such lapses and collecting the amounts.

For most of the fires, short circuit is a stated reason making them electrical fires. But, why such short circuit takes place. The reason is overload, absence of surge protectors, use of poor quality wiring or not replacing the old wiring. It is stated that even in residential buildings, electrical wiring needs replacement after 15 years. Atleast, we should get the electrical systems checked regularly not for anybody else, but for our own safety.

Municipal authorities / factories department should make it compulsory for periodical checking by specifying the period also say once in five years every time after first 15 years of life. Like building inspectors authorized for checking, they should authorize experienced and qualified persons/institutions for such checks without which permissions should be withdrawn and power/water supply / sanitation services.

These data should be digitized so that defaulters can be easily found on the next day of due date and action can be taken.
Data entry of checks should be done by authorized inspectors and for any incidents, such inspectors/agencies should be made responsible.


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