Responsibility for property damage in a fire

It is common to read in news papers about fire incidents, property damage and accusations of fire services for delay in reaching the incident. But, the main culprit is the owner/tenant of the premises. One should check what measures are taken by the owner/tenant of the premises. There would not have been any fire incident, had all precautions like storing of the materials properly, using proper electrical wiring, avoiding ignition sources, etc are followed and maintained. Similarly, fire detection, warning and protection system should be in place so that even in case of fire, the damage can be minimum. However, hardly any of these measures are taken or followed.
Every building should have sufficient ground storage water and sufficient distance around the building free from obstructions. However, greediness overtakes fire safety measures and all available space is used for creating some more commercial space. Having water for fire safety is not thought at all. All these failures are overlooked and fire department is accused for not reaching the fire incident place quickly.

Clothes caught in fire - STOP, DROP & ROLL

In an article, I read that two persons received severe burn injuries when their clothes caught fire and started running. The Chief of Fire Services said that fire will increase when you run due to fanning. He advised that to extinguish fires of clothes you are wearing, you should stop immediately, drop on the floor and roll.

The fire started when two highly volatile substances were used for cleaning after carpet removal by dissolving the adhesive with gasoline and turpentine. The vapors found ignition source and led to fire. The action by Fire Services is quick as the fire occurred at 1840 hr and fire was extinguished by 1859 hr.

Another news item on the above can be read here.

User charges for fire fighting services

A news paper report mentioned that the AP Fire Services department is proposing to charge for their services provided to commercial establishments and higher income group individuals above a set category so that they can finance their activities and maintain their facilities.
It is true that any thing comes free will not have any value in the eyes of beneficiaries, though nobody wants to loose their propery in a fire or get themselves injured. But, acts of carelessness, not providing sufficient safety measures disregarding the risk to make money, no respect for statutory provisions, etc shall be dealt severely and I feel user charges are definitely one of such methods.

First, there should be creation of awareness about hazards and measures to be taken which can be communicated while issuing permission for construction of buildings / licence to establish a business or trade / renewal / payment of property taxes , etc in the form of 1-2 page pamphlet and also printed on the backside of electricity bills or similar nature. Punishments / penalties also should be mentioned in the same leaf so that one will take serious note of the contents.
Then, user charges as and when service is provided should be at such higher rates that one should hesitate if wants to use. In case of Fire Services, there should not be any option. If there is a fire and even if someone on the road informs through emergency phone number, they should come and then charge. It should be made mandatory for emergency services to charge after attending the calls irrespective of who called or informed about emergency.
The insurance companies should give some discount in the policy premium, if there are sufficient verifiable safety measures taken by the beneficiary.

Such measures will make the citizens to be aware and be safety minded. Governments should not provide its services for free, atleast to creat awareness that NOTHING IS FREE.

It is common to criticise Service departments like Fire / municipal / traffic / police / intelligence / factories / pollution control board, etc that they are not upto mark or not doing their job. No doubt, all are not at same level and there can be inefficiency / corruption, etc and other factors / reasons like lack of man power or other resources. But, first of all, if individuals are not careful, do not want to follow atleast common sense leave apart rules and regulations, then who can help and what anybody can do to protect. Just imagine that you are a traffic police, for example, and think how you can regulate the traffic by the acts which yourself would have committed on various occasions. Definitely, it will provoke you to think and motivate you to do the right things.

There is a saying that it is easy to awake a sleeping person but not the ones who pretend to sleep. No amount of resources in the world can create a safe place, if the individual decides not to be safe. Only, they can be controlled for sometime. It is not possible for any monitoring / regulating agency to watch each and everyone. If that is the requirement, then 50% of our population will be regulators while others are subject under watch.