In the early days of my secondary education, I remember that on the eve of my science laboratory debut we were thoroughly briefed on laboratory rules and regulations.

It was a long list of do’s and don’t s that they kept repeating to get the novices ready for the experiments that were to follow. Yet with time, adherence to the rules waned.

The more experiment sessions we attended the more we became familiar with the lab environment and the more we became complacent and ate some edible specimen. Gas leaks increasingly became prevalent as did short circuits during physics lessons.

The compromise on safety regulations could be attributed to familiarity and administration’s failure to ensure that students abide by the rules. At such a tender age slackness was encouraged and carelessness cultivated.

When we encourage the culture of ignoring safety rules due to familiarity or convenience, then we are paving the way for disasters and hazards of unspeakable magnitude.

It is a responsibility of all to ensure that safety rules are adhered to even when they appears to be of negligible consequence. We should not let safety regulations to be washed down based on misplaced religious mentality that it is God Himself who has the responsibility of taking care of industrial workers who work in careless environments.

During engineering safety and occupation studies at the university examples were given on how an individual can cause tragic accidents due to negligence and carelessness.

It was vividly observed then as is now that most accidents in commercial buildings are due to failure of adhering to safety regulations or some preventive measures guiding a particular trade.

Rules and regulations pertaining to safety should be adhered to in all facets of operations. The government and the private sector should invest more in training staff on how to deal with accidents, especially fire incidents and electrical faults as well as in chemical and gas effluent handling since many in the industry are ignorant and so have been or are likely to be victims to such mishaps.

Fire accidents can be avoided if electrical design for domestic, commercial or industrial buildings was done by professional engineers – before installation.

Such designs should be verified by competent engineers together with the materials the contractor intends to use during the installation process. The quality of the cables needs to be checked and that the right size of cables used, especially the main feeder cables since quality can be good yet the material may not be fit for the purpose.

All the terminations should be checked closely together with the distribution parts since wobbly connections or un- insulated joints are points of weaknesses that may trigger fire easily.

It is a fact that most fires in commercial buildings are chiefly due to electrical faults, a consequence of poor electrical design and installation.

The sector would save billions of francs if periodic fire risk assessment was done.

During such inspections, competent inspectors need to keenly check the cabling in terms of quality, size vis-à-vis the load in the building or the machine ratings. Terminations should also be inspected closely to check how the termination of the cables was joined and whether insulation was done as per the rules.

Any deviation from the standards provided in the IEE regulations should then be addressed before the public is allowed to access such facilities.

Safety and precaution is an indispensable facet of sustainable industrial and real estate business growth.

Protecting ourselves from hazards ensures that we have a healthy workforce that may drive the industry to greater prosperity as the users of such structures in public places have confidence and peace of mind as they engage in their businesses since their safety is guaranteed.Safety issues should be the responsibility of all.

The writer is an industrial engineer based in Kigali

mchacharai@gmail.com