Fire safety matters: How prepared is your workplace?

There has been a war of words and finger pointing in the face of fires that have recently affected a number of bars and restaurants in the City of Kigali, causing heavy losses.On Thursday, this newspaper quoted a director at ‘Downtown’ Coffee, a bar and restaurant in the city centre as saying that the firebreak that consumed part of his business was a result of faulty connections by EWSA, a national utility company.An interview with The New Times, the utility’s city branch manager, Jane Mutamba denied the claims.“The fire originated from within because our installations at the affected facility are intact,” she said.She added that when there is a fire outbreak, fire spreads from scene to source.“Elementary knowledge in electricity tells us that it is a scene to source movement,” she stressed.This argument was corroborated by Eng. Joseph Sibomana, a Kigali-based private electrical engineer in a separate.Mutamba ruled out the possibility of excess power as a cause of the fire, saying if it had been the case all buildings connected to that cable line could have been affected.Earlier on, the head of police fire and rescue brigade Chief Superintendent Bertin Mutezintare, told The New Times that the majority of the fire outbreaks were occasioned by negligence. But all said and done what does a fire need to burn?A fire needs three elements to burn: fuel, oxygen and heat.Examples of fuel include gasoline, chemicals, oil, and wood, plastic and combustible metals, among others, while oxygen is part of the air we breathe. Take away heat and a fire cannot start or continue to burn.Yet the elements we have seen above are the very items we tend not to handle with extra care.Eng. Sibomana says good housekeeping is one of the best ways to prevent fires.“Clean up your work area to remove paper, plastic or other items that could fuel a fire. Store and handle hazardous materials that could serve as fuels,” he advised.The police fire boss said at most of the bars and restaurants that have been burnt one notices laxity in ensuring good housekeeping standards.“You see a cocktail of things in the kitchen; gas cookers, wet floors and poorly insulated electric cables. All these create conducive conditions for fire outbreak,” he said.In case of a fire outbreak, Eng. Sibomana says that you must be prepared in case a fire breaks out at your workplace because your actions in the first seconds and minutes are vital and can be the difference in both small and major incidents.He says that such preparation includes knowledge of the location of fire alarms, fire extinguishers and fire hoses at the facility and that in case of fire sound the fire alarm, vacate the building and call police fire department.“Before you decide that you will fight the fire, make sure it is small and you have a clear escape path. If outdoors, try to keep the wind behind you,” he further cautioned. What is police doing?Through its fire and rescue brigade, police say they have carried out sensitisation campaigns on safety measures and conducted training on fire fighting equipment handling, among other things, as a pre-emptive measure to avoid fire outbreaks.“Such training, sensitisation and property inspection are offered free of charge,” police spokesman said, adding that police offers free expertise in refilling fire extinguishers for those who need it.When did you last check functional status of that fire extinguisher in your car or building?Police say that the lifespan of many of fire extinguishers in most automobiles and buildings could have expired long time ago, and that they are simply maintained for compliance purposes. While life expectancy of a fire extinguisher depends on a number of factors, industry experts recommend that it should be replaced after every six years and should be tested on a weekly basis according to the user’s manual.Eng. Sibomana advises that the type of fire determines the type of extinguisher to be used and warns against using a wrong type of extinguisher because it can cause disastrous results. InterventionKigali is not a very big city yet it is febrile and most fires break out during peak hours when traffic is high and the city is a beehive of activity which makes it a tricky balancing act for police to be at the scene in the shortest time possible.Most of access roads to the city are also narrow due to the initial haphazard planning, that that the current city authorities are struggling to address.Drivers are also not yet familiar with fire brigade vehicles. They don’t easily give way as they would do with bullion vans and ambulances.For example, during the recent ‘Downtown’ fire break police say they despatched three of their firefighting trucks in order to bit traffic jam. One went through Kinamba – Muhima road, the other through Kimihurura – Peage road and the third through Kiyovu.“I knew this was a peak hour and activity in the city was hyper. Traffic flow was slow, so just in case one truck was stuck in jam the other one could advance,” said the force’s fire boss.

National

Fire safety matters: How prepared is your workplace?