Annals
of Burns and Fire Disasters - vol. X - n. 3 - September 1997
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN -
A DISCUSSION ON BURNS AND FIRES: PREVENTION AND PROTECTION
Badran I.G.
WHO Advisory Committee
on Health Research, Cairo, Egypt
SUMMARY. This wide-ranging
article considers many aspects of burns and fire prevention. Physicians should be not
concerned only with the treatment of burn injury - they must also have their say in
discussions regarding the incidence of fire accidents and the alleviation of their
magnitude. The modem world presents many dangers, while many risk situations continue to
exist in developing countries. All these problems are considered, with particular
reference to the Author's country, Egypt.
Introduction
In the medical
profession practitioners invariably look on burns from a purely medical perspective as an
accident, the results of which - the injury - being their main concern. Very few concern
themselves with causation and fewer still with prevention or ways of reducing the damage,
when in actual fact all aspects of fires and burns are interlinked and need to be tackled
together. Surgeons, in particular, focus their attention on manifest bodily results,
leaving aetiology to nonmedicals, engineers, industrialists, economists, the police, and
rescue agencies.
It is intended in this discussion to emphasize the duty of physicians in general to have a
say in reducing the incidence and in alleviating the magnitude and after-effects of fire
damage in civil life. Mass casualties can result from fires whether during natural
disasters or as a result of human behaviour. The patterns of these fires and their
consequences differ markedly in the more developed world from those occurring in
developing countries. Many factors combine to produce the patterns observed: the causative
agents and the results of burns are related to the state of development and
industrialization, and differ according to location in urban and rural communities. The
patterns may be further complicated by the effects of cultural, behavioural and societal
standards.
In the developing world, accidents and injuries - including burns and fires - are commonly
accepted as part of the price that must be paid for achieving industrial development.
Other factors - overpopulation, the crowding of people in marginal habitats such as shanty
towns and rural districts, and congestion within the same dwelling - all add to the
frequency of fire incidents and the severity of the resulting damage.
The introduction of modern technologies to unprepared and deprived citizens also takes a
toll. Changes in life-style and the use - or rather misuse - of modem home equipment like
electric appliances, gas heaters and cooking ranges all contribute to the increased
incidence of fires and to the magnitude of the damage.
On the other hand, in the developed world, life in high-rise buildings and skyscrapers,
overdependence on electric appliances, air conditioners, heaters and cookers, and the
overloading of such equipment can all be causes of fire, despite stringent precautionary
measures and safeguards. The crowding of amusement and recreational facilities and the
occurrence of riots and violence in socially underprivileged or rebellious segments of
society also add to the risk of fires. Not to be forgotten are factors of natural origin -
earthquakes, forest fires, torrential rains, and lightning - all of which can cause
catastrophic damage in terms of life and property.
In some countries like Egypt, where the process of development reflects a mixed pattern
combining features from both the developed world and developing countries, the causes and
consequences of fires are equally mixed. If considered alone, the tools available today
for fire-fighting throughout the world are not sufficient to face the real size of the
problem. Reliance on preventive measures, under all circumstances, continues to be the
most effective approach to the containment of fire hazards. Industrial safety codes,
building regulations, and fire relevant measures for prevention, extinction and escape are
now highly developed and are reflected in contemporary architecture and life-styles. All
these factors continue to receive the attention of specialists in several disciplines of
science, technology, legislation and sociology.
Many of these studies generate results of high practical value that should be considered
when a country defines or revises its fire safety codes and standards. In certain
situations these may need to be country- or environmentspecific.
Egypt's experience
in. the confrontation of fire hazards
Interest in Egypt was aroused recently,
especially in the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, by the launching of an
international programme concerning the decade for mitigating the impact of natural
disasters.
An important conference with international
participation was held in 1993 that focused on ways and means of confronting fire hazards
in Egypt. This interest was sparked by an alarming increase in the incidence of fires,
which appear to be continuously on the rise. This unmistakable trend can be attributed to
a number of factors, including:
progressive and rapid
population increase
crowding in houses and
workplaces, and even in recreational areas
rapid expansion of
production and commercial activities in industrial zones of new development areas which
frequently lack adequate measures to counter fire hazards
increased number of
high-rise buildings and housing towers lacking effective and fire-related systems
lack of sufficient
measures to protect old buildings, mainly made of wood, without provision of sufficient
safeguards against dangers arising from the use of electrical systems and equipment.
During the present generation alone, incalculable losses have resulted from fires that
destroyed the Cairo Opera and Gawhara Palace
rapid change in
life-styles, particularly in rural areas, where houses are still built of clay, while the
use of modem electric appliances becomes more widespread
distribution of
electric power by means of the rural electrification network, with its high-tension cables
hanging over residential areas. The hazards are aggravated as a result of the farmers'
habit of storing quantities of rice straw and cotton stalks on the roofs of their homes.
Every year, in spring, there is a season in Egypt (Khamasin) when strong sandstorms blow
through the entire Nile Valley, frequently followed by heavy rains. These effects
sometimes combine to kindle fires that can cover vast areas and destroy entire villages.
During this season, as a result of the frequent fire incidents, there are many casualties
with severe burns
the spread of marginal
habitats and shanty towns, with a deterioration in living conditions in urban slums, in
most cases caused by the migration of unemployed town-dwellers and farmers. These areas
are characterized by congested population where the absence of sanitary facilities and
other public services combines with dangers deriving from misuse of electricity and other
sources of energy
the introduction of live
city gas into houses, which may also lead to risks associated with leakages and/or misuse.
The situation is worse in areas which use bottled gas, where the containers may be
substandard, faultily manufactured, or improperly handled. The same applies to oxygen and
acetylene cylinders used in street welding and to autobody workshops
the chronic problem of
proper town planning, which has left us with narrow streets packed with buildings,
together with inadequate or totally absent fire hydrants in vulnerable areas. The siting
of petrol stations in the heart of crowded residential areas is another source of danger
The magnititude of the
problem
During the 1990s,
fire-related losses in property were estimated to be in the order of $100 million, while
the value of lost antiquities and places of historical interest is beyond estimation. The
number of fire incidents is constantly rising, reaching the level of 31,254 cases in 1994,
with more than 4000 outbreaks of fire occurring in the city of Cairo alone. It is
estimated that the cost of fire losses in this single year will exceed $400 million.
Types of fire
seen in Egypt
Moderate and multiple smallfires
Fires can be easily prevented and confronted if the appropriate safety codes are observed
and enforced. Another critical need is the extension of the network of fire hydrants to
vulnerable and crowded urban districts. There is also a dire need to review the situation
in large production facilities, as well as in small workshops, to ensure the observance of
industrial safety codes for the prevention of fire and the protection of life and
property.
Serious
fires
The occurrence of serious fires threatens to assume
disastrous dimensions if the outbreaks happen in high-rise buildings, where the situation
may be aggravated by leakage from gas pipelines. These are likely to cause massive life
losses and extensive injuries in addition to heavy losses in property. In the USA there is
now in force a special fire safety code for high-rise buildings. Its requirements are
oriented towards the protection of these vulnerable structures, and concentrate
specifically on ways and means of early detection, as well as in situ fire-fighting.
There is also emphasis on the heightening of public awareness and on the dissemination of
information among the general population and in schools. Fire drills are common in many
institutions and constitute part of public education efforts of this nature, which are the
responsibility of the local civil defence authorities and other health institutions.
Unpredictable
disasters
Although forests are very few in Egypt and forest fires
scarcely a problem, a review of the literature reveals that in this country the outbreak
of unpredictable forest fires is a common and widespread phenomenon that can have
disastrous consequences. We are inclined to classify rural fires as nature-related but not
as natural disasters, because in the worst cases they do not result from human negligence
and are not purely the direct products of natural phenomena.
These fires are unpredictable with respect,to both place and time. Their consequences are
complicated by the fact that they occur in locations that lack transport and communication
facilities, where road conditions and the availability of water for extinguishing purposes
do not lend themselves to quick and effective rescue work. The toll in terms of life and
property can be excessive.
Fires
due to natural disasters
In Egypt, it is estimated that losses due to natural disasters account to no more than 35%
of all losses, while about 65% are related to human factors. Fires due to earthquakes,
lightning, torrential rains, and floods are relatively rare in comparison with other
geographical areas such as North America, where more than 25,000 fires of natural origin
occur every year. For this reason the US has developed a special code (NO.78, Standard
5,1) through the National Fire Prevention Agency.
We in Egypt are however far from immune from the disastrous results of fires caused by
natural phenomena. One instance was an unusually heavy downpour that resulted in floods in
parts of Upper Egypt, when fires broke out in oil storage tanks standing in the way of the
sweeping waters. Casualties from these fires far exceeded those resulting directly from
the floods and the destruction of houses.
General preventive measures
It may generally be true to say that until the beginning of the 20th
century the chief concern of researchers and practitioners in the field was simply to
prevent the spreading of fires. The focus of interest then shifted towards studying ways
and means of prevention, early warning, and early control of fire outbreaks. The findings,
now time-tested and field-proven, are the results of many years of experimental research
in specialized institutes in many developed countries. The National Bureau of Standards
(now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) of the Department of Commerce in
the USA has a team of specialists who dedicate all their time and efforts to developing
means for the prevention and combat of fires, including fire safety standards and codes
that range from recommended guidelines to rules that are legally binding.
The norms that are now commonly observed for fire prevention and control are generally of
the following nature:
Preventive measures
In ideal situations, preventive measures should be adopted and implemented in the
conceptual stages of the planning of new development areas for residence and production.
Designers are required to make effective and adequate provisions for fire prevention and,
in the event of outbreaks, fire-fighting. This refers to the location, distribution and
construction of storage buildings, their outlets and inlets, access to their contents, and
facilities for the safe disposal of industrial waste, especially if health- or
fire-hazardous. Basic to all facilities is a network of extinguishing water lines and
suitably distributed fire hydrants. In the detailed design of industrial and residential
buildings, strict adherence to safety codes should be among the prime concerns of the
architect and the builders.
Early
warning systems
These have become highly specialized in function and sophisticated in performance and are
direct products of advanced developments in the discipline of sensing, signalling, and
instrumentation technologies. Their sensitivity standards have reached heights that make
them now truly dependable for advance alerting in cases of fire outbreak. They include
sound and visual alarms, smoke, heat and light detectors, and the remote alerting of
fire-fighting authorities, all in nearly failure-proof systems.
Fire
containment measures
These are countless in number and highly varied in their nature. After the outbreak of a
fire, their primary purpose is to prevent it from spreading and aggravating the
consequences. Legally instituted codes are (or should be) available to this end, and
several prescriptions for physical arrangements are (or should be) observed.
These include:
provision of suitably
located and distributed fire exits which should be free of obstacles at all times. At
regular intervals, users of the premises should practise fire drills that include the
rapid and orderly use of these exits
provision of sufficient
numbers of fire hydrants at suitable locations within and around the premises
equipment of premises
with automatic sprinklers for spraying water or other extinguishing media into the
environment, as deemed most appropriate
creation of first-aid
stations that are accessible to local residents and rescue personnel
provision of
automatically operated fire extinguishing gases (and foam ) or special media that are
specific for fighting chemical fire in premises where dangerous chemicals are stored and
handled. Strict observance of rules of practice in these situations should be a cultivated
habit of all personnel
availability of
hand-held and portable fire extinguishers at all times. Personnel should be trained in
their use until all fire-fighters can handle serious fire situations
Development
of safety codes
A wide range of such codes has been developed over time, in
many different countries. These codes relate to a number of aspects pertaining to the
design and construction of public buildings and of production and storage facilities. Many
codes also exist for edu2ational and R&D (research and development) buildings, as well
as for hospitals and government offices. There are also highly elaborate codes governing
the construction and operation of institutions where chemicals and electric equipment are
in routine use. These codes invariably include elements that address the question of the
hazards of confinement, by the creation of physical barriers to prevent the spread of fire
from one space to another. They also include the provision of fire-proof partitions or
explosion-proof equipment and electric installations - all for the prevention and/or
containment of the effects of fire damage. Of all the measures, those aimed at the
protection of human life feature highest in all codes.
Needless to say, any code of design or
practice is of little value unless its enforcement is founded on the training of
sufficient numbers of qualified personnel possessing the knowledge and courage to face
dangerous situations, and fires are among the most fearsome of dangerous situations.
RESUME. Cet
article, de grande envergure, considère beaucoup des aspects des brûlures et de la
prévention des incendies. Les médecins doivent s'occuper non seulement du traitement des
lésions dues aux brûlures - ils doivent aussi exprimer leur opinion sur sont ce qui
concerne l'incidence des accidents du feu et l'alléviation de leur ampleur. Le monde
moderne présente beaucoup de dangers, tandis que diverses situations à risque continuent
à exister dans les pays en voie de développement. Tous ces problèmes sont
considérés, avec un particulier intérêt pour le pays de l'Auteur, l'Egypte.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Derry L.: Fire Experience and Fire Protection, Fire Protection Handbook (15th ed.),
National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, Ma., USA, 1981.
- NFPA 901 Uniform Coding for Fire Protection, National Fire Protection Association,
Quincy, Ma., USA.
- Irwin A. Benjamin: Fire Safety Codes in the United States, Workshop on Fire Protection
Technology, Cairo, 1986. Published by NBS, NBS IR - 86 - 3360,1986.
- NFPA 10 1, Life Safety Code, National Fire Protection Association,Quincy, 1985.
- Fire Almanac, National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, Ma., 1984.
- NFPA 70, National Electrical Code, National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, Ma.,
USA.
- Fire Arson Explosion Investigation, J. Kennedy Investigations Institute, Chicago, 1977.
This paper was
presented at the
Third International Conference on Burns and Fire Disasters
held in Palermo, Italy in June 1995.
Address correspondence to: Prof. I.G. Badran
WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research
2 Dar-El Shifa St., Garden City
Cairo, Egypt
Tel. 0020.2.3540991 |
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