Fire safety management: Do we really care
By Rana Dutta
In the arena of global RMG, Bangladesh has already been achieved the prestigious second position and now aspiring to hold the first one within the few years and will be the hardest competitor with its immense potentialities in the coming global RMG battle by establishing its dominating approach towards the world RMG manufacturers as a global icon.
Nevertheless, the frequent fire tragedies in the readymade garments industry have become a common phenomenon in Bangladesh which have drawn our attention to stimulate our sleeping eyes and to think something special and effective one to mitigate.
Therefore, it is greatly urged to have a sustainable fire safety management system in our readymade garments industry and here, Bangladesh government, BKMEA, BGMEA and other international organizations are giving their effortless efforts to establishing a hundred percent compliant RMG sector within the couples of years and here, safety issues have given the prime emphasis to ensure its eye-catching development.
Now, the question is, do RMG manufacturers really think about the fire safety management? Do they really care? Due to a lack of general understanding and awareness of compliance issues, safety management sometime goes to the dogs and so, it makes us to think a little bit more than we imagine.
The working condition and fire safety management in our factories are not what we expect. Despite a number of initiatives to curb fire accidents in the garment industry, there are still a significant number of fire occurrences in this industry and so, today's RMG is suffering little or more from the safety fever and here, manifestation and nurturing of safety culture has become a crying need.
In this regard, an effective fire safety management is highly desirable to minimize safety related workplace hazards and so, fire safety has become a prime concern not only to the entrepreneurs but also to the RMG buyers, government and its related bodies as well.
Therefore, a sustainable fire safety management has become a time demanding fact; an effective approach in the 21st century to ensuring hazards free working environment where, employees and the workers can give concentrate on their respective jobs with a smiling face.
Who doesn't desire to have a safe and secured life? It is everyone's rights to have a safe return to home after finishing work at office. Can we imagine the knock ayt the door to tell us one of our near and dear ones will never be returning home because of the massive fire incident in his or her working place? Can we really have the mental shock? Or a phone call to inform you that your dear one is in the hospital due to accident at this work place and may never walk again? Who knows these will not happen in your life?
Nothing is certain in our life and so, anything can happen at any moment that changes our whole life picture within few seconds. Nevertheless, we can save ourselves if we are little bit aware of our workplace safety issues, if we know it well that safety first and safety must.
Moreover, fire does not wait for anyone's warmhearted welcome; it does occur in any time and in any place without prior notice and destroys anything that obstructs its path of marching with its devastating roar and so, proper fire safety management has given the prime emphasis to ensure hazards free working environment.
In the simplistic term, fire safety management denotes to a calculative strategic plan; a set of core philosophy to ensure and enhance the fire safety standard in the working place so that it can ensure hazards free working environment.
Effective fire safety depends on a combination of physical fire precautions and a robust system of effective management. Here, we need a sustainable fire safety policy; a sustainable fire safety policy consists of five vital components. Such as: General Statement, Employees Duties, Communication, Procedures and Emergency Evacuation Plan.
Effective fire safety management is no more an isolated issue rather it has become an integral part of a safety policy. It is a matter of great thinking that today's RMG is haunted by safety issues; fire can cause both financial loss and significant damage to a company's image and public relations.
Here, employee's work safety efficiency and dedication to their duties and responsibilities altogether make sure of an organization's safety management effective and where, a worker or any other else can feel themselves safe and secured; they do not place themselves or others at risk or harm and so, they are expected to co-operate fully with any procedure that may be introduced as a measure to protect the safety and well-being of the workers and the staffs altogether.
Here, fire risk assessment has become a mandatory task to ensuring an effective fire safety policy in our readymade garments industry. Risk assessment denotes to a systematically critical evolution of a premises which has been carried out for the purpose of determining the likelihood of a fire occurring and causing harm to people in and around the premises and also to prescribe an effective solution of recovery.
The purpose of fire risk assessment is to designing and determining the efficiency of existing fire precautions in the action plan to reduce fire risk to a tolerable level.
To execute the process, we need to assign a skilled person who will carry out the internal fire risk assessment procedure so that we can have a comprehensive report on an organization's risk status and its possible effective measures and so, it should be in written. In order to carry out a fire risk assessment, the following steps must be taken accordingly:
Identify the potential fire hazards - It is the first step of risk assessment procedure. Identifying hazards entails noting readily combustible materials or highly flammable substances. If employees don't know what the hazards are or could be, they can't effectively protect against them. So, they need to make a note of anything that could start a fire or easily burn, if found during the assessment.
Identify the people at risk - Here, consideration should be given to any who are unable to react quickly, any who are unfamiliar with the layout of the premises or the exit routes, those who may be exposed to a particular or specific fire risk and those who have impairments such as sight, hearing and mobility.
Act on the findings - It is the third and the significant stage of risk assessment procedure. So, evaluate, reduce or remove the potential risks have given importance to accelerate the whole process efficiently.
Assignment of Risk Category- In this connection, risk categories need to be designed up. It could be Low, Normal and High. 'Low' should be remarked if there is hardly any risk from fire, few combustibles materials, no highly flammable substances, and virtually no sources of heat.
On the other hand, 'normal' risk can be denoted if there are sufficient quantities of combustible materials and sources of heat to be of greater than low fire risk but it would be likely to remain confined, or to spread but slowly.
Recording Findings - Keep a record of the findings, prepare an emergency plan and provide fire safety training are significant elements of risk assessment. Then check and review of this process. So, a fire risk assessment must be carried out regularly, with all findings updated and recorded.
In case of sudden fire the role of an emergency evacuation plan cannot be described in words and so, it is called the master of fire safety management which strengthens our safety management system to be an effective and a sustainable one. Initial measure during the emergency period is a critical one to execute because of taking action may be a right one or not.
The emergency preparedness plan should address all potential emergencies that can be anticipated in the workplace and recovery plans.
The effectiveness of response during emergencies depends on the amount of planning, training, and drilling previously performed. Identifying key elements of a fire emergency preparation plan starts with the development of a written plan and it should be provided to all departments and be accessible to all employees.
A prompt warning to the employees to evacuate, shelter or lockdown can save lives. In case of emergency the first priority is given always to the life safety, the second priority is the stabilization of the incident and the third one is to save the properties from being destroyed. Some crucial actions need to be taken to stabilize an incident and minimize potential damage.
A plan should be established and resources should be on hand and we just need to execute in proper time. The plan should also include a process for damage assessment, salvage, protection of undamaged property and cleanup following an incident. These actions are taken to minimize further damage of the business organizations.
Now, it is time to conclude the debate, do we really care about the fire safety management or not? Obviously, it needs to be cared as fire disaster has become an inevitable threat especially for our RMG sector that earns a major portion of our foreign currency and playing a pregnant role to boosting up our national economic development.
So, we should bear in mind that if we alert today, we will be safe for tomorrow and this philosophy needs to be nurtured to ensuring our working environment safe and secured and this initiative needs to be taken by oneself as a pioneer.
In fact, an effective fire safety management is a crying need to our RMG sector as it is a systematic approach to manage an organization's safety, accountabilities, policies and procedures. Therefore, "no more fire" should be our slogan of the day and so, we never ever can expect such a devastating fire like Tazreen Fashions to occur again here in Bangladesh.
The writer is Assistant Deputy Secretary Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BKMEA)
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