Fire Safety Management:
Rana Dutta 29
March, 2017
In
the global arena of ready made garments, Bangladesh has already achieved the
prestigious second position and now aspires to hold the first one within a few
years.
However,
the frequent fire tragedies in the readymade garments sector have become a
common phenomenon in Bangladesh which has drawn our attention as an eye opener
and to think something special and effective one to obviate the tragedies.
Therefore, a sustainable fire safety management system in our RMG industry is
of paramount necessity and here the Bangladesh government, BKMEA, BGMEA and
other international organizations are
making tireless efforts to establish a hundred percent compliant RMG sector
within the couples of years and here, prime emphasis has been put on safety
issues to ensure its prospective 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.
Who
doesn’t desire to have a safe and secured life? It is everyone’s right to have
a safe return who leaves for work in the morning. Can we imagine that one of
our near and dear ones will never be returning home because of the massive fire
incident at his or her workplace? Who knows similar accident would not happen
in our life? Everything is uncertain in our life and so, anything can occur
that will change our whole life within a just few seconds. However, we can save
ourselves if we are a little bit aware about our workplace safety issues, if we
know it well that safety and security if the first priority.
In
the simple terms, fire safety management denotes a calculative strategic plan,
a set of core philosophy to ensure and enhance the fire safety standard at
workplaces so that it can ensure a hassle 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
which consists of five vital components such as general statement, employees’
duties, communication, procedures and emergency evacuation plan.
General
statement of the employees is a part of fire safety policy which plays a
significant role to make our working environment safe and secure. Here,
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. Sustainable fire safety
management is the keystone of managing an economically viable business. Here,
communication is a must to accelerate the safety management smoothly and
effectively in our readymade garments industries.
Fire
risk assessment is another vital element which has become a mandatory task to
ensure an effective fire safety policy in our readymade garments industry. 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 writing. In order
to carry out a fire risk assessment, we need to ensure the six important
procedure such as identify the potential fire hazards, identify the people at
risk, act on the findings, assignment of risk category, recording findings
& check and review
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. In order to create a detailed and thorough evacuation plan we
need to have the following:
► Evacuation plan should be known to the all
employees and need to be set at a place so that it can easily be identified in
case of emergency;
► A safe assembling point far enough away
from the factory building is mandatory for the safe evacuation of all;
Do We Really Care?
► Need to provide and maintain fire precautions necessary to safeguard anyone using the workplace (including visitors);
► Have to provide information, instruction and training to employees about the fire precautions at workplaces and also to make them capable of using fire extinguisher effectively;
► Need to establish the appropriate number of emergency exits for everyone in the building to be able to leave immediately;
► Clearly marked escape routes that will provide the quickest and most direct exit from the building;
► Clear passageways to all escape routes, with no blockages in the way;
► Need to ensure the emergency doors can be opened easily and emergency lighting in the event of electricity needing to be shut down;
► Need to ensure the fire alarm and detection system is properly functioning and if the building fire alarm is not yet sounding, manually activate the alarm pull station located near the exit;
► Emergency evacuation drills must be conducted to ensure employees’ knowledge and practice regarding the fact and so on.
Now,
it is time to conclude the debate, do we really care about the fire safety
management or not? In fact, an effective fire safety management is a crying
need of our RMG sector as it is a systematic approach to manage an organization’s safety. Therefore, “No More Fire” should be our slogan of
the day and only then we can avoid such devastating fires like that of the Tazreen
Fashions. We need to bear in mind that if we are alert
today, we will remain safe tomorrow and this approach needs to be nurtured to
make our working environment safe and secure and this initiative needs to be
taken by oneself as a pioneer. Here, factory owners need to be aware first;
they need to know ins and outs about the safety issues, need to be prudent
enough as a successful entrepreneur by establishing local and international
safety laws, rules and standards as well.
The
writer is Assistant Deputy Secretary, BKMEA
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