While we all are playing safe when it comes to Covid 19, we should bear it in our mind that being safe is not only about wearing mask, washing your hands regularly or avoiding hand shake, it still covers a large area. It also involve being safe in terms of fire outbreak which can render you homeless or got you killed along the process. With those point being channeled out, I am using this opportunity to enlighten us on what is #fire and the important of applying safety rules when it comes to #fire safety. I am speaking on this because I am a fire fighter who is currently working with Delta state fire service of Nigeria. With that in place, I have experience in this field, I have served for a period of 6 years.
There is no way we can talk of Fire safety without talking of #Safety itself. This is the bedrock on which everything starts.
#Safety can be defined as the act of being free from danger. The moment you are free from any thing that will lead to one or two damage, then you are safe. #Safety is very broad, it covers so many angle; which include fire safety, health safety, chemical safety etc. It is with this that I decided to educate us on what a #fire safety is.
According to Wikipedia, Fire safety can be seen as the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent ignition of an uncontrolled fire, and those that are used to limit the development and effects of a fire after it starts.
Fire safety measures include those that are planned during the construction of a building or implemented in structures that are already standing, and those that are taught to occupants of the building.
Fire service, fire brigade or Fire deparment on the other hand can be seen as the department which provide fire fighting service. Their primary aim is to provide need which include extinguishing fire, rendering humanitarian service, providing first aid treatment to injured fire patient, topography research and generating revenue for the state. In a nut shell, it simply means being safe from fire outbreak.
The things am about mentioning are the causes of any fire outbreak, immediately you take any of them out, you have already defeated the fire. They include #Fuel, #Oxygen
and #Heat. So when there is fire outbreak target any of those things and extinguish it. Once you do that, you will see that you will be able to extinguish the fire successfully. It works like magic, just give it a try when you find yourself in such state.
In fire fighting, we have terms we use while carrying out fire operations. If you pay closer attention, you will come across something like #lay down length of hose, #engage, #disengage, #make up the hose, #add another length of hose, #increase the pressure etc. Now this words differs from countries to countries. The terms we used in #nigeria might be different from that of #U.S.A vice versa.
Fire fighters have crew, this crew makes up fire fighting team. For example we have the #driver, #the messenger, #the branch man and the #assistant #branch man. Now permit me to explain their different jobs to you.
The #driver is the number one man, he is to make sure that he carries the crew to the scene of occurrence. When he gets there, he will engage the truck and make sure that the truck system is working properly.
The #Messenger: He is the one that will carry the hole and lays it to the branch man, he will make sure that the hoes is laid properly and then ensures that he got close to the branch man. When the #branch man passes a message to the driver, base on the distance, it is the #messenger that will run down to the driver and relate it to him. If the message is to him directly, he will do same. He is the second man in charge.
The branch man: He is the third man who is responsible for the fire fighting task. His work is just to make sure he fights the 🔥 till he extinguish it.
The assistant branch man. He is the number 4 man, he makes sure that he follows the Branch man to the place he will be fighting the fire. His work is just to assist the branch man.
The following is a list of the "Ten Standard Firefighting Orders."
Take the time to study and memorize them.
Fight fire aggressively but provide for safety first
Initiate all action based on current and expected fire behavior
Recognize current weather conditions and obtain forecasts
Ensure instructions are given and understood
Obtain current information on fire status
Remain in communication with crew members, your supervisor and adjoining forces
Determine safety zones and escape routes
9 Establish lookouts in potentially hazardous situations
- Retain control at all times
Stay alert, keep calm, think clearly, act decisively
#All fire service maned station have their ways of operation, they include;
#The D.F.O (the division fire officer) His work is to control the fire office.
#The Assistant D.F.O: He assist the D.F.O when needed.
#Operational fire officer: He runs the affairs of the station. He makes sure that everything is in other. Things like fueling th vehicles, workers warefare and other things are what he does. He controls the shift and makes sure is running properly.
#The crew: They run 3 shift, morning, afternoon and evening. Now they are the heartbeat of the job. Now this is how it is run. The three crew must be on either morning, afternoon or night duty. Like the morning duty, they resumes their duty by 7am, then close by 2pm. Once they are closing, they will hand over to afternoon duty. The Afternoon duty will resume their duty by 2pm and close 7pm, then lastly, the other shift will be Night duty, they will resume 7pm and closes 7am. This is just the normal routine of the job.
The station dairy is use to keep daily details of workers coming to work. We have duty writer, C.o or N.C.O, centering and other crew member. The duty writer writes the name of everybody that resumes duty down, the C.O makes sure everything is in other, the centering man monitors all appliances to avoid theft.
The class ends here, fire service is a big field, I will continue the topic from our next post tomorrow, just stay tune to my blog.
The terms used by fire service differs from country to country, so the information here is base on my country.