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Effective Fire Prevention Measures In The Home 2
By Thomas Yoon, Fri Dec 9th
Although we can do our utmost to prevent fires from happeningby isolating the sources of heat from combustibles and oxygen,it is often the unexpected event that catches us unawares. Carelessness Sometimes, forgetfulness can result in an accidental fire.Putting a kettle to boil water on a gas stove and forgettingabout it can be disastrous. When all the water has evaporated,the kettle becomes red hot, melt and spread the molten metalaround.
LP gas leaks are also dangerous. If the fuel-air mixture is injust the right proportion, an explosion can occur when a heatsource is introduced in. Many accidents have occurred when alight is switched on in an explosive environment. The correctthing to do then is to free the room of any gas by shutting offthe source of the gas and letting in more fresh air into theroom. Chemical reactions can also cause heat and fire. Mixing acidsand alkalis, mixing components of some household glue like epoxyresins and hardeners can generate quite a substantial amount ofheat that can lead to fires. The containers used and the amountof chemical used can have a great effect on the heat produced.Plastic containers are known to melt and burn when largequantities of thermosetting plastics like epoxies are mixed withhardeners. Fires are also known to be started by the careless smokers whothrow lighted cigarette butts indiscriminately. Many bush firesare started this way. Some areas are especially vulnerable tocareless acts like these. People working in the garage at homeshould be very careful not to cause a fire, especially with openpetrol cans and other volatile fuels around them. Sometimes,smokers fall asleep while smoking, and their bed or sofa catchesfire. The rubber foam mattress used for bedding can catch fireeasily. Although most electrical equipment is quite safe as far as fireis concerned, the use of sub-standard and poorly designedequipment may give rise to overheating and fires. Carelessnessin the area of electrical can cause fires as well aselectrical shocks. Many households use multiple power pointsbecause they have many electrical equipment that must be used atthe same time. Videos, television, fans, radios, and fancylights may occupy only one electrical socket. When a multipleadapter is used, usually the connection pins cannot be fittedvery tightly. The loose power connections are a source ofsparking and deterioration of the insulation materials and canlead to fires. This will be worst if high powered are used becausethe electrical current drawn from these will be very much higherand so the wires and connections gets hotter. Preventive Measures Since we know that all the three conditions of heat, fuel andoxygen must be present in order for a fire to start; our basicfire prevention strategy must be to keep them isolated from eachother. Heat sources must be kept away from combustible materialsand if possible, from oxygen. We should take a critical look at all the sources of heat in thehome. They are the potential fire hazards. It is good to make anaudit of our own homes and make a list, or at least be aware ofall the heat sources in the home. Electrical wiring, appliances,gas stoves, kerosene lamps, candles, electrical light bulbs,ovens, electrical kettles, barbecue fires, burning gardenrefuse, and so on, are some of them. Even spells of dry weathershould be looked at with vigilance. The sources of heat are many. Below are some of the sources ofheat that we have to exercise caution, so that we can beespecially careful not to let them come into contact withcombustibles: · Kitchen Gas - The normal in the kitchenare the gas stoves, and the kerosene stoves. These are normallysafe, efficient and seldom gives trouble. However, theconditions of the kitchen stoves are often spoilt by spillage ofsoups, gravies, and other food materials from the cookingprocesses. After a long time of use, and especially with cookswho do not take special precautions, the gas stove becomeblackened with carbon, oil and other debris. Gas orifices andnozzles get choked up. Carbon deposits pile up. The carbondeposits become its other source of fuel. The soot fire can burnif it is heated long enough. The environment in a busy kitchen can make it a fire risk. Gashoses are especially prone to deteriorate if the material usedcan be attacked by the presence of oil. Cooking oil is everpresent in the kitchen environment. Hoses coated by a layer ofoil will produce leaks. Any leak in the gas hoses is dangerous.It can shoot flames of fire all around the place uncontrollablyand spread the fire. Do a regular check on your gas hoses and service your gas stoveregularly. · Electrical Installations and - Mains electricalwiring and their components can be a hidden source of heat thatcan cause a fire. Sometimes, due to loose contacts in theterminals of electrical switchboxes, some sparking will occur.If this is not found out early and rectified, the sparking willbecome worse, and the heat produced becomes more. Carbonizationof the insulation materials will occur. Once the carbon getsdeposited on the insulation materials, it becomes a conductor ofelectricity. Short-circuiting of the electrical wiring willoccur leading to overheating of the wiring. If the electricalprotection devices do not work, the overheating will cause theinsulation materials of the wiring to even melt or decompose.When the decomposition gases given out by the insulationmaterials catch fire, the whole house can be burnt down. Do a regular check up of your electrical wiring in your house,and quickly call in a qualified electrician to rectify any fault. Electrical also have to be used properly. When peoplemodify equipment indiscriminately, sometimes they leave out orbypass certain safety features put in by the manufacturer.Appliances can become overheated and cause burning. It is betternot to do any modification unless you know what you are doing. Do not do bypass any safety feature in any electrical appliance. · Burning of candles, garden refuse, incense, mosquito coils andother open
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burning - The sources of heat is quite obvious. Whenwe do any open burning, make sure that the source of heat is notable to reach other surrounding materials. It is good practiceto clear the area before doing open burning. We must also thinkabout how to control the fire if it gets too big. Be ready todose the fire with water if it gets too big. We know that we need a source of heat, a fuel, and oxygen inorder to have a fire. Other than looking at all the places wherewe encounter sources of heat, it is good preventive practice tostore easily combustible materials safely. Some materials do notneed a lot of heat in order to ignite, while some materials canbe kept at quite high temperatures without any fire occurring.We need to identify the easily combustible materials and keepthem out of harms way. Some materials in the home are known to be easily combustible.It is advisable to store these materials in a cool and isolatedplace away from the house if possible. Should a fire occur byany chance, they will have less opportunity to spread. Below area list of commonly used inflammable materials in the home.However, the list is not exhaustible: · Paints, turpentine, spirit, aerosols for spray paints. ·Kerosene, petrol, diesel, and other oils used for fuel. ·Aerosols used for pesticides · Paper and wood, especially whendry · Vegetable oils used in cooking · Other solvents like nailpolish There are other materials that can catch fire if brought to asource of heat. Some of them are listed below. The best way tohandle these is to do regular house cleaning to remove them: · Loose organic dust like sawdust, cotton dust, woolen dust ·Oily deposits from the atmosphere · Dust and deposits frominsects Involving Others Sometimes, even though we have taken all the precautions, firescan still come from a neighbor's house. Sometimes, it can evencome from the sky in the form of fireworks! Sometimes the sparksfrom a neighbor's rubbish fire can fly over to your own home andcause a fire. So it is simply not enough that you alone know how to preventfires. The people around you should also know about fireprevention. Everybody needs to be educated in fire prevention. When a firehappens in the neighborhood, there is a very real possibilitythat the fire can spread to the surrounding houses. It isessential that no fires at all start in any of the houses in theneighborhood or even the community. When everyone understands the grave consequences of theiractions, the fire risk becomes more manageable. Children are especially high potential fire starters if they arenot taught about the risks. With their natural curiosity,playing with fire comes naturally to them at some point in theirlife. Adults have the responsibility to impart the knowledge offire prevention and the consequences of fire to them quite earlyin their growing up years. In order for adults to have this knowledge themselves, therelevant authorities should organize courses on fire safety andfire safety awareness campaigns. The media, includingnewspapers, magazines, television and radio, has an importantrole to play in getting the message of fire prevention to thegeneral public. Their message should be able to reach the massesand ingrain in them the importance of fire prevention. The message of fire prevention should be delivered continuouslyover a long period of time. A fire safety campaign should onlybe considered successful when people considers fire prevention anatural thing to do. It must become habit and a daily way oflife. Then only can lives and properties be secured. The knowledge of fire prevention is even more important thanfire detection and fire fighting. If a fire does not start, oris prevented from starting, there is no longer any need for firedetection and fire fighting. Everybody should be preventingfires even before it can start. Is prevention enough? Sometimes, we have done the best we can. We have isolated thesources of heat. We have stored away inflammable materials awayfrom sources of heat. We have done whatever we can to the bestof our knowledge. Can a fire still start? Incidents of fire can still happen. For example, a mouse in yourhouse may decide to chew on your highly powered electricalwires, or a lizard may managed to crawl into your electricalswitchboard and cause a short circuit, or the hot weather maycause the weeds and bushes around your house to catch fire. So while steps taken for the prevention of fires will keep ussafe most of the time, it is also good to be prepared in case afire still starts despite our actions. There are portable smoke detectors available in the market forthose who want to have an early warning when a fire starts. Thiscan in fact be considered prevention too - preventing a largefire. These smoke detectors will be able to alert the occupantsabout any small fires so that it can be put off before itbecomes large and unmanageable. It can prevent loss of propertyand lives. Any fires detected early have a very good chance ofbeing extinguished. It is also good to keep a portable fire extinguisher at home forthe purpose of putting out small fires. For the home, the mostsuitable portable fire extinguisher to keep is a dry powderextinguisher because it will be able to handle all the likelyclasses of fires found in the home. It can be used to put outfires involving solid materials like wood and paper, oils andeven electrical fires without the risk of electrical shocks. In conclusion, when we are able to instill awareness of fireprevention to all the people around us, we will have won thebattle with fire. Fire becomes our ally and we can tap itsbenefits without worrying about its consequences. Fire becomes our friend and not our foe. Protect your home with Fire Alarms at SmokeDetector About the author:Many years of working experience in Marine, Facilities,Construction has given the author material for writing e-booksand articles related to engineering, and management. Subscribe tofacworld ezine More information at Marine and M & E
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