¶ … fire safety management. The writer explores several areas of fire safety and proposes several ways to manage its implementation. There were six sources used to complete this paper. Throughout history fires have destroyed property and killed people. Because a fire can happen anywhere at anytime the world has experienced fires in almost every setting and capacity. Fires in major hotels, high rise buildings and single dwelling homes are all things that have been experienced within the last few years. Fire fighters devote their lives to the rescues and saving of others, while risking their own lives in the process. In the effort to curb the number of lives lost and to decrease the amount of property being destroyed fire safety management has become a popular line of defense in many venues. Fire safety management can be utilized in all areas of life. Whether it is promoting safety at elementary schools, in high rise offices or at large hotels the purpose of fire safety management is to educate and prevent future fires. Fire safety management has become more popular in recent years as the importance and effectiveness of preventative measures continue to become known. Years ago the fire department responded to the calls of fire and their entire existence was about reacting. Today, fire management techniques work in a proactive fashion and try and reduce the number of fires that occur. Fire safety management must be planned with the recipient or recipients in mind for it to be effective. It is important to fire safety management that all aspects of the topic are addressed. Fire safety management addresses the steps that can be taken to recognize danger, as well as things that can be done to prevent dangers in the first place. Fire safety management works to include proactive steps in the field so that even when a fire breaks out there is a reduced chance of serious injury. Fire safety management has become more prevalent in recent years. This is due in part to the higher buildings being constructed, the larger hotels, and the more advanced technology in the world. All of these things mean when a fire breaks out it is a tragedy waiting to happen. Fire safety management is designed to address these and other issues while using education of the public to help reduce the panic, and death that can occur in a fire situation.

THE ISSUES

The issue of fire safety management is complicated because of the broad base of possibilities that come with the industry. Fire safety management has to deal with issues such as propane, gasoline, dry brush, careless people and other factors that can cause fires where no fire should have begun. In the interest of fire safety management many fire safety organizations nation wide have worked to promote the education of the public regarding fire safety. One example of this occurring is the NFPA's recent adoption of new standards when it comes to propane safety. Those changes include the mandated information being given to firefighters nation wide. Fire fighters who understand how propane works and how best to prevent propane fires can educate those who live in their local area thereby preventing fires.

PROLEMS IN FIRE SAFETY Management

One of the biggest issues in fire safety management today is the area of inspections. While the news carries reports of house fires in which entire families have died because the house did not have a smoke alarm, there are thousands of buildings nation wide that house millions of humans and do not have their inspections up-to-date.

Often times when a major fire occurs the investigation reveals that the fire safety management steps had not been followed through on before the fire broke out. Around the nation fire safety management calls for the inspection of areas and buildings which house many people at given times for events. Places like theaters, hotels, sporting arenas and others are hotspots for fires to start and also hotbeds of death if proper precautions have not been taken in the beginning. One such example is the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The complex attracts more than 8 million visitors every year, yet had not been inspected in 1999. There were mandates for it to have an annual inspection but the fire safety management steps had not been followed and the inspection had been allowed to fall through the cracks. A recent study of one are revealed that a full twelve percent of the buildings that were mandated to have inspections had escaped without one. One of the scariest revelations of this study was that many of the schools had not been inspected as they should...

Projected to the region as a whole, that means inspectors probably missed between 1,143 and 1,214 buildings that can pose a serious safety risk.
Inspection reports were missing for nearly one of every five buildings in the sample.

Almost half of the towns in North Jersey could not produce a 1999 inspection report for at least one of the buildings included in The Record's survey.

Inspectors in Paterson and Passaic, the two cities in the region with the highest incidence of fires, rarely cited building owners for fire code violations.

Tardy inspections can delay the discovery of serious violations. Only after The Record requested inspection records did local officials find a Bloomingdale restaurant without fire extinguishers, a Leonia manufacturing firm where exit doors could not be easily opened from inside, and a Bergenfield auto repair shop with broken electrical outlets, damaged power cords, and unsecured canisters of compressed gas."

This study is representative of many towns across the nation. The standard of care given to any fire safety management plan is only as good as those who implement it and those who see that it is enforced. This brings up one of the most important points in fire safety management, which is standards. It is vital for any fire safety management plan to have standards that it adheres to. Whether the standards call for annual building inspections, school education programs or other events to occur, it is important that the standards are decided on and implemented.

In the fire safety management field consistency is very important.

Flaws in a fire safety management program can defeat the purpose of having one. Things like missed inspection deadlines, lack of educational programs, cursory inspections, and poor record keeping all contribute to the failure of many fire safety management programs.

New Jersey recently implemented a fire safety management program and it has been successful." Fire officials say the inspections, combined with education campaigns about fire safety, helped lower the state's fire fatality rate to 10.9 per 1 million people in 1996 -- the 14th-lowest rate in the United States. "

FIRE SAFETY Management NEEDS

There are several aspects to fire safety management needs that have to be addressed if one wants to implement a solid fire safety management program. No one aspect is more important than another because each one is aimed at creating a more safe environment for residents and fire fighters alike.

FIRE FIGHTERS

Any good fire safety management program is going to include some aspects for the firefighters themselves. The firefighters are heavily dependent on the community to help them in their job. They count on businesses addressing fire hazards that have been noted in inspection, they count on residents of dwellings using smoke alarms and not remove the batteries and they count on the educational programs to be implemented so that people know what to do when a fire does break out. While firefighters are dependent on the communities that they work in there are aspects of fire safety management issues that deal exclusively with the firefighters. A good fire safety management program includes regular inspections of the firefighter equipment. Each year there are published reports about fire stations whose equipment is outdated and the city or town that they server refuses to pay for new replacements. A firefighter cannot do a good job protecting the community if he or she is not provided with the proper equipment. When a firefighter arrives at a fire he or she may only have a few minutes to save the lives of those who are trapped in the building. Old or defective equipment not only endangers the firefighter, but it also reduces the time and ability of the firefighter to rescue those who are trapped by fire. A good fire safety management program will provide for the annual inspection of all the safety equipment and if things are found to be defective a report should be generated. The report may not make or break the town leaders decisions but it can promote enough pressure form the residents that the decisions will be made. It is vital that any fire safety management program also take a look at the training programs being given to new hires as well as ongoing education for those who are already working in the field. Each year…