Need of Fire Safety

1.1 Nature of Fire :

Fire is an igneous element Whose potentiality is well recognised in our Indian culture. Like izdkk (light), ok;q (wind) and ty (water), vfXu (fire) is our God and we worship them to protect us. They are the supreme elements and without them the human life is not possible. Olquka ikodpkfe and vgefXu is said by Lord Krushna in Gita meaning thereby that he is vfXu amongst eight Vasus. ;K is the divine form of vfXu and through ;K we achieve everything.

The destructive nature of fire and need of protection is also explained as follows:

_.k'ks"kpkfXuks"k% 'k=q'ks"kLrFkSo p A

iqu% iqu% izo/kZUrs rLekr~ 'ks"ka u 'ks"k;sr~ AA

Remainder of debt. fire and enemy grows again and again, therefore, they should be ended, not leaving any remainder. It is any remainder. It is explained earlier that u dwi[kuua~ ;qDra iznhIrs ofguuk x`gs i.e. it is of no use (too .late) to dig well when it is already fired in the home. Tims prevention is better than care and it is truer in case of fire prevention.

1.2 Need of Fire Safety :

Main object of fire safety is to protect life first and property next from the ravages of fire. Objectives of fire safety design are safety of life, protection of property and continuity of operations. Fire safety planning is required for sites as well as buildings. In industry, it is required for workers and public.

Potentiality of fire is tremendous as it holds the largest range of damaging capacity from a small burn to the disastrous damage of plants, persons and properties. Some glorying examples of fire and explosion are given in Table 13.1.

Table 13.1 Examples of Major Fire & Explosion.

Year

Plant & Place

Death

Serious Injuries

1942

Coal dust explosion, China

1572

-

1944

Ship explosion, Bombay

231

476

1947

Ship fire / explosion, Texas, USA

576

2000

1956

Truck explosion, Columbia

1100

-

1975

Mine explosion, Chasnala, India

431

-

1984

Petrol line fire, Brazil

500

-

1984

LPC fire, Mexico

500

7000

1993

Fire in a toy factory, Thailand

211

-

1994

Huge fire in oil refinery, Cairo, Egypt

132

-

1994

Fire in a dance hall, Beijing, China

233

16

1995

Fire in a moving train, Moscow, Russia

375

-

1995

Fire due to short circuit, Sirsa, Hariyana

368

-

1995

A leaking gas pipeline exploded, Taegu, South Korea

109

160

1997

Gas fire in pilgrims, tents, Mecca, Saudi Arabia

343

-

1997

Fire following explosion in a refinery, Vishakhapatnam, AP

60

-

1997

Fire while mopping up petrol spillage from a burst pipeline in Southern Nigeria, Egypt

500

-

1999

Gas explosion in a coal mine, Beijing, China

35

8

2000

Fire at Christmas party (discotheque) in lqoyang city in China on 26-12-2000.

309

-

Courtesy : LP News.

See also Table 13.9 for Explosion events.

Similarly some examples of estimated fire loss inferred from the fire insurance claims are given in Table 13.2.

Table 13.2 Examples of fire loss

Date

Place

Loss in Crore of Rs.

5-6-82

Calico Mills, Baroda

15.01

3-6-94

Parasrampuria Synthetics

13.32

5-12-94

Tata chemicals

10.00

18-11-95

Madras