ONLY FIRE IN THE BELLY IS WELCOME AT CONSTRUCTION SITES!

Evolving strategies to keep sites safe from fires

With huge tracts of the Amazonian forests in Brazil presently ablaze, the huge threat of fire to human life and property is very relevant today. Fires happen at construction sites too and, some would say, too often for comfort.The reason is simple: sites are full of stuff like plastics, panelling, paints, gases, refuse, other combustible material, electricity, open flames, hot works, etc. that are all prime candidates for triggering and feeding fire. For EHS managers, the accent is more on prevention as controlling a fire is very difficult and, once started, can not only cause great harm and loss to a particular site, but also endanger habitations and people in the vicinity especially if the construction is taking place in the heart of teeming cities.

Break this triangle; avoid a fire

A most interesting thing about fires is that it normally happens if three things combine:

1. Heat (hot surfaces, naked flames, smoking butts, electrical equipment),

2. Fuel (flammable liquids, gases, solids, combustible solids) and

3. Oxygen (air, oxygen from piped systems, chemicals)

Remove one of these from the equation and the chances of fires are reduced significantly. Most fire mitigation plans at construction sites therefore are to prevent a meeting of this dreaded threesome! That, however, is easier said than done. In fact, fuel and oxygen are in contact with each other and hence the only option to avoid fire is to keep the “heat” (the sources of ignition) away from the fuel!

Identify risks and hazards

Perhaps, the first and most important first step to prevent fires is to identify all that could set one off like flames, sparks, heat sources or sources of ignition, malfunctioning electrical installations, friction generating and oxy-fuel equipment, lighting equipment, flammable liquids and gases, paper, cardboard, trash, debris,shavings, sawdust and even selfigniting things like oil-soaked rags. “In addition, most of our P&M and hot work are very likely fire-causing candidates,” shares P Nagarajan, Head – EHS, B&F IC. “How careful can you be when all it needs is one workman to light up a beedi and carelessly flick a half-lit matchstick to send all our safety systems up in smoke!” His anguish can be well understood for even natural airflow can cause and fan fires. Sheer carelessness, acts of omission or commission or even deliberate acts of arson can also trigger fires.

Reduce what burns

It stands to reason that if material that can catch fire is either reduced or removed, the chances of fire are reduced or prevented but as Stephen Phillip Storey, Head – EHS, Heavy Civil IC elaborates, there is a whole lot more to fire safety. “It involves meticulous material planning, careful procurement of alternate material, wherever possible, that are less inflammable, shrewd management of inventories by reducing stored quantities of combustible material, spot on housekeeping and a whole lot more.

”The ease with which fires can be lit is highlighted by Madhava Kumar, Cluster EHS Manager, B&F IC, when sharing an incident from one of his sites. “A batching plant had been commissioned about 10 days before and a lot of dry weeds had grown around the area. As advised by the EHS department, the P&M team decided to hard barricade the area around the batching plant and welders were engaged for the work. Even before the EHS inspector could reach and certify the area for welding work to commence, the welders started work and almost at once the dry weed caught fire from the sparks and the fire started to spread rapidly!” Fortunately, the EHS inspector, being well-versed in fire-fighting techniques, quickly operated a DCP-5 kg portable fire extinguisher to avert a major incident. Investigations later revealed traces of mineral oil on the unburnt weeds that were spillages from the P&M vehicles previously operating to commission the batch plant.

“Hot work is one area that can easily cause fires and hence should always be controlled by a ‘permit to work’ system,” emphasizes Gopi Krishnan, EHS Manager, B&F IC. A check list before commencing hot work should include surveying and clearing the surrounding area of all flammable material or at best cover them to prevent ignitions from sparks. Ideally, hot work should be stopped at least an hour before the end of a shift to be followed by regular fire checks to stamp out all the smouldering fires, if any.

Trash at sites can only be ignored at one’s peril. “There should be designated areas for waste at every site,” advises K P Ravinath, Head – EHS, L&T GeoStructure. “It should be an integral part of daily housekeeping at sites, regularly cleared, never allowed to build up and,” he stresses with his hand, “avoid burning trash because such bonfires can very easily get out of hand.”

Smoke kills more than fire!

It may sound strange, but it is true! Smoke contains toxic gases (carbon monoxide) that are harmful to people. “Normally, smoke from fires at sites is thick and black because what’s burning are all the modern fittings and stuff,” warns Madhava Kumar. “It causes difficulty in breathing, obscures vision and thereby blocks off escape routes. Well-marked and easy-to-find escape routes are essential along with proper ventilation shafts and fire-retardant walls and doors whereby the spread of fire can be checked till help arrives.” Sometimes, in unfinished buildings, void spaces can create a wind tunnel effect during a fire, intensifying the flames. In other cases, firefighters may find it difficult to safely enter unfinished buildings, which may have unprotected stairwells and other dangerous conditions.

Learn from experience

Experience is a wonderful teacher always throwing up new situations or pointing towards slips and near-misses, which if not heeded, could have disastrous consequences later. “Today’s near miss is tomorrow’s accident,” says young Swarup Kumar Mohanty of TI IC and hence it is critical to record all near misses and use them as learning opportunities. “It is imperative to record all findings and necessary action taken,” says M Kamarajan, EHS – Advisor, B&F IC. “Of course, all the records must be honest and accurate and an EHS officer has to constantly ask himself if he has removed or reduced all perceivable risks. Lastly, it is important to instruct and brief the work force of how the emergency plans work and ensure that they are trained and drilled in all aspects.”

Checks, counter checks and more checks

“At end of the day, creating a safe work environment is all about checking and re-checking and ensuring that nothing is amiss,” shares Kannan Subramaniam, Manager EHS, from the WIPRO SEZ site in Bengaluru that figures high for its safety performance. “We have to constantly control, inspect and monitor fire hazards; sometimes they are so basic as keeping lighting fixtures away from combustible stuff or ensuring equipment that has been installed, is being used and maintained as per the manufacturer’s instructions.”

Often, it helps to have a ‘third eye’, someone not directly involved in a particular task to oversee and ensure that nothing untoward is happening. “It could be as simple as spotting that a workman has forgotten to switch off an equipment after use,” cautions G Divakar, Senior Manager EHS, Heavy Civil, “or watching over a person carrying out gas fittings in the vicinity of pipes that contain flammable gas. Of course, it is prudent to have a safe smoking policy and people should be allowed to smoke only in designated areas,” he adds with a smile.

“In the final analysis,” sums up Stephen, “it is again about training and more training and building what I call, ‘site awareness’ especially among my EHS managers to sense and spot potentially dangerous situations and instantly take preventive measures because in case of fire, prevention is infinitely better than cure!”