Questões de Concurso

International Civil Defence Organisation

1. Introduction

Fires are the accidents which occur most frequently, whose causes are the most diverse and which require intervention methods and techniques adapted to the conditions and needs of each incident. Depending on the type of fire (nature of the material ablaze), meteorological conditions (wind) and the effectiveness of the intervention, material damage can be limited (a single car, building or production or storage warehouse installation), or affect wide areas (forest or agricultural fires, hydrocarbons, gas or other highly flammable products, storage or piping installations, harbour installations and rail or marine transport equipment). […]

2. Preventive and protective measures

Fires can spread more or less rapidly depending on their causes, the nature of the material and goods alight, the fire prevention installations (automatic sprinklers), meteorological conditions, the ways the population is informed and the initiative it shows, as well as the speed and efficiency of the intervening services and of their fire-fighting equipment. In the light of experience, prevention is seen to be most important and consists of two distinct components. On the one hand, the primary responsibility falling upon the political authorities empowered to implement the legal prescriptions concerning fire protection, to forecast accidents and to inform the population, as well as to set up measures and means for fighting fires and explosions. On the other hand, the responsible behaviour of each individual based upon an education geared towards caution and the respect of instructions in case of fire. Defining, and controlling the implementation of, the particular rules of protection against fires, specific to each enterprise presenting a potential danger, including the training of security personnel, is also relevant in this context. The many types of fire and the preventive and protective measures which relate to them, make it advisable to limit the present study to the specific measures falling to the political authorities in one area only, namely that of “forest fires”. This type of fire is of particular interest to developing countries and the preventive measures to be applied have a general representative value, that is:

– organising an observation service, prevention and alarm (security) service at local and regional levels;

– implementing legislation regulating the use of fire by all the population present in or at the edge of forests, and more particularly by owners and individuals exercising a professional activity in sensitive areas;

– planning and concrete preparation (periodic maintenance) for fire-fighting through adequate landscaping of the territory and appropriate forest cultivation limiting fire propagation (alternating vegetation, clearance, trimming), creating and maintaining access paths (extinction) and fire-break areas as well as fire-fighting equipment such as water supplies (conduits, cisterns), watch towers and meteorological posts, and the construction of helicopter landing pads;

– surveillance and detection of fires as soon as the danger of fires is forecast by the ad hoc meteorological service (which comprises automatic or mobile statistics posts observing the winds and the vegetation: dryness, force, direction, evolution);

– as soon as the danger of fire increases, activating an alarm plan (basic intervention plan) requiring the engagement of preventive intervention squads (firemen), and their wide positioning as near as possible to the threatened zones, and making available water bombers and specialised aerial machines ready for action;

– preparation and concretisation (organisation) of an intervention mechanism: this requires the setting up of specialised management programmes ensuring the coordination of powerful and efficient equipment and means for fighting forest fires (instruction);

– preparedness management and the coordination of the use of the means of intervention of the authorities and the information and alarm services for the population require a secure transmission network (radio network);

– planning the evacuation of the population possibly under threat in the various sensitive areas, particularly if there are risks of explosion (reservoirs and gas conduits explosives or ammunition dumps, hydrocarbon production, handling or transport installations, other dangerous material, etc.).

[...]

Available at:<http://www.icdo.org/en/disasters/man-made-disasters/industrial-accidents /fire> . Accessed on: April 6th,2018 (Fragment).

America’s deadliest building fire for more than a decade struck Oakland, California, on December 2nd 2016, killing 36 people attending a dance party in a warehouse that had become a cluttered artist collective. The disaster highlights an open secret: many cities lack resources to inspect for fire risk all the structures that they should. Even though the Oakland building had no fire sprinklers and at least ten people lived there illegally, no inspector had visited in about 30 years. How might cities make better use of the inspectors they do have?

A handful of American cities have begun to seek help from a new type of analytics software. By crunching diverse data collected by government bodies and utilities, the software works out which buildings are most likely to catch fire and should therefore be inspected first. Plenty of factors play a role. Older, wooden buildings, unsurprisingly, pose more risk, as do those close to past fires and leaks of gas or oil. Poverty also pushes up fire risk, especially if lots of children, who may be attracted to mischief, live nearby. More telling are unpaid taxes, foreclosure proceedings and recorded complaints of mould, rats, crumbling plaster, accumulating rubbish, and domestic fights, all of which hint at property neglect. A building’s fire risk also increases the further it is from its owner’s residence.

Predictive software designed at Harvard that Portland, Oregon, will soon begin using will do that. Perhaps more importantly, the city’s fire chief noticed that buildings marked as being the biggest risks are clustered in areas lacking good schools, public transport, health care and food options. Healthier, happier people start fewer fires, he concluded. He now lobbies officials to reduce Portland’s pockets of deteriorated areas.

(The Economist. www.economist.com/the-economist-explains /2018/08/29/how-cities-can-better-prevent-fires. Adaptado)

America’s deadliest building fire for more than a decade struck Oakland, California, on December 2nd 2016, killing 36 people attending a dance party in a warehouse that had become a cluttered artist collective. The disaster highlights an open secret: many cities lack resources to inspect for fire risk all the structures that they should. Even though the Oakland building had no fire sprinklers and at least ten people lived there illegally, no inspector had visited in about 30 years. How might cities make better use of the inspectors they do have?

A handful of American cities have begun to seek help from a new type of analytics software. By crunching diverse data collected by government bodies and utilities, the software works out which buildings are most likely to catch fire and should therefore be inspected first. Plenty of factors play a role. Older, wooden buildings, unsurprisingly, pose more risk, as do those close to past fires and leaks of gas or oil. Poverty also pushes up fire risk, especially if lots of children, who may be attracted to mischief, live nearby. More telling are unpaid taxes, foreclosure proceedings and recorded complaints of mould, rats, crumbling plaster, accumulating rubbish, and domestic fights, all of which hint at property neglect. A building’s fire risk also increases the further it is from its owner’s residence.

Predictive software designed at Harvard that Portland, Oregon, will soon begin using will do that. Perhaps more importantly, the city’s fire chief noticed that buildings marked as being the biggest risks are clustered in areas lacking good schools, public transport, health care and food options. Healthier, happier people start fewer fires, he concluded. He now lobbies officials to reduce Portland’s pockets of deteriorated areas.

(The Economist. www.economist.com/the-economist-explains /2018/08/29/how-cities-can-better-prevent-fires. Adaptado)