Fire is a very good servant, but, a very bad master. As long as fire is under our control, it serves a lot of useful purposes for us, but, once it goes out of our control, it can create a lot of destruction. However, despite the presence of fire safety measures, the occurrence of accidents is oftentimes inevitable.

It is this combination (of good servant and bad master), which is dangerous.

Because of the useful purposes that it serves, people keep sources of fire in/around their houses/workplace. And, these sources could sometimes result in “undesired” fire. Had fire been something, which serves no useful purpose – the number of incidents of fire would have been very less – as people wont keep sources of fire around them.

Thus, the occurrence of fire-related accidents is oftentimes inevitable – inspite of all the safety precautions. For this reason, an insurance policy should always be taken.

●     Causes Of Fire

●     Uneven Distribution Of Incidents

●     Conditions Needed For A Fire

●     Classes Of Fire

●     Types Of Fire Extinguishers

●     Fire Fighting Strategies

●     Using An Extinguisher

●     Precautions While Fighting A Fire

●     Deciding Whether To Fight The Fire Or Leave The Site

●     During The Fire

●     When On Road

●     If You Want To Help

●     Finally

Causes Of Fire

The most common causes of fire are:

Electrical

Pantry Area

Smoking

Electrical

Incidents of Fire mainly caused due to overloading, short circuit etc.

As people start staying in a new apartment, or, a new office, they start making modifications to the wall socket outlets – in order to be able to plug in additional apparatus etc. Then, there reaches a time, when the total amount of current drawn from all the sockets together could exceed the rated capacity of the internal wiring.

A simple solution to this is – not to make too many changes to the electrical circuitry inside your apartment/work-place. And, any alterations etc. if done, should keep in mind the capacity of the wires used.

As time progresses, due to various minor repairs etc. wires might be changed, jumbled up etc., or, the insulation among wires might break down. This might cause some wires to come in contact with each other, and, thus, create a short circuit. This short-circuit can cause a very high current flow through the wires – and, thus causing fires.

A simple solution to this is: periodic inspection of the conditions of the wiring, and, taking preventive action, whenever needed. And, install MCBs (Miniature Circuit Breakers), so that any short-circuit would result in immediate disconnection of the current flow.

Pantry Area

Incidents involving cooking gas, cooking oil etc.

Leakage of cooking gas, accompanied by a spark around the leakage could cause fire. These are typically very dangerous. Sources of sparks could be anything: – a burning item, turning on/off of electrical gadgets/switches etc.

The leak itself can be in the gas cylinder itself, the pipeline carrying the gas, the regulator, joints etc. Some simple precautions to be taken for this include:

●     Regular inspection of gas pipes, and, timely replacement.

●     No sparks etc. in case there is any trace of LPG smell. LPG itself does not have any odour. A trace odour is put in the LPG – only so that any leakage might be detected.

●     Just like electrical points, turn off gases at multiple points, when not in use, rather than just at the point of usage.

While cooking, sometimes, the cooking medium could get overheated, resulting in fire. These are more frequent, but, fortunately – relatively easy to manage (if attended to immediately).

A simple precaution to be taken for this is – never let cooking oil etc. unattended, when its being heated, nor, do keep bottles of oil etc. in contact with very hot object, like, hot utensils etc.

Smoking

Smoking in/around combustible materials could cause fire, due to hot ashes falling from the cigarette.

Some simple precautions to be taken include:

●     Don’t smoke in/around bed, sofa etc.

●     When you throw away the cigarette etc. always stub it out

●     Always try to dispose off the cigarette-ash at proper places