Rescue Department Christmas & New Year

More than 600 000 people die in fires worldwide every year. This is about half as many as in wars. Fires also cause considerable economic damage. Even a small fire or the start of a fire can cause significant damage. The smoke and soot generated by a fire can destroy virtually all furniture and interior surfaces. Damage can quickly mount to massive proportions.

I have spent several shifts on official duties during Christmas and other holidays. The emergency services prepare for the holidays just like any other day. However, there is an awareness that the risks are higher at Christmas, for example. The use of various electrical appliances and the burning of candles, for example, significantly increase the risk. At Christmas, firefighters hope that there will not be a fire, but they are prepared for the worst and are always ready to go if the alarm bells go off.

One of the starting points for predicting fire and accident hazards is to assess the probability of an event. To assess the probability, statistics from the past are used to estimate the mathematical probability of an event. However, it should be borne in mind that mathematical natural laws are not always a sufficient criterion for assessing the probability of an event. Human actions and behaviour affect everything in our environment. By improving the risk awareness, knowledge and, above all, attitudes of each of us, we can help to reduce the number of accidents and fires, and to ensure that a potential event or the chain leading to it is broken in good time. In my own work, I have unfortunately often found that people are too easily lulled into thinking that nothing will happen. People often just trust in good luck.

Assessing the consequences of a fire is very difficult and requires extensive knowledge and understanding. The development of a fire and the spread of deadly smoke can be very rapid. For this reason, several factors must be taken into account when assessing the consequences. In simple terms, one could start with the detection of a fire. The sooner a fire is detected, the better the chances of minimising the adverse consequences. Since humans cannot detect everything, technology is needed to help. However, technology is only a good tool and its operation requires maintenance. The rescue of people in a fire is based on rapid fire detection and effective escape arrangements. As a rule of thumb, there must be two independent escape routes from each room. In some cases, one of the two routes may be a "back-up" route, through which safe escape is only possible with the assistance of the emergency services.

Another important issue in assessing the consequences is the spread of fire, smoke and soot. As a general rule, it can be said that the damage caused by a fire spreads upwards in seconds, horizontally in minutes and downwards in tens of minutes. The fire and its damage therefore spread very quickly, and the pathways are any openings through which the airflow can pass. For this reason, it is important to ensure that the fire engineering of buildings is in order.

Let's work together to ensure the safety of all of us.