Good Home Fires In United States Of America Report Example

Introduction

There are several disasters that occur across the United States annually such as hurricanes, forest fires, and home fires. This article carefully looks at home fires since as a result of home fires, lives and property worth billions of dollars have been lost. The table below gives the report on home fires in the United States from the year 1977 to 2013. Whereas the fatalities and injuries have reduced across the years, there is still much to be done to reduce this unfortunate event. The article also looks at the installation, regular testing and use of fire detectors as a means of reducing the incidences.

Source: NFPA-Fire Loss in the United States 2013

It is important at this stage to examine the causes of the home fires. There are several causes of home fires with majority of the incidents caused by cooking equipment. Fires that result from cooking equipment in the United States account for more than forty percent of the incidences of home fires. Heating equipment is the next significant source of home fires and its contribution to the national total is approximately fifteen percent. Smoking materials and electricity distribution (and electrical lighting) equipment each results in six percent of home fires annually. The other sources of home fires include driers, candles, and children playing with fire and ignition from other fires.
Some of the home fire accidents could have been prevented by the installation of fire alarms. It is a sad fact that according to NFPA, as many as five million households do not have smoke alarms at all in their homes. In addition, in the homes where the smoke detectors are installed, a large proportion of the devices are faulty. 27% of the fire incidences and 37% of the fatalities were as a result of lack of installed smoke detectors and fire alarms. In order to avert this negative situation, it is recommended that fire alarms need to be installed in the homes and faulty smoke detectors need to be serviced.
The Gantt chart below outlines the activities in the installation and testing of a fire alarm. The proposed solution is twofold: to install the alarms in homes that do not have them and to (test and) repair faulty ones in homes where they are already installed.
In homes where the fire devices have been installed, they need to test the alarms and take appropriate action as may be necessary. The Gantt chart below illustrates the procedure of testing the fire alarms.
The first step us always to establish the size of the building since larger buildings may at times require more than one fire detector. After establishing the size of the building, an appropriate number of fire alarms to be procured are determined. There are so many types of fire alarms in the market hence selection needs to be done. After selection, procurement is done. The next procedure is to prepare the section of the building where the fire alarm is to be placed. Preparation work might include construction modifications. Installation work then begins till completion. After the device has been installed, it is important to test it and ascertain that it functions well. After the test results are confirmed as positive, the project closes. After closure of the project, there is a need to ensure that the device is tested regularly. As noted from the report above, there are homes where the devices were installed yet they remained in faulty conditions and did not warn when the fires came. When there is a testing to be done, it is advisable to alert the authority and related stakeholders on the planned tests. Regular testing is recommended to ensure that the device is in functional condition.

Conclusion

Whereas the reports of incidences of deaths and damage to property as a result of home fires show a reducing trend, there is much more that can be done to further contain this disaster. This article recommends the installation of fire alarms in homes that do not have them as well as ensuring that they are in proper working condition. Gantt charts showing the procedure for the installation and testing of the devices are availed and explained above. Once executed, this step will further help in curbing the loss of lives and property through home fires.

References

American Red Cross. Are You Ready for a Fire? Washington, D.C.: The American National Red Cross, 1998. Print.
Hall, John R. U.S. Experience with Smoke Detectors and other Fire Detectors: Who has them? How well do they work? When don’t they work? Quincy, Massachusetts: National Fire Protection Association, 1998. Print.