Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Individual factors affecting the scope and nature of
the fi re safety training they will receive include their age,
physical capability, existing levels of competence and
the criticality of their fi re safety role. For example, the fi re
safety training given to a young person on work experience
will differ greatly from that given to an employer
or contractor conducting hot work in an area of high
fi re risk.
Those individuals who are required to undertake
specifi c roles relating to fi re safety management such
as fi re wardens and fi re incident coordinators will require
additional specialised training (see Chapter 10).
When considering the factors relating to the nature
of the fi re hazards and risks, it will always be the case
that far more extensive fi re safety training will be required
for those fi re hazards that involve high fi re risks, e.g. the
training required for electrical engineers on service station
forecourts will be more than for electrical engineers
maintaining standard offi ce equipment.
In all cases the structure of the fi re safety training
given to individuals will need to cover as a minimum the
following general topics:
➤ Fire hazards in the workplace, e.g. arson, faulty
electrical equipment, hot work
➤ Risks associated with fi re, e.g. smoke inhalation,
business disruption
➤ Key risk control measures, e.g. security, user
checks, permit to work system
➤ The emergency procedure for the workplace, e.g.
the sound of the fi re alarm, the location of the
assembly point
➤ Actions that should be taken in the event of fi re, i.e.
what to do on:
➤ Discovering a fi re
➤ Hearing the alarm.
4.5 Factors promoting a negative
culture
It can be safely assumed that the absence of all the factors
discussed above (see section 4.3) will promote a
negative safety culture. If an organisation fails to provide
a working environment that nurtures a positive culture it
will have a direct impact upon the organisation and the
employees.
The factors that promote a negative safety culture
include:
➤ Management behaviour and decision making
➤ Staff feeling undervalued
➤ Job demands
➤ Role ambiguity.
Safety culture
People respond to a negative work culture
in a number of ways, some will become
cynical and ambivalent towards work, others
will seek to want to deliberately sabotage the
organisation’s plans. A common outcome of
a negative culture is individual work-related
stress. If stress is intense and goes on for
some time it can lead to mental and physical
ill health, i.e. depression, nervous breakdown,
heart disease.
4.5.1 Management behaviour and decision
making
The behaviour of managers at work has a massive
impact on their subordinates. The impact is far greater
than many managers may realise and it sends strong
messages to the staff as to how they ought to behave.
Examples of management behaviour that have a negative
impact on the safety culture of an organisation are:
➤ Failure to follow or deal with non-compliance of
safety rules:
➤ Blocking or obstructing escape routes
➤ Not wearing PPE
➤ Not using safety guards
➤ Moving extinguishers
➤ Not evacuating during an excercise.
In addition to the physical behaviour of managers, the
way that staff feel about safety will be adversely infl uenced
by management decisions that demonstrate that
safety is not a high priority. This is even more damaging
if the organisation has a good safety policy in place
as it not only undermines the safety culture but it indicates
that management do not consider their own
policies important.
4.5.2 Staff feeling undervalued
Problems that can lead to stress include the lack of
adequate and meaningful communication and consultation
on safety matters that will affect the individual
employees. Management will also demonstrate that they
undervalue employees if they operate a so-called ‘blame
culture’ that results in the blame for problems always
identifi ed as a failure of an individual rather than accept
that there has been a failure of a management system.
As well as fi nding fault with individuals and/or teams
organisations often promote a negative safety culture by
failing to recognise good work, for example when safety
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