An evaluation of the role of fire extinguishers

Portable fire extinguishers
Introduction
138. It is assumed that most readers will be familiar with the relevant legislation and guidance regarding
portable fire extinguishers (see Bibliography).
139. In combination, the legislation, standards and guidance, etc., are the instruments used to support
the ability to create fire-safe premises. They include prescriptive requirements as well as providing
scope for judgement/contextual application, usually through the process of industry guidance and
tools, such as a risk assessment.
140. Where bibliographies are provided in the guidance documents, they primarily or exclusively refer
to other technical guidance or standards. There is a notable absence of qualitative academic
studies, referenced data sources or social science contributions relating to real life events. This
observation tends to suggest that this type of evidence does not seem to be formally recognised or
influential in the fire safety regulation and advice domain. This may reflect the fact that fire safety
and its related fields are typically seen as and dominated by engineering-oriented professionals and
related disciplines.
141. This relationship is recognised by British Approvals for Fire Equipment (BAFE) which observes,
‘It is not expected that the fire risk assessor will have the skills of a behavioural
psychologist. However, whilst most other aspects of fire safety are concerned with physical
or system-based issues, understanding human behaviour in the event of a fire is an
essential part of the knowledge of a fire risk assessor’s role.’ (2011: 13)
This is then qualified by several requirements including, ‘To enable the fire risk assessor to carry
out the above, the fire risk assessor should; Be aware of current professional thinking and practical
guidance on human behaviour in fire, including case studies.’ (2011: 13)
142. Similar acknowledgements appear in various guises in other publications. However, the study of
human behaviour and related social science approaches are a distinct and specialist discipline. And
one in which a broad range of expertise is available. Given the fundamental importance of human
behaviour, it is not clear to what extent and by what means the fire safety sector actively fulfils the
requirement to have a current and sufficient knowledge, either at a national or individual level.
Certainly, the composition of committees, bibliographies of key standards and codes and some of
the issues raised by this report strongly suggest that the engineering expertise needs to be
enhanced by ensuring that human behaviour/social science perspectives are represented and
influential throughout the fire safety system.
143. The influence of major fires/case studies is also noted for their tendency to inflate awareness of
rare and memorable events rather than put them in context of more typical incidents. This again
can have a distorting effect on how people perceive risk.
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