Fires and other adverse events

1 Reasons for investigating fires and other adverse events 

Investigating the causes of such events highlights failures in health and safety management systems and allows these failures to be corrected. 

If an event occurs in the workplace that has not been planned by management there is a risk of loss. The loss may arise from lost production, staff or damage to premises. The potential outcome of any such event is that the organisation and its staff will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil action arising from their negligence. 

In addition, any such event may result in physical or physiological harm to employees or other persons. It is also likely that any such unplanned event will result in substantial financial loss including both direct and indirect costs (Chapter 1). 

The numbers of work-related fires and other accidents recorded in the United Kingdom for the year 2003/04 are indicated in Table 12.1. 

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Fires and other adverse events >- The statutory requirements for reporting fires and other adverse events >- Civil claims... 

The purpose of investigating fires and other adverse events is not to apportion blame but to identify ... 

The two types of fire-related events that are covered in these notes are false alarms and fires. As with other adverse events the basic procedure for investigating false alarms and fires involves a number of steps, starting with an assessment of the level of investigation that is required and concluding with the implementation of an agreed action plan ... 

Specialized risk consultants and even insurance risk offices can now offer a variety of software products or services to conduct mathematical consequence modeling of most hydrocarbon adverse events. The primarily advantage of these tools is that some estimate can be provided on the possible effects of an explosion or fire incident where previously these effects were rough guesses or unavailable Although these models are effective in providing estimate they still should be used with caution and consideration of other physical features that may alter the real incident outcome. 

Each adverse effect, e.g. fire in suppliers facilities or the bankruptcy of the main business partner, causes certain consequences and problems for other links in the supply chain. The effect of the consequences of risk along the supply chain is defined as disruption. Such a turn of events is commonly compared to the domino effect. One event triggers another, and the consequence of one event becomes the cause of another. Disruptions in supply chains are "unplanned events that may occur in the supply chain which might affect the normal or expected flow of materials and components" (Svensson 2000, pp. 731-749). An adverse effect that leads to a long gap in the flow of processes in the supply chain is a critical disruption of the supply chain. According to the concept of business continuity management a crisis is described as "any unplanned event that can cause deaths or significant injuries to empioyees, customers or the public or that can shut down your... 

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