ES 381: Fire & Transport Safety - Introductions

• Course code ES 381 covers Fire & Transport Safety.

Workshop 1: Introductions and Course Overview

• The course coordinator is T. Joe-Asare (PhD) and can be reached at [email protected].
• The overview includes introductions, ice breaker exercises/discussion, and a course overview.

Self-Introduction Elements

• Family
• Research interests
• BSc Environmental & Safety Engineering background
• PhD in OHS
• Faculty role since 2018
• Fun facts
• Expectations, reasons for joining the program, personal interests, and anything else relevant for course participants.

Discussion/Course Expectation Questions

• Why should Environmental & Safety Engineers care about fire and transport safety?
• What knowledge about Fire and Transport Safety is required for Environmental & Safety Engineers to be successful?
• What are the expectations for the course?
• Group discussions of 4-6 people with responses presented to the class.
• Group and class presentations should take 5 minutes each.

Teasers for Discussion using Data

• The number of fire cases in 2012 was around 4,577, in contrast to 6,796 in 2022.
• Domestic fires account for 40% of all fires, compared to commercial (25%), vehicular (12%), wild (11%), and other (12%) fires.
• The Accra-Cape Coast Road is named the most dangerous highway in Ghana with 6,104 accidents and 7,465 causalities.

Course Description Highlights

• It emphasizes workplace environments.
• Causes and preventing fires.
• Fire protection.
• Firefighting.
• Care and maintenance.
• Fire detection.
• Alarm systems.
• Transport safety.
• Causes of road accidents.
• Safe vehicle travel policies.

Course Aims

• Introduce students to Fire Safety and Fire Risk Assessment.
• Equip graduate HSE engineers with a background in Fire Safety Management.
• Introduce students to Road Safety Principles and Practices.

Course Content

• Fire safety fundamentals, fire chemistry and classification, fire & explosion characteristics, flammability limits, diagrams, ignition energy, explosions and preventive measures.
• Workplace Transport Safety involves site safety, design layouts, activities, safe vehicles and drivers and risk assessment.

Course Information

• The Course Code is ES 381 which is Fire & Transport Safety.
• It is an undergraduate course for year 3.
• 3-4 contact hours per week for 8 weeks.
• Environmental & Safety Engineering Programme.

Learning Activities Schedule

• Course Overview on Jan 21 & 25.
• Introduction to Safety Management, Hazard Control Management and Risk Assessment Techniques in Jan and Feb.
• Foundation I & II – Risk Management Fundamentals and Risk Treatment and Review in Feb and Mar.
• Guest speaker lectures around the themes of; Professional Practices as a Risk Management Practitioner, Process Integrity/Safety, Challenges Confronting Risk Management in the Field and Current Advances in Risk Management in Feb and Mar.
• Group work presentation for Environmental and Social Risk in Mar and Apr.
• Project Risk & Supplier Risk in Apr.

Assessment Summary

• In-class quizzes are scheduled for Feb 15, Feb 29, and Mar 14.
• The Semester Project, completed in groups, must be submitted by Mar 13 at 12:00pm.
• Case study analysis, which is Assignment 1, is due Feb 14 by 12:00pm.
• Workplace Transport Safety which is Assignment 2, is due Mar 06 by 12:00pm.
• Final exams will be during the university examination period which is scheduled Apr 08 to 26.
• In-class quizzes, assignments and class attendance accounts for 30% of the final grade, with the remaining 70% allocated to Group Project at 10% and Final Exams at 60%. University course delivery assessment is scheduled Monday, March 11 to Friday, March 15, 2024.
• All late submission items submitted will not be marked.

Rules/Modus Operandi for Students

• No lateness exceeding 10 minutes is permitted.
• There is a need to abstain from phone use.
• Cheating is not allowed.
• Mutual respect must be maintained.
• Timeline and deadline adherence is essential.
• Prior notification is needed for any absences.
• Course coordinator's tasks include giving no unannounced quizzes, sending out prior notification for absences and adhering to the course schedule.

Semester Mini Group Project

• Groups will develop Evacuation and Fire Safety Management Plans for different workplaces, more information can be found on VLE before Mar 13 at 12:00pm.
• Development of a fire safety and emergency evacuation plan for an assigned building.
• Thorough risk assessment of the assigned building, including appropriate fire safety and evacuation plans and procedures such as OSHA.
• Building plan should be specific and suggest areas for improvement based on risk assessment.
• The Evacuation and Fire Safety Management plan must include; What to do in case of fire, emergency contact information, key personnel involved in fire safety, the floor plan, primary and secondary exits marked, exit signs to the nearest emergency exits and emergency assembly details plus what first aid is available.

Peer Teaching Activities

• Fundamentals of explosion
• Explosion characteristics of Materials
• Flammability Limit Behaviour
• Flammability Diagram for Hydrocarbons
• Ignition Energy
• Explosions Mechanism
• Explosion Preventive Measures
• Vehicular Hazards at the Workplace and their Controls
• Workplace Traffic Management
• Safety of Mobile Machinery at the Workplace

VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) Class

• The class name is Fire and Transport Safety.
• It falls under the Environmental and Safety Engineering Department.
• Enrolment Key: ES 381@2024.

Introduction to Fire & Transport Safety

• Safety science focuses on preventing "unwanted" events that harm people, property, and the environment.
• Fire losses are a critical threat to organizations, with financial, and property losses.
• Industrial fire protection and prevention form a important aspect of any safety professional's role.
• Industrial fire protection and prevention involves recognizing situations for unwanted fires, evaluating its potential and implementing measures.
• The plan should be specific to different parts of a building.

Fire Prevention Versus Fire Protection

• Fire prevention is like preventative risk controls, and it eliminates fire possibilities.
• If prevention cannot be 100%, then planning and designing to minimize damages is key.
• Fire prevention comprises example programs (such as housekeeping and inspections) and requirements (such as vigilance and cooperation) which means eliminating heat and source.
• Fire protection involves slowing fire growth, improving early detection, plus automatic/ manual suppression.
• Provide confined space locations and safe evacuation.

Objective/Importance of Fire Safety (Protection)

• Fire safety protects human life through automatic fire control systems.
• It warns the occupants, allowing evacuation, and summoning the Fire Department.
• Fire safety protects people and property through automatic fire control.
• It uses extinguishing agents and reduces damage.

Fundamentals – Basic Definitions

• A Fire Hazard is a condition or event that favor fire development that needs oxygen, with fuel and heat.

• A Fire is a chemical reaction involving fuel, oxygen, and sufficient heat.

• Fire Point denotes the minimum temperature for combusting more vapour that produces a self-combustion.

• Flashover is the point at which a whole area where a fire has begin is now fully involved in fire.

• Flash Point is the minimum liquid temperature required when vapour ignites on coming into contact with a source

• Spontaneous Ignition Temperature is where the material will fully ignite by itself.

• Flash point is the lowest temperature at which a gas ignites with a fire source.

• It is measured via opening the cup to the atmosphere and gradually raising the temperature over intervals.

• closed cup flash point testing introduces ignition in a sealed vessel.

• Because the heat is trapped inside this reduces interference and provides more generally accepted.

Defining Fire Point

• Fire point gives the minimum temperature required for constant vapour burning when the fire source is removed, this is highly different from the flash point requirement.

Defining Combustion

• Combustion is heating with flames.
• Burning is heat converted to light yielding less heat compared to combustion.

Workshop 2: Principles of Fire

• Fire occurs due to a chemical reaction, so understanding fire prevention and protection requires grasp of fire science and chemistry.

Chemistry of Fire & The Fire Triangle

• Fire is initiated by 3 key inputs; Heat, Fuel and Oxygen.
• Factors are needed to ensure continuous burning.
• The application of what influences each side of the FT is key in fire prevention, to isolate fuel, oxygen and heat to stop a fire.

Diagrammatic Fire Explanation

• Fire produces; smoke, heat, with its initiators being; fuel oxygen and ignition/heat.
• Fire has a range of stages that can be tracked via a Rate of Heat Release graph.

Initiating Fires Explained

• Initiators are required to start fires with sufficient heat.
• Heat prevention requires being able to make fuel-air mixtures.

Fuel Sources

• Fuel is a gas, liquid or combustible solid.
• Wood dust will burn more easily than burning a solid block of wood.

Solids vs Liquid Sources

• Solid include carbonaceous materials, tightly packed, very difficult break.
• Liquid and gases are high temperature and flammable.
• High susceptance is key to being fuel source.
• Capacity to release Vapor.

Oxygen Characteristics

• Last and most final element for creating fires.
• Exists everywhere providing surrounding oxygen.
• Needs to search oxidizers by flammable and non-flammable types.

Chemical Process Conditions

• Requires collection of all related info on arisal conditions, plus assessment on hazards from flammable susbstances.

Chemical Fire Process of Elimination

• The goal is to control and extinguish fires by isolating fuel, oxygen and heat by following tetrahedrons.
• Fire protection controls fires through variable eliminating which will isolate the variable.

Types of Fires and Appropriate Actions

• Class A, B, C, D and K fires.
• Class A fires are ordinary combustibles eliminated by water.
• Class B fires involved flammable liquids eliminated with foam, carbon dioxide.
• Class C fires involves eliminating electrical equipment with dry chemical, inert gases for electrical type fires.
• Class D fires involving metal and are eliminated by dry chemical, inert gases for metal.
• Class K fires involves cooking oils and greases eliminated oil with fats.

Classifications of Fire and Appropriate Extinguisher

• Type classification is divided via wood, paper, gasses, liquids, metals, deep fat fryers and electrical equipment.
• Water is appropriate for wood and paper, but not gas or metals.
• Foam is appropriate for the first 3.
• Chemical appropriate for all but deep fat.
• CO2 should never be use of wood or paper but it is safe.
• Wet chemical will react to all those equipment except deep fat.

Principles of Fire Spread Details

• Convection is the spread of smoke.
• Conduction is the spread through fires.
• Radiation is the spread from a heat signature.
• Fire growth in relation to its rate depends on the construction layout, and ventilation use.
• Fire can be split into different fire loads including ultra and fast based on their products. It is related to the materials is use case.

Workshop 4: FIRE DETECTION AND ALARM SYSTEMS

• Fire alarms monitor and announce status.
• Provides appropriate response signals, monitors and announces a response to the alarm.
• Primary functions include providing conditions for building, and adequate time to signal a fire safety.
• There are three signaling types that cover alarm, supervisory and trouble.