Taking steps to improve fire safety a constant process Published Dec. 1, 2011 By Tinker Public Affairs staff compilation TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- "Do you have fire hazards and deficiencies in your work place needing attention?" A question being asked as Tinker fire professionals examine how to reduce those numbers again by at least 25 percent. "Unabated hazards and deficiencies can impact lives, property, and mission of the Tinker community as a whole", said Scott Bloxham, Tinker's assistant chief of Fire Prevention. "Something that can cause an incident or fire, such as a short circuit or overloaded electrical item, or gasoline near an ignition source, for example" is how Chief Bloxham describes a fire hazard. "Fire safety deficiencies on the other hand won't directly cause a fire, however if a fire occurred the loss to lives and property could be greater; exit signs out, exit paths blocked, no fire sprinklers or alarm". At the beginning of 2011 a backlog of open hazards and deficiencies were on the books. Col. Bob LaBrutta, 72nd Air Base Wing commander, noted that while a very small number are tied to projects needing large sums of money, most were minor and easily corrected. A 25 percent reduction in deficiencies by the end of the year was mandated. Immediately, Tinker fire, safety, and civil engineer professionals went to work trimming low hanging fruit, achieving more than a 25 percent reduction in the 2011 baseline. Soon it was realized the current 2011 list continued growing as Tinker fire inspectors were documenting new hazards and FSD's during annual facility inspections. It was noted that some of the same items were showing up again within the same organizations. "True reduction can be achieved by focusing on preventing hazards and deficiencies from happening in the first place," Chief Bloxham believes. "Where prevention doesn't work, early identification and corrective action should begin immediately, by the discovering person. Waiting for an annual visit from the Fire or Safety expert to identify unsafe heater use, emergency and exit signs out, daisy-chained/overloaded surge protectors, or fire extinguishers needing maintenance for example, bear unnecessary risks." So, is unit involvement at the lowest levels within an organization the answer? The Voluntary Protection Program is empowering employees to action from the lowest levels to the top. Some ideas surfaced during a 72 ABW Rapid Improvement Event. "The RIE's indicated our program wasn't giving functional managers a clear picture of their fire prevention program," Mr. Bloxham said. Until recently, fire inspections were scheduled by and focused mainly on facilities, in most cases facility managers were the only contact for a particular buildings inspection. Borrowing from Safety's successful Unit model, a Fire Prevention Unit Inspection was born. "We schedule inspections by unit as opposed to buildings, evaluating the overall prevention program, focusing more on people than things," Mr. Bloxham stated. The rationale is to "solve small things before they become bigger problems or a fire occurs," Mr. Bloxham said. During 67 inspections the Fire Prevention Branch performed in July, August and September, 267 hazards and fire safety deficiencies were identified, records reflect; 122 were corrected immediately, leaving 145 awaiting correction. That's a 40 percent reduction. The majority of those were electrical in nature (such as misuse or damaged equipment), unlit emergency and exit lights were a close second (Bldg. 230 alone had a dozen exit signs out recently). Next were fire systems (malfunctioning or inadequate sprinkler or fire alarm systems), untested or missing fire extinguishers, poor housekeeping (combustibles stored under a stairway, accumulated trash not properly disposed of), and life safety systems (exits blocked or doors locked, preventing egress in the event of a fire). Requesting closure of corrected hazards and deficiencies is important too. "A deficiency or hazard that the fire department identified may have been fixed, but we won't know for sure until a facility manager or functional manager lets us know," Mr. Bloxham said. "We really need facility managers or unit reps to let us know the outcome," he added. The most important thing, he concluded, is "to prevent hazards and deficiencies from happening in the first place, rather than waiting for a fire, safety, bioenvironmental, or environmental professional to identify it."