Fire safety: preventive and precautionary measures

Malem / Yumjao *

Fire in House took life of two children and their father in Dwarka Delhi: RED FLAG DAY

Today, we shall try to understand a very important topic i.e. Fire safety and this topic has become more relevant in wake of a deadly fire outbreak in Dwarka Delhi which claimed three family members, two children and their father on 10th June 2025. It was a heart-breaking incident and it should not happen again in future.

The question is how do we prepare ourself as a family to avoid such deadly incident and that is what we are going to do in this topic, so keep reading till the end, because it can and will probably save someone’s life including our own.

Let’s start with basic question like, how a thing catch fire? The answer is a thing catches fire when it becomes hot( ignition temperature) in presence of air(oxygen), which is also popularly known as fire triangle, means in absence of any one of the three ( a thing, temperature and air) there will be no fire.

So keeping this logic in mind we can avoid and fight fire, but this knowledge becomes useful only when it is followed diligently so that we should not need another fire outbreak to teach us a lesson.

Fire outbreak could happen anywhere for example it could be in a hut, a car, house in a colony , hospital, shopping mall, wild fire in forest etc. Today in this topic we shall focus only in a residential house. Every state has building codes and permission to be followed by every construction agency with regard to fire safety so that fire incidents are avoided and also to be in position to fight fire in case of any eventuality.

Fire incidents news becomes more frequent in summer due to obvious reason i.e. rise in temperature. From the fire triangle we know that a thing is required for a fire to burn, which means if there is no thing (a material) there will be no fire. In other words, wherever there is more material more fire could occur which is correct and dangerous.

So, lets try to find out what are these materials that we keep in our houses, and in fact, we see them practically everywhere, they are nothing but our own newspapers, books, furniture, clothes, appliances, stock etc. all of them put together known as fire load. Hence, it is not wrong to discard old furniture, clothes , appliances etc. because it helps us to reduce fire load.

Apart from discarding old household items , it is also very necessary to have proper house keeping including terrace and balcony, dry leaves must be remove immediately. So in this paragraph, it is understood that it should be our endeavor to maintain low fire load in our house and its premises in all time.

Another aspect from the fire triangle is the temperature(heat) which is crucial because if we understand this it could help us prevent many fire incidents. Let’s consider an routine example, to lit a candle we need a match box , in this example match box is one that produce temperature( heat) and candle is the material , hence it is correct to say that without a cause of temperature( heat) there will be no fire.

It means, if we can manage and control unwanted cause of temperature ( heat) we can prevent unwanted fire occurring in our house. So it is important to know what are the causes of temperature(heat) which lead to fire. Following are some potential examples which we live with every and they are also the one that causes fire:-

1. Use Old and outlived electrical and electronic appliances.
2. Unsafe electrical installation.
3. Loose electrical terminals (socket and plug).
4. Over loading of electrical uses.
5. Match Box & cigarettes.

Above five examples, but not limited to, are the ones that causes temperature(heat) that burns our materials ( fire load) which become more vulnerable in summer. The third aspect of the fire triangle is the air, which is practically present everywhere, meaning it is not in our hand to control the presence of the air in fact without it we human can’t even breath. So for all practical purpose we should know what air can do and this knowledge will guide us where to start fire and how to stop it.

So far, we have learnt various aspects of fire triangle, now in this paragraph we shall focus on those activities which we shall observe to prevent and be able fight fire incident:

1. Electrical Wiring & installation shall be done by qualified personnel only.
2. Conduct of Routine maintenance of electrical installation and appliances.
3. Mandatory use of Miniature circuit breakers.
4. Do not forget to switch off electrical appliances after use ( hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, kettle etc.)
5. Maintain enough free space around room heater, oven, refrigerator, air conditioner etc.
6. Do not forget to turn off cooking gas regulator.
7. Do not keep flammable materials near heater, AC, Stove, Power terminal etc.
8. If you smell burning of plastic item, inspect the house for the source of the smell and take corrective action.
9. Keep house & its premises clean free from dry leaves.
10. Keep Fire Extinguishers, fire buckets to stop fire in case of emergency.
11. Keep stairs hindrance free for easy exit during emergency.
12. Keep LED Exit signages.

The above list is just a few activities which we shall do to keep ourself prepared to prevent and fight fire in a normal house, however it may be noted that there is much more dos and don’ts as we change the space where we live in.

At the end, it is believed that we go through this topic as much reminder as required to know our own surroundings which could either save us or mar us. It is always better to be safe than sorry, so let’s practice these preventive and precautionary measures for our own safety. Khurumjari.