Introduction to Fire Safety Management

1.1
Defi nitions
The terms relating to the management of safety in this 
chapter are defi ned by a variety of publications. To clarify 
the meaning of the text, it is important to establish a 
common understanding of the following, frequently used 
basic terminology:
Occupational health and safety
– factors and 
conditions that can affect the well-being of persons 
within the workplace, i.e. employees, contractors, 
temporary workers and visitors.
Safety
– the freedom from unacceptable risk 
from harm.
Fire/combustion
– a chemical reaction or series of 
reactions involving the process of oxidisation, produ-
cing heat, light and smoke. There are two classes of 
fi re: confl agration (where combustion occurs relatively 
slowly) and detonation (where combustion occurs 
instantaneously).
Ill health
– the term ill health includes acute and 
chronic physical or mental illness which can be caused 
or made worse by physical, chemical or biological 
agents, work activity or environment.
Accident
– an undesired event resulting in death, ill 
health, injury, damage, environmental loss or other loss.
Incident
– an undesired event that does not result 
in any harm or loss. Incidents are often referred to as 
near misses; some organisations refer more accurately 
to ‘incidents’ as ‘near hits’.
False alarm
– an unwanted fi re signal resulting 
from a deliberate operation of a fi re safety system, the 
unintentional electrical actuation of a fi re safety system, 
or the actuation of a fi re safety system with good intent 
(believing there to be a fi re).
Environmental protection
– management arrange-
ments to cover the protection of the environment, 
including mitigating the effects from fi re fi ghting and 
other emergency operations from pollution, caused by 
workplace operations.