Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Outline
reasons for maintaining good standards 
of health and safety within an organisation. 
(8)
3. 
Outline
the main health and safety issues to be 
included in an induction training programme 
for new employees. 
(8)
4. (a)
Explain
the meaning of the term ‘safe 
system 
of 
work’. 
(2)
(b) 
Outline
SIX sources of information that 
may need to be consulted when developing 
a safe system of work. 
(6)

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116
7.1
Introduction
Previous chapters have discussed the overall man-
agement issues that need to be addressed if a coher-
ent safety management system is to be established 
and implemented in an organisation. As this book is 
primarily focused upon fi re safety management and 
its principles, a key element that must be addressed is 
ensuring an underpinning knowledge of the principles 
of fi re and explosion; this chapter will concentrate on 
these areas.
An understanding of the principles are critical to 
identifying how a fi re will start and spread, the former of 
which are known as primary fi re hazards, each of which 
has the ability to initiate or start a fi re, or exacerbate a 
fi re. These elements will be required when completing a 
fi re risk assessment.
Explosion and fi re are interlinked in that on many 
occasions fi re occurs after an explosion, it is therefore 
essential that those involved with fi re safety and risk 
management have a basic knowledge of the causes 
and properties of explosion, particularly in relation to 
processes involving gases and dusts.
7.2
The chemistry of fi re
In order to appreciate the differences between fi re and 
explosion it is necessary to look at the defi nitions: