71st Independence Day – 2017
“I’m a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours”
– Mahatma Gandhi
India, our mother country attained freedom at midnight of 14th August 1947 from the British rule. This year, we are celebrating the 71st Independence Day with full of enthusiasm and spirit as we do at all time. Obviously, this day drives us to feel patriotism and pride about our mother land. It is the appropriate time in a year to honor the bravery & sacrifices of our freedom fighters and taking pledge to protect the values of freedom, which we enjoy today.
Freedoms that we enjoy
The Constitution of India provides us various kinds of freedom whereas right to equality is an essential right that we enjoy in our country. It insists on the equality of Indian citizens before the law irrespective of caste, race, gender and place of birth. Similarly, right on religion gives the fundamental right to conduct our prayers and rituals independently. As far as politics is concerned, every citizen of India has the opportunity to occupy any position in the frame work of constitution with the purpose of serving public by getting support from people. Our election system is unique and free & fair.
On top of all, freedom of expression is highly encouraged in our country to express one’s opinion without interference. It means, we have the right to support or oppose the opinion of others. Now-a-days, we are expressing our ideas and opinions using digital platform like social media, blogs, email and etc. to others. In addition to all these freedoms, we are enjoying other freedoms such as right to education, culture, property.
Growth after Independence
In our country, Five year plan system helped us to hit saturated levels in sectors like agriculture, service and many more. When agriculture is concerned, expansion of farming area and high yielding crops are the major factors that enormously contributed to the growth. In recent years, agri- biotech sector has also witnessed a sea-change growth. When technological developments are concerned, the sectors like teleservices and information technology have crossed remarkable milestones. Above all, our country has seen immense developments in education, infrastructure, health care and scientific achievements.
Celebrations in NIST
Every year, NIST, the major safety training and consulting company celebrates Independence Day with full of enthusiasm and zeal. The management and employees celebrated the day with same tempo in this year too. Employees decorated their places with tricolors and models aesthetically.
The great writer Mark Twain quoted,
“It takes eighty nations, speaking eighty languages, to people her, and they number three hundred millions”
We must feel proud to be the national of historic and prestigious country, India. As a citizen of India, we have to dedicate ourselves to the service of our country in all possible ways and contribute to the developments with steadfast humanity.
Fire outbreak in HPCL Oil tank due to lightning
The globe where we live, is being very active with innumerable natural activities on its surface at every moment. It ranges from the movement of electrons in a minuscule atom to vast phenomenons such as sunrise, thunder, rain, lightning, cyclones and etc. Inspite of the fact that nature is supporting the mankind in all possible ways, sometimes we are troubled by event such as lightning, unavoidably.
We all know, the various causes for fire accidents are electric short circuit, unquenched flames of cooking devices, manual negligence, oil spillage, overheating and many more. Apart from all these reasons, lightning is one of the cause for fire accidents and it occurs because of very high electric charge difference developed in the cloud.
About the incident
Recently, a minor fire accident happened in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on 29th of July at 7 pm. The lightning hit the crude oil storage tank, which holds thousands of liters of oil and fire blaze broke out from the tanker immediately. Fire tenders rushed to the spot immediately and firemen settled the fire within an hour without any casualty. Fortunately, there was continuous and heavy rainfall, which minimized the effects of the incident; otherwise fire could have spread to nearby oil tanks.
Risks due to lightning
- There are nearly 2000 thunderstorms happening worldwide at any moment of time. Each thunder is capable of producing about 200 lightning strikes.
- Lightning discharges about 1-10 billion Joules of energy and produces the current of 30,000 Amperes to 50,000 Amperes.
- The air temperature around the lightning strike increases up to 20,000 degree Celsius.
- In a year, around 15 to 20 Oil tank fire breakouts are happening worldwide because of lightning attacks.
- 31% of the fire accidents in petroleum refineries are occurring by lightning.
How Lightning causes fire accident
On account of the fact that lightning cables of the lightning protection system are vulnerable to the risk of fire, they will be burnt when high current flows through it due to lightning. This open flame could lead to explode the nearby inflammable materials. If suppose, lightning attacks the electrical wirings, it will make the wires overheated and evaporate it, sometimes. Wear & tear in the roof of the oil containers due to ageing, possibilities of fume leakage, internal protrusions and irregularities, localized heating and bound charge problems and secondary arc risk are some other risk factors of the fire accidents in oil refineries.
Safety measures
- Automatic fire sprinklers should be installed, which will put down the fire whenever accidents happen.
- Thickness standards for the roof material of the oil tanks must be maintained.
- Good lightning protection system should be installed.
- Floating Roof Tanks – (FRT) grounding methods could be implemented.
- The Oil tanks could be equipped with Dissipation Array System Technology (DAS), which will prevent accidents due to lightning.
Fire Safety audit in shopping Malls and Multiplexes
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
The advancements in Scientific and technological domains have hit the significant saturation level to ease the human efforts and protection. The recent inventions use biological modeling to create new devices such as Spy Robos, Artificial Intelligence machines and etc. Especially, the Artificial Intelligence machines function similar like human brain, which uses the present input data and previous results to provide solutions to the complex problems loaded into it. As human beings, we would get better results if we analyze the past events in order to prevent the future problems in all matters. When safety is concerned, the causes for the occurrence of fire accident must be clearly scrutinized to avoid it in future.
Fire accident in Kochi Mall
Recently, the fire flames broke out in the fourth floor of a Mall in Kochi, which engulfed the floor entirely without any casualty but with considerable loss in property. The officials reported that the fire blaze was erupted from a kitchen duct in a restaurant while cooking the food. Immediately, the fire alarm was set off to alert the people to evacuate the building safely and quickly. The fire fighters rushed to the mall as soon as they were informed and gutted the fire. As per reports, a heap of wastes accumulated on the premises of the mall somewhat delayed the rescue operations.
Necessity for Safety measures in Major buildings
Apart from this incident, a fire accident happened in a chemical company near Kochi few months ago, which resulted in the loss eight worker’s lives. All these incidents have developed awareness among the people that high-rise buildings must be installed with safety equipments and emergency exits. Fire emergency evacuation plan should be placed on the main locations of the building. As far as this incident is considered, it indicates that good housekeeping will support the safety of the buildings to some extent. On top of all these, the Safety of the buildings must be administered by qualified Safety Professionals.
Role of Safety Professionals
The invention of new safety equipments are happening in fast track in the safety field. For example, Sound wave fire extinguisher, Water mist systems, Early suppression fast response fire sprinkler systems, Personalized vocal smoke alarms, Birdi–fire carbon and monoxide detector, Video image smoke detection are the new devices being used by professionals currently. The Safety professionals will effectively implement the Safety measures in the buildings to prevent the accidents. Additionally, they will ensure;
- Installing Safety equipments
- Conducting emergency drills regularly
- Placing emergency evacuation plans and exit signs in required points
- Monitoring the handling of hazardous materials
Scopes in Safety career – Kochi
As urbanization is happening in rapid pace, high-rise buildings are being built everywhere in the city. People gather at malls and multiplexes with the aim for entertainment & recreation activities. So that necessity for taking safety precautionary measures is being prime concern now than ever before. Additionally, Kochi is the port city, which invites immense job opportunities for Safety professionals. On the whole, there is a huge demand for Safety professionals in the Kochi City. Candidates who complete the Safety courses at present, would get the opportunity of getting placed in major companies in India and abroad with handsome salary package.
NIST – The leading training Institute
NIST is the Top-most leader in safety training in India, which trained more than 50,000+ Safety professionals since 2008; Simply, it is our action which is louder than our words. NIST has spread its wings all over India including Kochi. It is offering International Safety training courses such as NEBOSH HSW, NEBOSH IGC, IOSH WS, IOSH MS, BSC Risk assessment, BSC Fire Safety and Practical training for Fire Watcher & Confined Space Attendant. Candidates who complete Safety training course in NIST will inhere confidence to get succeed in their career.
Making of the city, ‘Amaravathi’ – Opportunities in Safety sector
The city, Amaravathi, is being built on the banks of the Krishna river in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, which is known to be ‘India’s Sunrise State’. After the bifurcation of Telangana from the state of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the town, Amaravathi was chosen to become the capital of Andhra Pradesh. It is located in between the greenery Eastern Ghats and Krishna River. As per master plan, the city is divided into nine theme cities including Knowledge & Education city, Electronics city and etc. It will be marked as the Green and Blue city as 51% of the areas will be spread with greeneries and 10% with water bodies.
Special Features of Amaravathi
- It will be the Greenfield World-class Smart city with number of datacenters, which offer high-speed internet facilities with low energy consumption.
- This city will be the paragon of world-class structure and efficient resource management.
- It is going to have a public riverfront of about 30+ Kilometers
- This city will have the advanced traffic control system to adjust the duration of the signal according to the traffic flow.
- HSR – (High Speed Rail) corridors are going to be established to connect the nearby major cities.
Industrial & Educational Cluster
As per the master plan of the city, the industries like pharmaceutical, textiles & cement plants will be spreading over the Guntur district whereas petrochemical industries will be occupying in the Krishna district. As far as education sector is concerned, the globally leading institutes like VIT, SRM, AMITY, AMRITA and Indo –UK institute of health, London are going to set up their campuses around the city. Moreover, both the districts will have smart industrial townships and food processing units. Especially, Visakhapatnam -Kakinada industrial corridor will attract more industries to establish their plants as it is located near the Visakhapatnam seaport. The Industrial giants like Accel IT, Horizon IT, AdvanSoft –Chicago, Raymond, Ascendas – Singbridge and SembCorp are on the process to construct their offices and plants in Amaravathi.
Job Opportunities for Visakhapatnam People
Establishment of Amaravathi is a 58,000 Crores project which will be completed in three phases by the year 2029. It will be occupied by 13.5 million residents by the year 2050 and is expected to create 5.6 million jobs. These figures ascertain that talent pool from nearby cities like Guntur and Visakhapatnam will be accommodated for the formation of the city. As the city is located centrally, it will act as the ‘linking’ city to connect various major cities of the state. On the whole, it will help to improve the trades and commercial growth of the state in a remarkable pace. Above all, the city will offer huge amount of jobs as it is going to be the hub for IT, tourism and education.
Necessity for Safety
On top of all, major buildings and industries are being constructed in massive scale in the city at present. As all these activities involve large number of workers and professionals, Health and Safety is of prime concern. Moreover, the requirement for safety professionals in ‘Amaravathi’ is increasing day by day. It is the right time for the jobseekers in and around the project location to choose safety as career. At the same time, if they prefer International Safety training courses instead of any diploma courses, the chances of getting placed in the Multinational Companies operating in ‘Amaravathi’, as well as abroad are more. Especially, there are plenty of opportunities in Visakhapatnam Seaport for those who completed the safety courses.
NIST– First choice for Safety
‘Be Smart; grasp the opportunity through right channel’
Once the decision is made to fix career in safety sector, the next step should be spotting the best institute to increase the chance to get placed in reputed companies. NIST is a leading International Safety Course Provider in India with outstanding performance in Exam results and placements. NIST is offering International Safety Courses of NEBOSH HSW, NEBOSH IGC, IOSH Managing Safely, BSC Fire Safety, BSC Risk Assessment and Practical training like Fire Watcher and Confined Space Attendant in its branches all over India. The ball is in the court for Visakhapatnam jobseekers so that it is the appropriate time for them to fix their bright & safety future through NIST.
Fire Accident in Chennai Bakery
As we all know, every action has its own opposite reaction .It is applicable for all the actions what we do along with the amount of energy involved. Fire is the energy form which is inevitable in our very life. Always, we are enjoying the positive patterns of fire energy in all possible forms, to say, right from cooking food in house to launching rockets into space. At the same time, we have to be careful enough to not to redirect this energy in opposite way. It is being clearly proved by the recent incidents that the mishandling of the energy of fire will lead to devastations to the human lives and properties.
What happened
When we look back into history, in the year AD1666, a major fire storm happened in the London known as ‘Great fire of London’ that engulfed two third of the city through severe fire flames due to unquenched fire in the oven of a bakery. Similarly, a fire accident happened in a bakery in kodungaiyur located in Chennai on last Saturday, 15th July, at late-night hours with minimum effect. A fire ball broken out from the bakery made the attention of everyone in the city as the memories of recent major fire accident happened in a textile shop in Chennai weren’t faded away from everyone’s mind till now.
The officials in the fire rescue department were informed about the incident through a phone call immediately. Two fire tenders with fire men hurried to the spot in quick response. The bakery is located in the ground floor of the building and shutter of the shop was closed during the initial fire break out .When the fire men were trying to open the shutter, a gas cylinder exploded with tall fire flames at that instance. In this incident, a fireman lost his life and three fire men in the rescue team were seriously injured. Moreover, around 40 people present on the spot were attacked with small injuries.
Hats off to fire rescue Team
Fire safety team put their life at risk in order to save the lives of people in and around the spot and doused the blaze immediately. It is our duty to honor the bravery and commitment of a fire man who sacrificed his life in the battle. We have to admire the fire rescue team for their efforts to reduce the casualties.
Negligence in Safety
Now a days fire accidents are not a once in blue moon incident. It is happening frequently in all ranges from small scale to large scale. At many times, negligence is the main factor for fire accidents and for the consequences thereafter. Few weeks ago, an oil tanker exploded in Pakistan that resulted in large number of casualties. Negligence is the only reason for the severity of that incident. As far as this case is concerned, fire team made repeated warnings to the onlookers that it is unsafe to not be close to the spot. But the onlookers hadn’t listened and engaged in taking snapshots. When the fire-ball happened due to unexpected explosion of gas cyclinder, they were affected severely by the blaze. This is the reason for extra number of injured persons in this accident.
Lessons to be learnt
- All the people must learn how to respond in fire accident situations which happens in their premises or nearby places.
- The owners of the small firms must take the responsibility of safety of their premises, for example, having good ventilation systems and emergency exits.
- Electrical wire connections have to be tested regularly to avoid short-circuits.
- Apart from outside, fire safety awareness must begin from house itself, i.e. electrical connection and gas connection should be carefully maintained.
- Though it is the duty of authorities to audit the safety conditions in every firm whether it is a small scale or large scale company, it is impossible to ensure the safety of the people in all nuke and corners of the city or nation. People must take the responsibility of their own life and their premises.
- Health & Safety awareness must be the part of the education system at the school level so that everybody would have the possibility of understanding the importance of safety in every aspect.
Why Health and Safety is important in the Workplace
Today’s world is changing with high rate in all the spheres. Industries are using new machineries, new substances and new methods with advanced technologies in order to lessen the human efforts and improve the productivity. On the top of all, Japan has tested the high speed magnetic levitation train positively at 374 mph to ease the transportation. When manufacturing sector is concerned, a new welding process has been invented to join two high strength metals very quickly without melting the materials. At the same time, the technologies and machineries are being too intricate and needs higher order expertise to handle. The negligence results in unexpected occupational diseases and accidents due to poor response to the sudden events and the insufficient working procedures. Now a days, the health and safety of the employees are being highlighted by experts in everywhere as it impacts the social and financial aspects of the organization.
Purpose of health and safety
- The reputation of the organization depends on the efforts put forth to create a health and safety environment in their premises.
- Increase in productivity due to sustained work capacity of the employees.
- The loyalty among employees could be achieved when the measures are taken to prevent work related illness and accidents.
- Safety professionals identify the emerging risks due to the substances or work processes in line with the continuous changes in the working environment.
- Create safety awareness and implementation of the safety procedures in the working place.
Need for Health & Safety
Recent workplace health surveys show that the employees are normally suffered by five major concerns in the workplace. They are mental health problems such as anxiety, stress &depression, long term sickness, musculoskeletal disorders, poor work-life balance and poor work practices. In addition to that there are other problems such as working overtime, monotony, fatigue, tiredness which lead to health and safety issues in the workplace. These problems upshot in absenteeism among employees and reduce cost-benefit of the organization. That’s why health and safety is being the inevitable point of focus by the organizations than ever before.
Why accidents in Workplace
As far as accidents are concerned in the workplace, experts say that 80% of the accidents are happening only by the fault of the person working in the spot. Furthermore, one-third of the accidents happen due to the usage of hazardous equipments like hand-lift trucks, gears and pulleys, saws and handrails, electric drop lights, etc. Being lethargic while working, poor knowledge of the working environment, poor housekeeping, neglecting safety procedures, unsafe situational and climatic changes, poor attitude of the employees are the other causes for the accidents.
Prevention Strategies
A well- known writer, Mark Twain said “It is better to be careful 100 times to be careful than get killed once”
- Systematic training provided to the employees will assist the employees to avoid the musculoskeletal problems by keeping good ergonometric methods.
- Employees are needed to have special training to use the tools and equipments, to implement best work-practices, and to be equipped with machine controls. This will be supportive to prevent workplace injuries and avoid risks.
- Specialized training programs have to be arranged to learn the emergency procedures and learn first aid training to respond in the emergency situations.
Contribution of Health and Safety providers
Health and safety professionals are being the nerve system of the organizations with aim of protecting employees and preventing accidents in the work premises. They serve as major contributors towards the productivity of the company and increase the cost benefit to the organization. The reputed safety providers produce well-qualified and competent safety professionals for occupational health and safety. They are offering variety of fundamental and tailor-made training programs as per the requirements of the industry.
NIST, the leading health and safety provider in India, has been serving to the safety sector with the motto of ‘we contribute to safety’ since 2008.
Oil tanker Explosion in Pakistan
On 25th June early morning, a tragic event happened in Pakistan, i.e., an oil tanker exploded on a highway near the village of Ahmedpur on the outskirts of the city of Bahawalpur in eastern province of Punjab in Pakistan. This fire accident culminated with engulfing many lives of people including the nearby villagers and travellers on the highway, causing great agony to the people of Pakistan.
About the Explosion
An oil trucker carrying 25,000 liters (6,600 gallons) of fuel going from Karachi to Lahore went out of control while turning in a sharp bent and it overturned. This incident results in leakage of fuel from the tank onto the road and formed large pools of oil around the tanker. The villagers nearby gathered in the spot to scoop up the spilled fuel using bottles, pots, buckets. Moreover, the travellers on the highways stopped their cars, motorcycles and started to collect oil from the tanker. In the meanwhile, the truck driver and highway security personnel were warning the people about the possibility of risk. Unfortunately, no one had bothered about it. After an hour, the fuel caught fire suddenly and triggered the tanker explosion like a bomb .The fire ball swallowed up around 150 people near to it and injured more than 100 people severely.
Hats off to Safety Team
The firemen rushed to the spot immediately and fought with the flames for nearly two hours to bring down the inferno. Although it is being a difficult task to fight with the blaze of this kind, the fire safety team battled with courage hence saved hundreds of lives.
Reasons for the incident
Many theories are being talked around about the cause of the fire accident but nothing is confirmed yet. Experts are saying many reasons for the incident such as
- Someone had lit the cigarette
- The burst tyre could have caused the tanker to overturn when turning in the steep bent
- Onlookers at the scene used cell phones to inform the incident to others
- It could be the poor maintenance of the battery in the tanker.
- It could have happened due to engine spark.
Necessity for Safety Training
When analyzing the reasons for this incident, it indicates clearly that the people involved in the hazardous material transportation had not undergone proper safety training. The only way to overcome this kind of problem is by providing safety training to the bottom level in all possible ways. In fact, the transportation of fuel is very much essential as the whole world is spinning around with the supply of oil and gas in all the sectors consuming more than 50% of the total energy sources. The transportation of fuels must be gained in safe and fast for the economic growth of the countries.
Prevention Methods
- Drivers who are transporting explosive materials must be very well trained to drive the vehicles very safely and be competent.
- Utmost discipline is expected from the truck drivers as a minor negligence could lead to such disastrous effects.
- They must be educated and trained very well in order to react in emergency situations effectively and to take immediate measures to avoid explosions.
- Highway patrol could be trained to respond to the situations cautiously.
- Even though educating the entire public about fire safety is not possible whereas the local community leaders & representatives may be trained to guide the people at the fire-risky situations.
- Risky locations must be identified prior and frequent emergency drills could be conducted including drivers, authorities, local representatives and public also.
- Sooner or later, Fire safety awareness camps must be conducted regularly like medical awareness camps by governments & NGOs by taking the support of safety providers.
- Roads should be kept undamaged and oil tankers must be maintained fairly.
- Fire extinguisher must be installed in the vehicle as extinguishing the initial flames could avoid the explosion.
