Critical analysis of fire incidents and self-assessment of fire safety program in a tertiary care hospital of India: an observational study

Abstract

Background: Self-assessment of fire safety provides valuable insights for framing a robust fire safety program for hospitals by identifying gaps and taking corrective measures. The study was performed to (i) critically analyse fire incidents which occurred in the hospital and (ii) assess fire safety program of the hospital. Methods: A critical analysis of 3 fire incidents which occurred in hospital was performed. Further review of records regarding all fire incident reports was performed for last 4.5 years and analysed for cause, site, timing, triggering factor and firefighting. For the second objective, fire safety mechanisms in hospital were compared with national accreditation board of hospital checklist and national building code 2016 part 4 “fire and life safety” guideline. Results: It was found that a total of 44 incidents of fire occurred over a period of four and a half years from January 2019 to July 2023, of which 42 were minor, confined fires while two were major and non confined fires. Electrical cause was found in 48.84% of fire incidents, 37% occurred in external areas, 41% in the morning shift hours and in 51.16% incidents clean agent was used for extinguishing the fire. In 93.18% incidents, trained hospital security extinguished the fire. Average reporting time was 1.23 minutes and mean time taken to act and extinguish the fire completely was 10 minutes. Conclusions: Critical analysis of fire safety using records of fire incidents and comparison with guidelines helps hospitals in self assessment of their fire safety plans and guides in filling lacunae.