Fire protection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Fire protection - Essay Example Presently about 95% percent of the fires in Europe are caused directly or indirectly by human activities and behavior. Negligence in private, industrial and public sector contributes significantly to incidence of fire. European Forest Institute (22) observes that among all fires with known causes; 51 percent are started intentionally, 44 percent results from negligence or accident while only 5 percent had been caused by natural causes such as lighting. However, the European Forest Institute (22) notes that there are variations across countries with negligence and accidental causes accounting for between 10 to 98 percent of all fires. These figures statistics clearly demonstrates the contribution that negligence in causing fires and therefore effective fire protection in safety management must include strategies for dealing with negligence. Negligence is described in common law as failure to exercise reasonable care that a cautious would exercise in a given situation. Yonder et al (221) explains that strict liability demands that a burner must compensate the victim for any damages incurred regardless of the amount precaution exercised when starting or managing the fire. They note that four states have imposed strict liability rule for fires including Connecticut, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Oklahoma. Moreover, they observe that twenty two states have implemented negligence rule in their statutory codes. Five of this states place the burden of proof on the burners by holding that fire escaped due to negligence. In contrast, sixteen states expect the plaintiff to prove negligence of the burner. In addition, eleven states view uncontrolled fires as nuisance and the land owners have the responsibility of paying public agencies the cost of fire suppression as noted by (Yonder et al 227). To ensure fire protection in industrial facilities that may arise from negligence, zoning laws