Assessment of the compliance to fire safety measures in factories around Kampala.
Abstract
Workplace fires is one of the greatest challenge to occupational safety of most industries
worldwide. Factories in the recent past have experienced several fire incidences which has led to
loss of life, life threatening injuries, loss of business and investment opportunities. Fire safety
disaster management systems are not well established in Uganda thus greatly affecting fire safety
preparedness especially in factories. This study has assessed the compliance to fire safety measures
in factories around Kampala focusing on causes of fire outbreak in factories, fire safety measures
in place and the preparedness of factory personnel in case of fire outbreak. Data was collected
using questionnaires for both workforce and management. A checklist was also used to collect
data from the facilities. During this study, eight factories were visited and 60 respondents including
factory workers and managers were interviewed.
This study has revealed that factories around Kampala are male dominated (71.67%) and only
28.33% are females. The research has also found that 37.5% of the Factories had experienced fire
incidences and these were caused by electrical faults (44%), faulty factory equipment (28%) and
28% was started by workers.
On preparedness of factory personnel in case of fire outbreak, the results shows that 56.67% of the
factory personnel were trained on fire safety, 73% were aware of availability of firefighting
equipment and 68.33% of the respondents knew how to use these firefighting equipment though
they were mainly conversant with using fire extinguishers. 37% of the respondents were aware of
fire escape routes while 27% knew emergency numbers to call in case of an emergency though
they only knew that of police.
On existing fire safety measures, this study found that all factories surveyed had firefighting
equipment that included fire extinguishers, sand buckets, sprinkler system, fire alarms, smoke
detectors and horse reels with fire extinguishers being the most dominant firefighting equipment.
A few 2 (25%) of the factories had proper escape routes that included corridors, open windows
and doors both in the production and storage areas. 75% of the factories, had adequate distance
between buildings with an exception of two factories that were very congested making them
inaccessible to fire brigade vehicles in case of fire outbreak.
A matrix score was used to determine the compliance to fire safety measures in factories and only
37.5% of the factories were found to be compliant to fire safety measures.