The fire that occurred at the Rheinmetall Denel Munitions Factory on September 3, 2018, resulted in eight fatalities.
During the same week, the lives of three firefighters were lost during the Gauteng Provincial Government building fire in Johannesburg CBD.
And that’s not all. This week, we also heard of the fire at a paper factory in Kya Sands:
Condolences to the families and friends of the victims
These are tragic incidents. My heartfelt condolences and prayers go to the families and friends of the deceased.
Why I am writing this article
During the past few months, I have been busy with Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSAS 18001 & ISO 45001 implementation).
I couldn’t help but think about how an occupational health and safety management system could have prevented the September 2018 fires.
The basis of assertion is the initial statements made by the top management of the affected facilities.
The statements indicate gaps in their existing OHS management system.
Let me show you what I mean:
Kya Sands factory manager's response
“…I said I will rush to get to the factory and I will try to pull out the fire extinguisher. But getting closer to the factory I saw it was beyond my expertise. The flames were just large and I would never be able to put it out…” – Factory management
It is a paper factory, right!? The significant hazard would be the paper catching fire.
So, you would think that there would be provision for fire detection and extinguishing systems/devices.
You would think the on-site people know how to operate these systems/devices. So, why did they have to wait for the factory manager to come and decide whether to use the fire extinguisher on site? And shouldn't the factory have a central firefighting system?
“…large rolls of paper inside the factory and low water pressure in the area made it difficult for firefighters to fight this massive blaze…” – Reporter at the scene
Shouldn't fire and smoke detectors be installed? And how long has the low water pressure in the area been an issue?
Gauteng Provincial Government building
“…Gauteng Infrastructure Development MEC Jacob Mamabolo said a recent inspection had found the building’s safety compliance rate stood at 21 percent. The acceptable rate is above 85 percent…” – Daily Maverick
Thixo.
“We found that the buildings were not compliant with occupational safety. On this building we discovered non-compliance.” – MEC Jacob Mamabolo
“We can’t speculate on the causes of the fire at this stage because we don’t have feedback from qualified people. As the City of Johannesburg we’ll get a report as to what caused the fire.” – MEC Jacob Mamabolo
“We are not in denial about that. That’s the same reason we commissioned the investigation.” – MEC Jacob Mamabolo
“Let’s wait for the report before we can speculate on who should be held accountable.” – MEC Jacob Mamabolo
Unbelievable!
The one aspect I love about ISO 45001 is its emphasis on leadership.
I think Mr. Mamabolo thought he was showing leadership by admitting problems in the building, and they knew about them.
Let me leave my comments there before I get into trouble.
Let’s say I am highly disappointed that such a senior official can come to National television and speak in this manner.
“…they conduct inspections on the buildings every year…” - Premier Makhura
It is unlikely that a building will go from 85 - 100% compliant to 21% compliant in 12 months.
If possible, there will be a serious leadership problem, and the OHS management system will be decapitated.
Lastly, can I certainly state that the Gauteng Provincial Government did not comply with its duties under Section 8 of the OHS Act?
This is because the head of infrastructure knew about the building's 21% OHS compliance, and the Department continued to house its employees in the building.
Rheinmetall Denel Munitions Factory response
“We are investigating the matter…” – Rheinmetall Denel Munition
I think a better response that would indicate a functioning OHS management system would be:
“The explosion happened on building X. We can confirm that the building met the legal and other requirements. We can also confirm that our fire detectors and control systems were last inspected on day X. They were found to be satisfactory. We are investigating this matter further to determine which systems failed.” - Mr. Nkululeko Thusini sample response
Not a one-liner – “We are investigating the matter.”
Five ISO 45001 OHS Management System steps that could assist in preventing fires at your factory
Ok, enough of my rant.
Let me help you with some tips on how an OHS management system can help prevent fires at your factory.
Let’s look into the common causes of fires at a factory. I took three articles that I thought were spot-on in this regard:
Conclusion: The common cause of fires in a factory is due to hazards.
Step 1: Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA)
The common theme in these and similar articles is that factories must first identify hazards and determine control measures to mitigate the associated risks.
Hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA) forms the basis of a sound OHS management system.
To assist you with HIRA, you can use OHSAS 18001 (OHS Management System Guidelines—Requirements) and ISO 45001 (OHS Management System—requirements).
Remember, a hazard is defined as the:
"source, situation, or act with a potential for harm in terms of human injury or ill health, or a combination of these." - ISO 45001
A risk is defined as the following:
"combination of the likelihood of an occurrence of a hazardous event or exposure(s) and the severity of injury or ill health that can be caused by the event or exposure(s)." - ISO 45001
Step 1 conclusion: Identify hazards identification associated with all activities and sources at your factory. Evaluate the likelihood and impact of the occurrence of these hazards.
Step 2: Determine control measures
Next, you need to determine and implement control measures.
The control measures must eliminate or reduce the risk associated with a hazardous event or exposure(s).
The control measures hierarchy needs to be as follows:
Elimination: For example, the Gauteng Provincial Department could have spent all its efforts to make the building 85 – 100% safety compliant. This way, you would have eliminated some of the hazards associated with the non-compliance.
Substitution: For example, the Kya Sands factory could have installed a fire water reticulation system with on-site pumps to replace the use of fire extinguishers to fight fires.
Engineering controls: For example, the Kya Sands factory could have installed fire and smoke detectors to activate the firefighting system at specified set points.
Signage, warnings, and administrative controls, e.g., the Gauteng Provincial Department, could have condemned the 21% compliant building and moved all persons out of it as a matter of urgency before this incident could occur.
Personal protective equipment: For example, breathing apparatuses are provided in the building. - I am just grasping at straws on this example :)
This means you must seek to eliminate the risk before using substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment.
Step 2 conclusion: Determine control measures to eliminate or reduce the likelihood and impact of the hazards associated with activities and hazard sources at your factory.
Step 3: Determine and comply with legal and other requirements
The number one legal requirement for most factories is the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
"Every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of his employees" - OHS Act Section 8(1), General duties of employers to their employees
Other requirements can relate to specifications, standards and engineering best practices.
You would have to determine the following for your factory at least:
The standards and specifications your machinery and systems need to comply with,
The agreed safe operating values for your machinery and systems,
The safe work procedures,
The checklists and forms are to be used for audits, maintenance checks, operation checks, etc.
Routine inspections and maintenance must be done on machinery, the system, etc.
Step 3 conclusion: Determine the legal and other requirements you need to comply with. Ensure that you take action to ensure compliance.
Step 4: Establish the OHS objectives and programmes
It would be best if you established the OHS definition of success.
This means you must determine matrices and indexes to measure the OHS performance.
This may include:
Lost time injury
Total man hours
Recordable incident frequency rate
System availability indicators
Incident and non-compliance investigation indicators
Incident and non-compliance corrective action indicators
Step 4 conclusion: Determine the OHS key performance indicators. Develop a programme or system that will ensure you can measure the performance and take corrective actions where there is no or poor performance.
Step 5: Implement and control
Implementing the OHS management system is the most critical part.
To achieve successful implementation, you will need commitment from top management and all employees.
The top management needs to:
Determine and make available, in a timely and efficient manner, all the resources needed to prevent workplace injuries and ill health.
Identify who needs to do what concerning the management of OH&S and make sure they are aware of their responsibilities and what they are accountable for.
Ensure that those members of the organization’s management with OH&S responsibilities have the authority to fulfill their roles.
Ensure there is clarity of responsibilities at the interfaces between different functions.
Appoint one of its members as the person responsible for the OH&S system and report on its performance.
Step 5 conclusion: Implement your control measures and legal and other requirements. Continuously measure performance and implement operational controls to assure compliance and performance. Ensure you have support from top management at all times.
Conclusion
The fires that occurred so far during September 2018 make me very angry.
Putting simple systems in place and ensuring the implementation of these systems could have prevented the loss of lives.
It is very worrying that top management does not understand and care about their duties under Section 8 of the OHS Act.
In this article, I gave a high-level summary of some of the requirements of the OHS management system.
You can follow these five steps to ensure that you prevent fires at your factory:
Step 1: Identify hazards identification associated with all activities and sources at your factory. Evaluate the likelihood and impact of the occurrence of these hazards (aka Risk Assessment).
Step 2: Determine control measures to eliminate or reduce the likelihood and impact of the hazards associated with activities and hazard sources at your factory.
Step 3: Determine the legal and other requirements you need to comply with. Ensure that you take action to ensure compliance.
Step 4: Determine the OHS key performance indicators. Develop a programme or system that will ensure you can measure the performance and take corrective actions where there is no or poor performance.
Step 5: Implement your control measures and legal and other requirements. Continuously measure performance and implement operational controls to assure compliance and performance. Ensure you have support from top management at all times.
Remember, you can use ISO 45001 to develop or improve your factory's OHS management system.
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