Fire and Rescue Service Law in England and Wales and How Law Operates - Case Study Example

Running Head: Law, globalization and ethics Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date of Submission: Fire and Rescue Service law in England and Wales and how law operates In England and Wales the Fire Services are not formed nationally hence the Fire and Rescue Service is directly governed as well as funded by a fire authority. The Legislation and provision of firefighting in England and Wales is perceived to date back in the year 1865 when the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was passed by the parliament (Cornelius, pp45-70, 2006). This Act took the responsibility of firefighting from the hands of insurance companies to fire service and rescue teams. The legal requirement for the local authorities’ fire brigades to engage in fire service operation came into place immediately after the Fire Brigades Act 1938 was passed by the parliament .After the Second World War, in the year 1948, under the Fire Services Act 1947, the fire services was restored to the county councils and county boroughs. In 2005, the government of UK introduced the electrical safety rules under the buildings regulations for England and Wales. As a result of this law safe electrical installations were carried out in homes to protect people from fire and electric shocks (Elizabeth, pp.36-49, 2004). The Regulator Reform fire and Safety England and Wales Order 2005 was established in October 2006 mainly to enact more laws regarding legislation as well as premises fire safety. It applies to most of the employers as well as people owning large buildings. Under the fire Precautions Act, it stipulates that the occupier of a building has a duty to apply for a fire certificate through he or she should ensure that the means of escape for fire rescue teams are in place and materials necessary are available. Additionally, this Act ensures that the means of fire fighting for the fire service and rescue teams are efficient and kept in a working order to minimize any hazards which could arise during the process. Moreover, this Act ensures that local authorities involved in fire fighting provides adequate trainings on personnel involved in fire rescue services, emergencies and when dealing with road traffic accidents. This Act also mandates the fire brigades under Section 10 to shut down the premise if it is dangerous as well as if there is a suspicion of a serious risk (George, pp.194, 2007). The Fire Safety Order is used as a foundation under which an employer or a person in control of a building is supposed to carry out a fire risk assessment as a way of ensuring the safety of its occupants as well as employees. Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 The roles as well as responsibilities fire and Rescue Service teams in England and Wales have been clearly outlined under the Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004. The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 (c.21) was enacted on 1st October 2004 as an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and it applies only to the Great Britain. This Act provides some provisions which only apply to England as well as Wales. The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 was enacted as a replacement for the Fire Services Act 1947 and this Act outlines duties as well as the powers of fire and Rescue Authorities (John, pp.34-68, 2007). Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 in Section 6 outlines duties and responsibilities as well as core functions of fire service and rescue teams. The core functions outlined include Fire and Safety, in which a fire and rescue Authority is supposed to make some provisions to ensure that the fire safety precautions in the area have been enhanced. Additionally, in making provisions under subsection one of the Act, a fire and rescue authority should in particular make specific arrangements in terms of providing information, publicity and encouragement to various communities or individuals in preventing fires , death or injury, giving advice upon request by various communities on how individuals can actually prevent fires, how they can restrict it from spreading in the buildings as well as other property and lastly how they can escape from the buildings and other property in case of fire(John, pp.34-68,2007). . The second task which entails the Fire and Rescue service under this Act is Fire-fighting. Under this function the fire and rescue authority has a responsibility of extinguishing fires in the event of fire within their area. Additionally, they have a role of ensuring that the property of the occupiers is protected from damage as well as saving the lives of the occupants in the buildings. When it comes to making provision under subsection (1) of this Act then a fire and rescue authority is supposed to protect personal equipments, services and other items which are more important to the owners (John, pp.34-68, 2007).Additionally, this section mandates the fire and rescue authorities to ensure that it has adequate personnel in the event of an accident or fire and they have proper training in handling the situation accordingly. Moreover authorities should , ensure that proper arrangements have been made in relation to the situation as well as putting in place effective communication tools which will support communication process and calls that need help from various department. Under this Act, Subsection 1, it is the duty of fire and Rescue teams or authorities put in place proper arrangements that will ensure the information required for investigation is obtained without any problems. In order to ensure that the fire does not cause much damage to the occupiers property then, this section also mandates the fire and rescue teams to take reasonable steps which will prevent or limit the extend of damage on the immediate property or the occupiers property. The third function stipulated by this Act in relation to the Fire and Rescue service is tasks related to Road traffic accidents. Here the Ac t, under Subsection 1 states that in the event of an accident then the Fire and Rescue team should rescue people as well as save lives of the injured by rushing them to the hospital and offering first treatment to the injured. Secondly, they have a responsibility of ensuring that the injured and survivors are completely protected from harm in the event that the Fire and Rescue teams considers much beneficial to individuals involved (Cornelius, pp45-70, 2006). Thirdly, this section outlines that it is the duty of fire and rescue authority secure personal belongings or items of the injured from public harm in an event of an accident. As a way of dealing with such situations, this Act states that Fire and Rescue service authorities should ensure that they provide adequate training programs to its personnel on how well to deal with such emergencies (Cornelius, pp45-70, 2006). The last function outlined by this Act falls under the category f emergencies in which the Secretary of State has a right to give out instructions in relation to emergencies resulting from fires, road traffic accidents and other disasters as outlined in section 7 and of the 2004 Act.Under this Act the Rescue teams and fire service are supposed to secure personnel belongings of the individuals involved, deal with call requests for help, obtain important information related to function discharging and lastly make arrangements which ensures that proper steps are taken to limit the extend of property damage (Elizabeth, pp.36-49, 2004). The fire and rescue Service teams in England and Wales functions on the principles and rules stipulated by the Fire and Services Act 2004 which was passed by the parliament in order to replace the oldest Fire Services Act 1947.Under this Act the fire service officers of UK have powers to enter as well as obtain information only under two situations thus when they want to obtain additional information in which the service may need to assist them in dealing with fires or other emergencies in those premises or incase the fire officers need to carry out an investigation concerning the cause and spread of fire. Though, this act permits the Fire service officers to enter into the premises they are not liable or have no right to enter the premise incase the premises were unoccupied and it was a private dwelling immediately before the fire begun. This situation maybe exempted only if the fire a 24 hours written notice was given prior to the fire. In situations where the fire rescue officer’s encounters problems then the officers have a right to apply justice of the peace for a warrant authorizing the officer to enter the premises by force at a reasonable time. Since the UK fire service and rescue teams are among the leading practitioners in terms of disaster management, their significant impact was actually shown during the Haiti earthquake.UK rescue teams played a significant role in rescuing the victims as well as helping the injured. From the report filed it is clear disaster management teams were send to Haiti to carry out an assessment with whom included 200 UN workers. The rescue teams provided food, shelter and sanitation to the injured as well as the survivors (Cornelius, pp45-70, 2006).The UK Fire and Rescue Service with the help of trained dogs Holly and Echo were able to rescue four survivors in ten days which was an achievement on them. This actually implies that Fire Service and Rescue teams are very important in the current world of globalization. Effects of Globalization on Fire and Rescue Service Globalization is actually defined as the increase in the economic activities, trade, information flow among various economies as well as technological advancements (Frank, pp.266-280, 2009). Globalization has a great impact on the Fire and rescue services as a result of the increasing changes in climate. Globalization has an immense effect on the Fire and Rescue service law in many economies given the fact various laws apply to different situations differently. It is quiet clear that globalization is associated with both negative as well as positive impact on Fire and Rescue services from the way laws today are enacted to the way current rescue activities are carried out. Due to globalization, climatic change is expected to increase extreme weather conditions as well as other natural disasters resulting from such conditions. The increase in natural disasters is expected to cause serious humanitarian crises effects and this implies that the Fire and Rescue service teams should put in place proper plans to deal with the situation. This plans would include putting in place proper equipments to deal with major natural disasters and in worse situations it may involve asking for assistance from international bodies in case of severe disasters. In order to deal with the emerging conditions resulting from various disasters, technological advances have been put in place to ensure safety(Frank, pp.266-280, 2009). For example automatic monitoring alarm systems and extinguishing systems have been put in place primarily to improve various chances of fire prevention during fire rescue operations. Though, the new technologies of fire alarm systems have been put in place, false alarms can cause possible cause unnecessary work for fire rescue authorities hence undermining the confidence in the systems. As a result of globalization, currently there are various developments in economy, trade which tends to have a large impact on the environment. Today fire fighters have put in place bucket brigades as well as horse drawn pumpers mainly to deal with the process of fire rescue. Additionally, highly sophisticated vehicles have bee developed mainly to deal with emergencies through the use of computerized equipments agent applications. Globalization has expanded this field in a manner that Fire fighting today has grown from local volunteer to nearly one of the fastest growing professional careers today for individuals involved in this field (Frank, pp.266-280, 2009). Globalization has a affected the current trends through which Fire and Rescue teams deals with disasters through community development safety programs hence reducing the rates of death as well as injury incase of a disaster, fire, and even floods, earthquakes among others. Additionally, protective measures have been implemented mainly to curb life loss on the side of rescue teams in severe fire situations. With increasing economic activities, trade and good employment opportunities most individuals are seeking good paying jobs hence limiting individuals from joining voluntary fire brigades or rescue teams. This is because globalization is associated with various opportunities leading to increased competition among employers as well as employees (Fiona,pp.156-170,2005). Due to fluctuations in the level of economic activities resulting from increases in population growth it is quiet clear that the public resources available for rescue services will reduce drastically hence affecting the services being offered by such teams. Ethical considerations in the fire and rescue services and how they are dealt with Ethical conduct is usually considered as a goal for all the individuals who work with fire rescue services. Ethics play a fundamental role by governing the behavior of various individuals involved in fire and rescue teams (Ashly, Rob, Tom, pp.148-160, 2007). The society has established some basic socially acceptable conduct which actually matches the morals as well as the values held by various citizens. Ethical consideration includes those held by those in fire department as well as those which include personal ethics. The first ethical consideration is ensuring that the scene of investigation is kept safe in which the decomposition of materials as well as potential chemical releases are guarded against. Additionally, it is good to ensure that the collapsing materials resulting from the destabilization of building structures are taken good care of. Moreover, it is necessary that the scene in which the fire occurred is well preserved hence it is always necessary that the scene of investigation be preserved first in order to facilitate good investigations. Additionally, slips and trips together with falls should be considered as a way of managing the safety of the investigator (Andrew,pp.298-313, 2007). Potential ethical dilemmas perceived in the fire service administration include; effective ways of decision making for a fire fighter especially when it comes to making a choice on whether to save an old person or a child during a rescue service operation. Rescue teams have to take into account various ethical considerations in terms of risking their own life for the sake of other people hence it is always necessary that individuals involved in fire service as well as rescue departments identify various strategies for dealing with this issues. Taking bribes, is an ethical issue especially during scene investigation hence it is necessary that all the personnel involved in the scene investigation not to engage themselves in un ethical issues such as bribery. Additionally, it is always necessary that confidentiality of information be given a priority especially during scene investigations as way of avoiding misleading information that could confuse the investigations. Roles of Fire and Rescue Service Practitioners in the changing environment Fire Service and rescue teams play a significant role in the changing world today. The rescue teams play a important role during various disasters which comprises promotion of fire safety instructions, fighting fires, protecting people as well as property from the fires, rescuing people from road traffic accidents, dealing with serious emergencies such as flooding or even terrorist attacks and responding to various needs of the communities which include training as well as educating them on how to manage risks that they face in their daily lives (Andrew, pp.298-313, 2007).Additionally, the Fire Service and rescue teams have a responsibility of promoting fire safety measures in the event of fire. The rescue teams and Fire service individuals therefore have a role of providing information, publicity and encouragement in the event of an accident, fire or other disaster such as flood, earthquakes among others. They provide information on important steps on how various individuals can prevent fires as well as other disasters. In order to prevent fire injuries and death these rescue teams enforce specific fire safety legislation laws to ensure safety of buildings (Charles, pp.152-190). Moreover, they provide important information to house occupiers on the way to prevent fires from spreading to other buildings, property as well as ways of escaping from building in case of fire. Today most of the fire and rescue services have implemented departments which are entitled to deal with community, accident and emergency safety education (Charles, pp.152-190,2005). These departments are entitled with providing trainings as well as education to school children, vulnerable areas of the community through campaigns, as well as offering free smoke detectors as away of reducing deaths in the homes in event of fire. References Andrew, F., M (2007). Introduction to fire safety management. Publisher: Butterworth- Heinemann, pp. 298-313 Ashly, P., Rob, M., Tom, C (2007). Human resource management: ethics and Employment. United States: Oxford University Press, pp.148-160 Charles, L., S (2005). Fire and emergency service administration: management and Leadership practices. Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning, pp.152-190 Cornelius, N., D (2006).The local laws of England and Wales. Publisher: Knight & Co., pp.45-70 Elizabeth, I (2004). Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.Publisher:The Stationery Office, pp 36-49 Frank, J., L (2009).Globalization: The Making of World Society. Publisher: Wiley- Blackwell, pp.266-280 George, M (2007).Fire and Rescue Service manual: Vol. 2: Fire service operations, Incidents involving rescue from road vehicles, Volume 2.pp.194 Fiona, H (2005). Globalization and regulatory character: regulatory reform after the Kader Toy Factory fire. Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., pp.156-170 John, S., D (2007).Introduction to Private Security. Publisher: engage Learning, pp.34- 68. Read More