Should Fire Safety be Introduced in Kenyan Universities as a Social Science?

Author Reference

Benard, L. (2015): Should Fire Safety be Introduced as a Social Science in Kenya. Intel Fire Group of Companies Blog. Nairobi, Kenya.

Should Fire Safety be introduced in Kenyan Universities as a Social Science in Kenya?

A terminal building engulf in fire at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Kenya

The world over, fire safety industry has seen growth in recent times due to massive industrialization and the need to mitigate risks that are related to fire. The US fire administration while elaborating through its website on the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) that comprises about 75% of all reported fires that occur worldwide annually, reports about 22, 000, 000 incidences and 1, 000, 000 fire each year. Interestingly, these statistics are reported by about 23, 000 fire departments worldwide of which slightly over 30 fire departments with a population protected of more than 500, 000. The US which is considered the most developed in the world has an average of 345, 950 career fire fighters and 783, 300 volunteers and this is as per the report on career firefighters vs. volunteers firefighters given by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA, 2013). This seriously articulates the facts that fire safety industry and as a profession is still way below the standards comparing the number of firefighters against the population of coverage. The high number of firefightersin the US, though not consummate with the population, is as a result of recognition of various skill development and capacity building by their institutions of higher learning. This is something that is lacking in Africa and Kenya in particular.

Take for example occupational fire safety course, which by all measures is a social science; there is not even one institution of higher learning that offers this course in Kenya. Those that purport to offer the course have curriculum that can pass off as mere antiques in the fire safety service industry. This is to mean that these curricula are decorated and colorful but without content and equally the personnel are neither trained in fire safety nor the specialized equipment for the training. Some of these so called fire safety professionals claim to have had their training from overseas with the countries of choice for Kenya being Britain and Japan but looking through the training tells a different story. Most of these training are government funded and in many cases does not last for more than two weeks and are specific especially when donations in the industry or new equipment have been purchased and their is need to build capacity for their usage. Unless the career fire professionals can ague here that you can actually learn the social skills in two weeks or less, then these splashed qualifications by individuals in the fire industry in Kenya remains a fallacy.

On the other hand, officials of Kenya National Fire Brigade Association (KENFIBA), an adhoc organization for firefighters at the public fire stations, indicated in an interview with a local media for an online newspaper that there is only one firefighter for every 83, 333 Kenyans. Even though these figures cannot be verified or authenticated, the suggestion that the number translate to one firefighter for every 16, 000 households in Kenya should be enough to subdue a call into the fire safety service sector by the Kenyan institutions of higher learning and more so the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD). KICD should encourage stakeholders in the industry to come up with curricula that are environmentally standardized and localized to Kenya to enhance the quality of fire safety professionals in Kenya. The fire safety industry in Kenya should recognize that the qualification in fire safety service is not on the certificate one holds but the curriculum one is taken through and the quality of the personnel, the trainers, the lecturers or in some instances the facilitators. The fire safety profession needs more and more professional to demystify the myths and innuendos that the perceived “fire professionals” have created in the industry in Kenya. This process must start with our universities and other institutions of higher learning to introduce courses in fire safety as a social science and tailor them to the local environment.

The author is a PhD research generalist in public safety service delivery