Older persons as a group requiring special attention
They have limited mobility
Fire safety awareness is relatively weak
Nursing homes serve as a gathering place for the elderly
In the event of a fire
It is very easy to cause casualties
01. South of Milan, Italy
At about 1 a.m. local time on July 7, 2023, a fire broke out in a nursing home south of Milan, Italy, killing at least 6 people and injuring 81 people from smoke poisoning.
02. Southern Western Siberia, Russia
On the night of December 23, 2022, local time, a fire broke out in a private nursing home in the southern city of Kemerovo, southern Siberia, Russia. Preliminary estimates of the area of the fire were about 180 square meters, and the fire killed at least 20 people, and the injured were taken to the hospital for examination.
Fire safety hazards in nursing institutions
01. Personnel have weak awareness of fire safety
Some elderly people in nursing homes lack sufficient awareness of fire safety precautions, like to smoke in bed, and the falling soot is very easy to ignite combustibles and cause fire. Some practitioners also have insufficient understanding of the danger of fire, lack of escape knowledge, and once a fire occurs, it is easy to form a chaotic situation.
02. The elderly have weak self-help ability
The elderly are slow to move, limited physical strength, coupled with most of them are not in good physical condition, or even unable to act independently, weak perception of the environment, difficult to detect fires and escape in time, once a fire occurs, it is very easy to cause casualties.
03. Illegal erection of temporary buildings
Due to the large number of elderly people in some nursing homes, social public pension services can not keep up, and in order to increase the number of beds, nursing institutions build temporary rooms and staff dormitories, which brings great fire hazards.
04. The laying of electrical lines is not standardized
Due to inadequate maintenance, some elderly care institutions have problems such as unthreaded wire protection, aging of wires, damaged lines, and unauthorized connection of wires, which can easily lead to short circuits and overloads of the lines and cause fires.
05. The evacuation channel is not standardized
It is difficult to escape from a fire in a nursing home, coupled with the blockage of debris in the fire passage, and the window is not opened when the anti-theft net window is installed, once a fire occurs, it is easy to affect fire evacuation escape and fire rescue.
06. Fire fighting facilities are not kept intact and effective
The fire fighting equipment and facilities of some nursing homes are not configured in accordance with the requirements of the code, coupled with inadequate maintenance, insufficient number of fire extinguishers, insufficient pressure, and irregular setting of emergency lights and evacuation instruction signs.
Recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Fire Rescue Bureau jointly issued the "Regulations on the Fire Safety Management of Pension Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions"), which further strengthened the fire safety management of pension institutions under the new situation, and required civil affairs and fire departments at all levels to take the "Regulations" as an important basis for guiding the fire safety management of the elderly care service industry, and carefully organize study and communication. It is emphasized that pension institutions shall carry out service activities in accordance with laws and regulations and mandatory standards such as construction and fire protection, and meet the fire safety conditions stipulated by relevant laws and regulations.
To view the full text of the "Provisions on Fire Safety Management of Pension Institutions", please click "Read Original" below.
Elderly care institutions are crowded places
In the event of a fire
It is very easy to cause mass casualties
It is worth noting that the elderly have limited mobility
Weak awareness of fire safety
therefore
Strengthen the fire safety work of elderly care service institutions
Especially important!