Fire prevention involves protection from and reduction of the hazards associated with fires. Three major goals need to be met by any fire prevention plan:

• Life safety
  
• Property protection
  
• Continuity of operations

Fire prevention and management deals with the avoidance, detection and putting out of fires, in addition to such secondary activities as studies on the causes of fire, instruction of employees about fire hazards, and the maintenance and improvement of fire-fighting equipment. Little official attention was given to fire prevention prior to World War II.
The solution to fire safety is essentially to prevent fire from starting in the first place, but an understanding of what causes fire is necessary to recognize how to avoid it.

The basic things required for fire include: some type of fuel, oxygen and heat. The seat of a fire can easily reach hundreds, if not thousands of degrees Celsius. However, the chief hazard with fire is not the high temperature or the flames, but the smoke. A potential fire source is anything that gets hot, gives off sparks or has naked flames, whether in the usual working situation or if a defect should develop. There is a greater risk of fire when these things are placed close to flammable materials than if they were separated.

Rules for Fire Prevention

The first "rule" of fire prevention - avoiding placing things that could catch fire close to the things that could ignite the fire or removing the ignition source completely - is at times difficult or impossible to put into practice, in which case we need to use a second method: fire proofing.

Here are some simple steps to prevent fires:

• Keep all sources of fuel at least three feet away from all heat sources.
  
• Install smoke alarms and fire extinguishers throughout your building.
  
• Consider installing an automatic fire sprinkler system.
  
• Determine at least two ways to escape from every area of the building
  
• Practise your plan, especially with people who have special needs such as the disabled and the elderly, at least twice a year and revise it as necessary.

Many maintenance and engineering managers in their quest for ways to improve fire prevention and safety, have found that the small, overlooked components often can make the biggest difference and pay the largest dividends. The building firestop, a form of fire protection that serves to seal openings in fire-rated walls and floors, is one such item. Firestop products detect heat and or fire and automatically discharge or expand at specific locations they were designed to protect.

Escape Planning

• Develop a fire escape plan and practise often
  
• Know two ways to exit every major area of your workplace
  
• Make sure safety bars on windows can be opened from inside
  
• Crawl low, under smoke
  
• If closed doors feel hot to the touch, use another exit
  
• Identify a place to meet outside
  
• Escape first and then call for emergency help

Fire prevention mainly calls for you to be mindful of the things that could catch fire and those things that could start a fire and then taking action to reduce the possibilities as low as possible. Immediately follow these procedures if you notice a fire or see/smell smoke:

1. Notify the local fire brigade.
   
2. Trigger the building alarm.
   
3. If you can leave the building safely, do so, but first isolate the area by closing windows and doors.
   
4. If possible, shut down equipment in the immediate area.
   
5. Use a portable fire extinguisher if possible and if you have received the proper training, to:
   (i) Assist yourself to evacuate
   (ii) Assist others to evacuate
   (iii) Control a small fire
   
6. Leave the area of the fire immediately and walk, do not run to the exit and designated gathering spot; do not collect personal or official items.
   
7. You should give the fire/police crews details of the problem upon their arrival.