Fire Regulations in Industrial Companies and the Level of Impact and Risk: The Case of the Municipality of Soledad, Atlántico

Companies in Soledad - Atlántico are the population used to carry out the research study, segmented according to their size, business name, and activity and whose data on compliance with fire regulations was provided by the Volunteer Fire Department Soledad, Colombia. As a sample analyzed from the database, the total of 211 records of companies in the industrial sector available at the time of analyzing the data was taken because most of them are in the ranking of large companies, according to their number of employees and their level of risk, tending to be the latter higher than the average of companies in other sectors. The database used in the analysis was in a CSV (comma-separated values) format, created in Microsoft Excel®, and it stored the transcriptions of the original records of inspections done by the Volunteer Fire Department of Soledad in each company, applying a checklist designed by them. Each record included the enterprise's name, risk level, impact, and compliance or not compliance for each of the items in the checklist, for 46 fields. Due to a confidentiality agreement, the names of the companies and the specific compliance data of each cannot be publicly disclosed.

The audit checklist, originally used for the verification of fire measures in companies and subsequent storage in the database by the Soledad Volunteer Fire Department, is a technical inspection format (in its third version of January 2018), which contains 40 minimum standards, included in 11 numerals, where the first 3 are general information of the company. A synthesis of this checklist is shown in Appendix A. From the 4th to the 11th numeral, the variables evaluated for the certification of compliance with fire regulations are considered:

1. General requirements for fire protection in the building: These present the minimum standards that ensure that the primary purpose of safeguarding human lives is met in the event of a fire in a building [6] The requirements considered in this numeral are evaluated in each company, no matter the type of building.
2. Emergency Plan: It is a set of measures used as a guide to develop and establish procedures for the attention of an emergency, reducing the chances of significant damage to human life, the environment, and material goods for which this action plan is responsible for its safety.
3. Emergency Brigades: Voluntary occupation by a group of employees in companies, trained to prevent and pay attention to emergencies generated inside or outside the company. These must be equipped with safety and fire extinguishing implements necessary to face any emergency in its first stage of development [12].
4. Portable fire systems: Portable fire systems are largely effective and are always available, thanks to their operability. These provide security and generate reliability, and, at the same way, they are mainly helpful to exemplify them for caution and thus avoid fire and refire such as fire extinguishers [13, 14].
5. Fixed fire system: they seek to attack a fire in its early stages to reduce, control, or mitigate its effects. Usually, an extinguishing agent is used, which is released on the fire according to the systems installed in the building [4, 15].
6. Electrical circuits: Electrical elements, devices, and equipment connected to protect against increases in voltage and current in electrical circuits [16].
7. Piping system for fluid transport: These systems are responsible for moving ducts from one place to another. Through these, the supply to the processes is optimized and improved, while the safe supply of liquids, gases, and other substances, duly marked and measured, is sought [17].
8. Chemicals: substances in solid, liquid, gaseous or colloidal state with physicochemical characteristics can cause damage to people, installations, or the environment.

The type of research developed considered a quantitative –descriptive approach, that is, based on the analysis of quantitative data, where a statistical analysis was applied with a Pearson Chi-Square test to determine the association between the variables with the impact, with the level of risk or with both. The statistical software JASP 0.16v was used for the analysis, applying the Pearson Chi-Square test. The test was conducted to analyze the compliance by aspect in each variable versus the level of risk and the level of impact (in a separate analysis). The original database of 211 companies had to be purged of repeated or incorrectly typed records, considering a final total of 185 companies for the analysis. For the statistical analysis, the null hypotheses considered that there was no significant association between a given aspect in a variable and the level of risk or the level of impact. Similarly, the association test results by the level of risk and level of impact were organized in a contingency table.

The level of impact was defined as the approximate number of square meters that the establishment has in front of the occupied area that can damage the environment. That is, the level of impact is associated with the fact that the larger the space occupied by the company's facilities, the more significant the impact it can potentially have on its surroundings once the fire starts or leaking occurs (for example, neighboring businesses or the nearby community). All firefighters corps must use this characterization of the level of impact throughout Colombia, according to the national regulation [18], and Firemen are trained to identify and estimate the level of impact when applying the checklist on a company. The level of impact is divided in six levels:

• Level 1: 1/20 m²
• Level 2: 21/100 m²
• Level 3: 101/1,000 m²
• Level 4: 1,001/2,0000 m²
• Level 5: 20,001/30,000 m²
• Level 6: > 30,000 m²

On the other hand, the level of risk was defined according to the economic activity carried out by the organization and the risk they represent in the environment. The establishments are grouped into six levels or categories that are:

• Level 1: Mild
• Level 2: Moderate
• Level 3: Ordinary 1
• Level 4: Ordinary 2
• Level 5: Extra risk
• Level 6: Special risk condition.

A p-value <0.05 was considered for the association test, which indicated a statistically significant association between variables. Likewise, the Cramer's V statistic was applied, assuming a strong association with values close to 1.0 and a weak association with values close to 0.0, considering that the contingency table generated exceeded the dimensions of 2 x 2. Cramer's V test determined how strong the association was in those aspects of a variable in which a significant statistical association was found between the level of risk, the level of impact, or both. This analysis was complementary to Pearson's Chi-square test, allowing the strength of the association to be identified. Another advantage of applying a Cramer's V test is that it does not depend on the size of the table and is based on a Chi-square adjustment [19].

The analysis carried out in this article focused on the search for the relationship of the items of the numerals analyzed in the database of the firefighters of the municipality of Soledad, Atlántico of companies inspected concerning compliance with fire regulations. This represents a case study to analyze the association between the level of risk and the level of impact against variables such as fire brigades, fixed and mobile fire systems, among others. Although the level of impact depends on the analysis done at the moment of the inspection by the firefighters, it is based on Colombia's national regulation, centered on the area occupied and the potential damage a fire or fortuitous event might cause on the company and its surroundings. We consider this perspective of assessing the impact level acceptable, but it might be convenient to use another view, considering other elements of the impact as mentioned by Kodur et al. [20].

A statistically significant association was found with respect to compliance in the variables Piping system for fluid transport, Chemicals, and the level of impact that companies can generate on the environment, facilities, and people. In this way, it was highlighted that compliance with the anti-drip protection system of pipes carrying hazardous fluids was observed and concerning aspects of the existence of spill-over systems and product compatibility in relation to chemical substances. In this case, compliance predominates, especially among companies with impact levels between 3 and 4, that is, companies whose relationship between available area vs. occupied area ranges around 5% to 10% (Levels 3 and 4, as shown in the methods section). This result can be given since the size of the companies in the sample was mainly between medium and large-sized. Regarding the magnitude of the association, a moderate magnitude was found according to the Cramer's V test results since values between approximately 0.25 and 0.32 were observed.

On the other hand, compared to the level of risk associated with the company's economic activity, an association was observed between this, and five of the nine variables recorded in the database of the firefighters of Soledad. It was observed that there is a statistically significant association between emergency brigades, portable and fixed systems, electrical circuits, and piping systems. It stands out from the rest of the variables mentioned, where compliance predominated, the one corresponding to the emergency brigades, where non-compliance predominated (65% of the companies did not comply). This highlights that training against fire and coaching in the brigades of the companies in the municipality is a critical aspect to improve. Likewise, like the impact, the Cramer's V test showed a moderate association with respect to the variables and the level of risk since they were above 0.22.

The authors of this article like to thank the Firefighting Corp of the Municipality of Soledad, Atlántico.