Pg.no. 117
In the light of experience, prevention is seen to be most important and consists of two
distinct components. On the one hand, the primary responsibility falling upon the political
authorities empowered to implement the legal prescriptions concerning fire protection, to
forecast accidents and to inform the population, as well as to set up measures and means for
fighting fires and Explosions. On the other hand, the responsible behavior of each individual
based upon an education geared towards caution and the respect of instructions in case of
fire.
Defining, and controlling the implementation of, the particular rules of protection against
fires, specific to each enterprise presenting a potential danger, including the training of
security personnel, is also relevant in this context.
The many types of fire and the preventive and protective measures which relate to them,
make it advisable to limit the present study to the specific measures falling to the political
authorities in one area only, namely that of "forest fires". This type of fire is of particular
interest to developing countries and the preventive measures to be applied have a general
representative value, that is :
Organizing an observation service, prevention and alarm (security) service at local and
regional levels;
Implementing legislation regulating the use of fire by all the population present in or at the
edge of forests, and more particularly by owners and individuals exercising a professional
activity in sensitive areas;
Planning and concrete preparation (periodic maintenance) for fire-fighting through adequate
landscaping of the territory and appropriate forest cultivation limiting fire propagation
(alternating vegetation, clearance, trimming), creating and maintaining access paths
(extinction) and fire-break areas as well as fire-fighting equipment such as water supplies
(conduits, cisterns), watch towers and meteorological posts, and the construction of
helicopter landing pads;
Surveillance and detection of fires as soon as the danger of fires is forecast by the ad hoc
meteorological service (which comprises automatic or mobile statistics posts observing the
winds and the vegetation: dryness, force, direction, evolution);
As soon as the danger of fire increases, activating an alarm plan (basic intervention plan)
requiring the engagement of preventive intervention squads (firemen), and their wide
positioning as near as possible to the threatened zones, and making available water bombers
and specialized aerial machines ready for action;
Preparation and concretization (organization) of an intervention mechanism: this requires the
setting up of specialized management programmes ensuring the coordination of powerful
and efficient equipment and means for fighting forest fires (instruction);
Preparedness management and the coordination of the use of the means of intervention of the
authorities and the information and alarm services for the population require a secure
transmission network (radio network);