A Study to Assess Knowledge and Practices regarding Fire Safety among Health care workers in selected Hospitals of Pune City

Abstract

Background: Every year, in India, about 25,000 persons die due to fires and related causes. According to India Risk Surveys 2018, outbreak of fire poses risks to business continuity and operations and ranks India at 3rd position in fire incidents, especially in Northern and Western regions of India. Past incidents show that most fire accidents take place due to three major reasons: electrical short circuit and gas cylinder/stove bursts, human negligence, and ill-formed habits. As per the ADSI-2019 report, there were 11,037 fire accidents reported across the country in 2019. The number of such reported fire accidents fell by around 16% compared to 2018. The decline was more steeped compared to the year earlier, which was around 2%. The number of persons injured in fire accidents also more than halved with 441 injured persons in 2019 compared to 1193 in 2015. Fire can happen in very severe condition and so many people and animals dying due to this. It is one of the disasters faced by India. So fire safety and fire measures are one of the important aspects. Most of the fire seen in the hospital areas is due to the gaseous and chemical substances. So, for the prevention of fire or further complications fire safety measures are must. Health care worker know about the fire safety measures and preventions. Subjects and Methods: Setting: The study was conducted at selected Hospitals of the Pune city. subject the study sample comprised 100 health care workers, three tools were used for data collection, namely: Sociodemographic data, structured knowledge questionnaire, structured practice checklist. Results: Statistically significant difference was noticed between sociodemographic variables like age, gender, profession, educational qualification, work experience with Knowledge and practices of health care workers. Conclusion: There was an appreciably good practice about fire safety but they are having poor knowledge regarding fire safety. Recommendation: The study recommended continuous observation of practices can done to evaluate practices of fire safety and interventional study can be conducted to improve knowledge of health care worker.