Burning Rubber on the Night Shift of a Garment Unit
You are on night duty at a small readymade garment unit with 40 workers on the ground floor and a mezzanine store holding about 300 kg of cloth and 20 litres of cleaning solvent. There is one staircase, 1.1 m wide, and a rear door that is padlocked, the key being with the supervisor who has gone to the market. At 2210 you smell burning rubber near the motor of the main exhaust fan. There is light smoke at ceiling level but no visible flame, and the alarm has not sounded. The cutting section has 12 workers on overtime, four of them women, and two are wearing earplugs. A CO2 extinguisher and a water-type extinguisher are mounted 8 m away; the CO2 gauge needle sits in the red. The supervisor's mobile is unreachable. The main switchboard is in the same room as the fan motor.
1. Give the order of your immediate actions and explain why the evacuation decision comes before the investigation.
Read the worked answer
Smoke at ceiling plus a burning-rubber smell plus a silent alarm is an unfolding fire until proved otherwise. The order is driven by time, not by certainty.
- Raise the alarm by voice and whistle and start evacuation. The alarm circuit has not operated, and two workers have earplugs, so a shouted instruction is the only reliable signal. Twelve people on one 1.1 m staircase need a head start, not a debate.
- Stop the cutting machines at their local switches as you pass, so people leave without live blades.
- Call the fire service (101) and the supervisor/management from a phone outside the affected room, and state: smoke at ceiling, no flame seen, 12 workers, one staircase, rear door padlocked.
- Break the rear door padlock. Life safety overrides the padlock, and a single staircase with a locked second exit is the classic fatal configuration. Record that you broke it and why.
- Headcount at the assembly point with the cutting supervisor, by section, not by guesswork.
- Only then consider the switchboard. If the main switch is reachable without entering smoke, isolate the affected circuit; if the room is smoky, leave it to the fire service. Isolating the whole board also kills emergency lighting, so do not do it blindly.
2. The CO2 extinguisher gauge reads red and a water-type extinguisher is also available. What do you use, and what do you not use?
Read the worked answer
The fuel and the hazard decide the agent. An exhaust-fan motor is electrical equipment, and the fire is still small.
- CO2 is the correct agent for live electrical equipment because it is non-conductive and leaves no residue on the motor or wiring. But this CO2 unit shows a red gauge, meaning it is out of service or under-pressurised. A red-gauge extinguisher is not an extinguisher - do not carry it into a fire on the assumption that it will work.
- Water-type must not be used on or near energised electrical equipment: the jet can conduct back to the operator. It is also the wrong agent for a solvent spill fire, where a water jet can spread the fuel.
- Practical sequence: if a second, in-date CO2 unit can be fetched without leaving the evacuation unmanaged and there is a clear escape route behind you, one trained person may attack the fire with a second person watching. If not, do not attack - complete the evacuation, close the door on the room if it can be done safely, and let the fire service handle it.
- Never let the fire get between you and the exit, and never attack a fire that is producing thick smoke at head height.
3. Once the workers are safe, what do you check and what goes into your report?
Read the worked answer
Check systems, not just the room. A small fire is a test of the whole safety chain, and most of the failures here were administrative.
- All 12 accounted for, including the two with earplugs; note the headcount method used.
- Motor isolated and tagged by an electrician or supervisor so it cannot be restarted before inspection.
- Padlock replaced and the key custody issue raised in writing - the key being carried home by a supervisor is the root cause of a locked exit.
- Both extinguishers taken out of service: CO2 for refill/replacement, water-type checked and repositioned.
- Alarm tested - why it did not sound is a management finding, not a guard's opinion.
Report contents: date, time of smell, time of alarm, time of evacuation, times of fire-service call and arrival, location and probable cause (fan motor), what burned, who was informed, actions taken including the padlock, injuries (none), and the defects found. Write "probable cause: motor of exhaust fan, to be confirmed by electrician" - not "motor caught fire due to poor company maintenance", which is a conclusion you are not qualified to certify.