Those who believe in stripping government of all or most of its power and allowing free markets to chart our course will not like what I’m about to say.
Many of us in the fire service watched in horror as the fire and explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant played out. So far, 10 of the 14 dead have been identified as first responders, many volunteer firefighters. They died either fighting the fire that preceded the blast or while evacuating residents.
It’s a miracle more firefighters were not killed.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened, but it is well-accepted that the fertilizer plant had some quantity of ammonium nitrate that burned and exploded. The explosion was described by witnesses as being like a nuclear bomb and more scientifically by the U.S. Geological Survey as registering 2.1 magnitude on the Richter Scale.
Level of protection
When the Associated Press reported on the level of regulations the plant faced, it said in its opening paragraph, “There were no sprinklers. No firewalls. No water deluge systems. Safety inspections were rare…"
The Associated Press went on to report that the company self reported to regulators that it didn’t have any flammable or explosive materials on site. This was given to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after EPA forced the company to update its risk-management plan.
I wish I could say I was surprised to learn this. And neither will I be surprised in the coming months if I learn that more strict and enforced regulations would have prevented or minimized this incident.
This happens a lot. It might be mass casualty incidents at factories in India where exits are locked and no fire-suppression equipment is available. It might be a nightclub in Brazil where pyrotechnics are lit and sprinklers and extinguishers are absent. Or, it might be a rental property here in the United States where landlords fail to have working smoke alarms in their buildings.
Getting leaders to listen
I’ve had the good fortune to travel to developing countries as part of the fire service. I’ve listened to those foreign firefighters complain that they cannot get their local leaders to prioritize fire safety.
I’ve also had the good fortune to have spent several days in the British Virgin Islands, getting to know the man who was sent there to build a fire department from scratch. One of his most difficult, but most important, missions was implementing fire codes, which he cobbled together from existing European and U.S. codes.
The reality is that without solid and enforced fire codes, business owners are not likely to invest in real fire protection. Some of this can be chalked up to their pressure to make money.
Yet, I suspect a lot of this problem is one of human nature — we find it hard to believe that we will actually be the victims of a tragedy. Even among firefighters, how many really believe that they can be injured or killed in the line of duty?
But whether greed or a false sense of security, without proper oversight, fire safety probably won’t happen — self-policing doesn’t work. And government is the entity best suited for that role.
You can make the argument that over regulation will kill business and economic growth. But I put to you that the opposite will kill firefighters and civilians.
