NSW fire practices 'dangerous'
Posted
A fire safety engineer says New South Wales is following outdated and dangerous practices by evacuating residents from high-rise buildings in the event of a fire.
Engineer and researcher David Barber is due to present a paper on the subject at a peak fire industry conference in Sydney.
He says high-rise residents can injure themselves and get in the way of fire-fighters when buildings are evacuated.
"If [residents] aren't at risk and the fire fighters who respond to that fire can control it quickly, then they're better off staying in their unit than actually putting themselves at risk potentially in the stairwell," he said.
'More with less'
Meanwhile, the New South Wales Fire Brigade assistant commissioner, Murray Kear, has told the national conference that global warming, terrorism and ageing buildings could result in more fires.
But he says firefighters will have to do more with what they have.
"We're all competing for the dollar in regards to supplying services and so in that way it will impact, not only on fire services, but all the emergency services across Australia and around the world," he said.
