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\u201cWe need to enact the\u00a0Fire Safety\u00a0Act\u201d. This was stated by Gordon\u00a0Bondin, a health and safety consultant, in an interview with Voice of the Workers in the wake of the tragic incident that took the life of a man in a block of apartments in\u00a0Marsascala.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He said that it was time that\u00a0we had this regulation to preclude grave incidents such as fire in blocks of apartments and other types of residences. In the meantime, all builders should follow the Design Guidelines on Fire Safety for Buildings in Malta of 2004.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gordon\u00a0Bondin\u00a0emphasised the importance of installing equipment in all buildings which can detect\u00a0smoke and trigger the alarm allowing residents to evacuate the building and move away from the danger. He explained that prior to installing the equipment a risk assessment should be carried out to establish the type of extinguisher to be put in place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShould a person be at work or away and something happen in the home action\u00a0would\u00a0be taken automatically\u201d, said Gordon\u00a0Bondin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We spend enough money on other things, he said,\u00a0so why should we not spend\u00a0some money on\u00a0guaranteeing health and safety at our homes?\u00a0\u201cWe should invest in a\u00a0fire extinguisher, fire blanket, first aid box, fire alarm\u00a0or\u00a0smoke detector\u00a0as these items are essential and useful in every home\u201d, Gordon\u00a0Bondin\u00a0added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The health and safety consultant\u00a0maintained that this equipment should not be considered as an expense but an investment in case of accident.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Voice of the Workers\u00a0asked whether the Maltese are aware of the dangers that surround them. He said that in the last few years there has been some progress made in terms of personal security for workers, safety at the workplace, particularly on building sites, and prevention measures. These\u00a0days workers are taking better care of themselves, they are abiding by regulation and, if they are not wearing protective gear, are not being allowed to work in high risk sites.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gordon Bondin\u00a0referred to the good work that is being done by the Health and Safety Authority including education and enforcement. Many companies take the consultants\u2019 advice to carry out an assessment of their workplace and follow the training programmes offered to employers and their employees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gordon Bondin\u00a0also has good things to say about the Civil Protection Department whose employees are professionally trained and which provides training sessions to companies and individuals on public health and safety as well and personal and domestic health and safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you asked me if I were happy with the situation, I would reply that we have not yet done enough \u2026 we need to continue to educate\u00a0and explain the need to have a secure system at the workplace to\u00a0employers\u201d, said\u00a0Gordon Bondin. He explained that for the system to work it has to be built on risk assessment based on education and training.\u00a0Gordon Bondin\u00a0said that the system needs to be\u00a0self sustaining.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Above all,\u00a0Gordon Bondin\u00a0continued to say, the importance of prevention needs to be emphasised. \u201cYou need to want to do something, followed by a plan of training and inspections to get results\u201d. Said the health and safety consultant, adding, \u201cwith employers\u2019 and employees\u2019 participation and commitment, incidents can be avoided\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe need to enact the\u00a0Fire Safety\u00a0Act\u201d. This was stated by Gordon\u00a0Bondin, a health and safety consultant, in an interview with Voice of the Workers in the wake of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1146,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[51],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1150"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1150\/revisions\/1164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}