Accident includes any undesired circumstances which may or may not give rise to ill-health or injury, damage to property, plant, products or the environment, production losses or increased liabilities.

Incident includes any undesired circumstances and 'near-misses' which could cause accidents.

Health and safety management is a quality issue. To quantify the benefits Chief Fire Officers, Firemasters may calculate the cost of non-compliance in terms of:

• Money.
• Human suffering.
• Civil and criminal action.

Money is lost as a result of repairs to, and the extra maintenance of, property, appliances and equipment. More importantly, an accident resulting in injury to a person may lead to losses due to sickness costs, training costs, pension costs, legal costs and costs associated with the temporary or permanent replacement of those injured. Obviously, in addition to any moral case it makes sound financial sense for fire brigades to reduce accidents to a minimum.

All managers should recognise the need to investigate the cause of an accident which has caused serious injury. However, it is wrong merely to consider the seriousness of an accident in relation to its outcome. For example, if a firefighter slips on oil which has leaked from an appliance the consequences may range from soiled clothing to fatal injury. The precise outcome of an accident cannot be readily predicted. The only effective way to reduce injuries is to investigate all accidents and take the necessary measures to eliminate their causes.

Not all accidents need to be investigated to the same extent or depth. The greatest effort should concentrate on significant events where there has been serious injury, ill-health or loss, as well as those which had the potential to cause serious injury or loss.

It has been demonstrated that uninsured costs such as equipment and property damage, loss of experience/expertise and legal costs, can vary between 8-36 times that of the insured cost. The cost of accidents to the British Fire Service has been calculated by Ernst & Young in a study. This was commissioned by the Fire Brigades Union and published in November 1996. The figures quoted in that document, give a range of £74 millions to £109 millions, projected to rise to a range of £130 millions to £193 millions in 5-10 years.

Experience has shown that there are many near-misses for every accident that causes harm. If brigades fail to eradicate the causes of a near-miss, they will probably fail to prevent injury, or damage in the future.

Fire service managers should aim to eliminate or minimise events which have the potential to cause accidents. This requires the systematic identification of hazards associated with the organisation's activities and an analysis of the risk relating to those hazards, the preventive and protective measures necessary and the elements of the organisation which can influence such hazards, risks and control measures. This is the basis for risk management.

Health and safety measures should not be viewed as an extra cost being imposed on brigades but as an opportunity to reduce unnecessary expenditure and free up resources. To quote Robert E McKee, Chairman and Managing Director of Conoco (UK) Ltd.