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Sustainability, Materials and STEM
Chair - Dr Tony Cash
The world’s climate and environment are changing. At the same time the creativity and innovation of materials, products and vehicles are never ending. All these continuing to challenge the fire engineer and fire services, the understanding of fire behaviour and fire-fighting. We should be active in trying to understand how all of this will impact the fire and railway industry.
The original objectives included:
• Promote more use of suppression in order to perhaps reduce the amount of water required by the fire services’ activities. As we start to have longer drier summers, should we store more water to ensure we have water available in the event of a fire? Should we explore other methods of extinguishment?
• Increase fire resistance to better protect infrastructure.
It is not sustainable to depart from the first principles of fire prevention and fire protection, so it is not sustainable to promote more use of suppression which requires the storage of water in bulk tanks which adds the burden of unusable space within infrastructure and increases mass in the design of vehicles which if compliant to Standards such as EN 45545-2 would not significantly burn.
Publication of BS 9992 has addressed the fire resistance and the reaction-to-fire necessities of infrastructure. This part of the aims of WG2 is, therefore, complete.
WG2 of the RIFA will continue to:
• Develop insight and inform members of new materials and their applications;
• Monitor and contribute to the revisions of BS EN 45545, NFPA 130 and BS 9992;
• Promote fire safety as a sustainable discipline;
• Promote education and training for our members of RIFA as well as apprentices and STEM initiatives.
This group may develop further insight and guidance documents on these issues for our members, subject to the appropriate professional indemnity insurance being in place.
--- Regular reviews will be made of developments in the material space and the applications of existing and new materials.
--- A good number of UK and International meetings have taken place at which the the views of RIFA Members have been shared.
--- International initiatives on Carbon Reduction and a promotion of ESG among members will ensure the impact of materials choices and usage will be under constant review.
--- Good fire safety is good business sense and will ensure rail transport remains at the forefront of sustainable travel choices.
