Extrication and New Technology

The CTIF Commission for "Extrication and New Technology" is trying to encourage and promote the cooperation between fire services and other emergency services around the world.

The most dangerous phrase in rescue services is:  " we´ve always done it this way"

The world has changed very quickly in recent years: 

- The number of alternative propulsion vehicles is rising rapidly

- The amount various devices that help operations has increased (drones, robots, etc)

- Solar panels, batteries, energy storage systems (ESS), self driving cars etc. has make rescue operations more difficult

If we can share our experiences on the international level, this will help us all one step further to guarantee the security of our citizens and emergency workers. The more we can learn from each other, the better.

The international commission is thematically active in three working fields:

1. Extrication & Road Safety (UN Decade)
2. Energy Storage Systems (batteries, solar panels, ...)
3. Smart Tech (robots, self-driving cars, data transmission, ...)
4.  

The philosophy of the commission is mentioned in the scheme below: innovation requires the necessary flow of information regarding the product and the installation, to come to efficient rules and the dissemination of knowledge.

News & Works from the Commission: 

Solar panels: An operational guide for the fire brigades

CTIF has permission to access the information shared by the website of www.nipv.nl/zonnepanelen. There is a guide for incident response and an attention card that is a derivative of this.

The solar panel project group has three topics that are being worked out:

1.                An operational guide for the fire brigade

2.                How to deal with home batteries for solar energy storage

3.                Laws and regulations

So the first topic is now available. It is advisable to compare the guide with national laws and regulations (what about grounding of systems and the distance that must be maintained between the nozzle and the solar panels / voltage parts.

For questions, please contact Mark Bokdam (project leader solar panels CTIF-E&NT),  m.bokdam@brandweertwente.nl

Disabling direct hazards in a vehicle crash – going beyond just the high-volt systems

This text tries to explain what disabling direct hazards means for emergency responders and tries to highlight, what would be the best solution in that respect. It also contains several ideas to include disabling certain vehicle systems as a sequence, not only after a crash but also in other incidents.
 

Rescue sheets, based on ISO 17840-1 and -2, contain information about the rescue-relevant components and procedures for road vehicles. One section of the rescue sheet is dedicated to information on the disabling process for direct hazards of the vehicle. 

Comparing different rescue sheets shows, that there is no common understanding of the term “direct hazards”, as the procedures shown in the rescue sheets sometimes only aim to disable the high voltage system, however, sometimes they also aim to disable additional systems of the vehicle.

This text tries to explain what disabling direct hazards means for emergency responders and tries to highlight, what would be the best solution in that respect. It also contains several ideas to include disabling of certain vehicle systems as a sequence, not only after a crash but also in other incidents.

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