Belgian Public Transport Sector first in the world to adapt the new ISO standard for marking New Propulsion Vehicles
Thank you for choosing Automatic Translation. Currently we are offering translations from English into French and German, with more translation languages to be added in the near future. Please be aware that these translations are generated by a third party AI software service. While we have found that the translations are mostly correct, they may not be perfect in every case. To ensure the information you read is correct, please refer to the original article in English. If you find an error in a translation which you would like to bring to our attention, it would help us greatly if you let us know. We can correct any text or section, once we are aware of it. Please do not hesitate to contact our webmaster to let us know of any translation errors.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between CTIF, the Belgian Public Transport Sector and the Belgian Ministry for Security & the Interior to start using the new pictogram symbols developed for marking new types of vehicles (propane, electric and hybrid) indicating the propulsion type on each vehicle.
This is an important breakthrough for all of Europe, and eventually to the whole world. Doing rescue operations and extrication on vehicles has become more and more dangerous for the first responders, given that until now, there has not been any uniform way of marking what fuel type is in a vehicle.
This has meant that firefighters have not always know how to extinguish vehicle fires, or how to approach them, unknowingly putting the rescue teams in danger.
Lithium batteries cannot be easily extinguished with water or foam, and in fact some batteries cannot be extinguished at all. Also there is an electrocution risk, toxic fumes being is produced when the batteries burn, and there are extremely high temperatures in the fires of lithium car batteries,
Propane and LNG vehicles pose explosion risks potentially far exceeding those of conventional gasoline engines.
Cutting the frames of electric vehicles can also pose new risks, because of high voltage cables hidden within the frame.
The new ISO standard currently involves new uniform markings, that CTIF has been instrumental in helping create.
On the photos and the video, you will see Belgian Minister of Security and the Interior Jan Jambon, CTIF President Tore Eriksson and Tom Van Esbroeck, CTIF Commission for Extrication and New Technology, putting their signatures on this Memorandum, and explaining what this means for the firefighting community in Belgium.
