Project Leader David Nichols, Country Fire Authority, Victoria

The Australian firefighter constantly works under hazardous conditions with a variety of vehicles and equipment.  Little research has been done into the physical hazards and the safety risk to firefighters present in firefighting vehicles and equipment. Firefighting agencies have a significant challenge to improve the safety of their vehicles and equipment.

Bushfire CRC scientists will identify key issues in equipment and vehicle crew protection needs of Australian fire fighting agencies.  Analysis methodologies will be developed to evaluate vehicle and equipment hazards and risks.  Laboratory and field trial methods will be developed and implemented to provide users with safety results on identified firefighting vehicle systems and equipment.

Firefighters working from vehicles are exposed to intense radiant heat and flames in wildfire ‘burnover’ situations. Little research has been done into protecting firefighting tanker crews when vehicles are burnt over by wildfire.

Preliminary work has been completed on firefighting vehicle engines and firefighting pump engines as a result of the experimental fires at Tumbarumba, New South Wales. Benefits of the work will include the development of preferred design guidelines for engines to operate safely in the bushfire environment.

The Country Fire Authority of Victoria (CFA) and New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) commissioned CSIRO to evaluate crew protection systems for fire tankers using a large-scale gas-fires wildfire burnover simulator. As a result of the simulator work, Bushfire CRC scientists have conducted two experimental fires at Tumbarumba, New South Wales, to validate the crew protection system findings from the wildfire burnover simulator tests. The experimental fires subjected the vehicle crew protection systems to two levels of radiant temperatures and flame duration exposure as the result of controlled wildfire. The tests included measuring fuel before the fire, measuring conditions within fuel during the fire, and fitting instruments on the fire trucks to measure radiant heat, temperature, water use by sprinklers, and toxic gas exposure. The results will provide the scientific principles for the design of safer fire fighting vehicles.

Project Leader: Dave Nichols, CFA, Ph: (03) 9262 8264