-By Marc Sibbald-
The winner of the 2015 AfMA Fleet Safety Award is the Country Fire Authority (CFA) of Victoria.
When most fleet managers think about safety they are trying to reduce costs and stop drivers from checking their emails and text messages while driving. With a fleet consisting of over 1,000 passenger and light commercial vehicles plus more than 2,000 specialised vehicles safety has a different meaning for the fleet team at the CFA.
The CFA is one of the largest volunteer organisations in the world with over 60,000 members. Its mission is protecting lives and property anchored by core values such as “we put safety first”. They operate in often hostile environments where mother nature remains unpredictable despite the best resources, systems and knowledge available.
Their safety journey commenced many years ago and remains part of their day to day culture.
In 1998 the tragic deaths of five fire fighters at Linton prompted a research and development project in collaboration with NSW Rural Fire Service and CSIRO. The outcome was the creation of a crew protection system “safety cell” to protect crew in the event of a burn over (when fire engulfs the vehicle).
During the Black Saturday Fires in 2009 there were eight tanker burn overs reported. Each of these tankers were fitted with the new crew protection system and no serious injuries were recorded from these events although the vehicles were a total loss.
Post event investigations led to the retrofit of crew protection systems into 1,064 fire appliances built prior to 2006 at a cost of over $23 million dollars.
The investment in the retrofit project was only surpassed by its sheer complexity given 22 different makes and models of chassis and an equally high number of body variants. The project was completed within three years, under budget and ahead of time thanks to help from the district mechanical officers working with 17 major and 99 minor suppliers.
The safety cell that has been developed is the result of over 50 tests completed in fully controlled simulations as well as controlled burns in actual vegetation. It’s a combination of many innovative elements designed specifically for Australian conditions.
Today the crew protection system or safety cell includes:-
- Radiant heat protective curtains to cabin windows and Roll Over Protection System (ROPS) in the crew area.
- Water spray systems around cabin and tanker body.
- Heat shielding to protect critical components such as pump assembly, batteries and wiring.
- Improved intercom communications between cabin occupants and crew in the ROPS area.
Work and testing continues as the CFA develops crew protection systems for small fire appliances that carry 600 litres of water or less. It’s looking at various systems including the use of polymer gels and compressed air foams to provide additional radiant heat barrier.
Other Australian fire services have used the CFA designs to introduce crew protection systems to their fire fighting appliance fleet and they have contributed considerably to the development of an industry wide guideline for fire fighting vehicle crew protection under the governance of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Council (AFAC).
