Mass Transit Interior Safety

Trains, planes, subways, buses, and other forms of public transportation that contain flammable components.

NASFM Staff Contact: Karen F. Deppa ( Kfernico@aol.com or 202-737-1226, ext. 13)

How we see the challenge.

Mass transit agencies are under constant economic pressure, yet efficiently and safely move tens of millions of people daily. Not many fires occur in mass transit, but if they do, the ramifications are great: even a single significant fire involving mass transit can destroy costly infrastructure and undermine riders' confidence, in addition to endangering many lives. These environments have inherent heat sources that might develop malfunctions (such as short circuits or overheated engines), or passengers may carry on additional ignition sources (such as cigarette lighters). If a fire occurs, the combination of an unfamiliar environment, limited exits, low visibility and high stress makes evacuating people calmly and safely a real challenge. Preventing mass transit fires in the first place, or limiting their spread if ignition does occur, are priorities of fire prevention officials.

What is the National Association of State Fire Marshals doing about flammability issues related to mass transit interiors?

In late 2008, NASFM completed Phase I of a grant agreement with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation to address the fire safety factor of the fire performance of the materials and products used in the construction of the interiors of railcars and buses. The project comprised research into the adequacy of existing railcar and bus fire safety standards and an investigation of potential improvements in test methods and criteria.

To achieve the goals of the Grant Agreement, NASFM formed a Technical Advisory Committee consisting of emergency responders, mass transit experts and scientists. The Committee conducted most of its work by email and met in May 2008 to review research and formulate recommendations.

NASFM retained the highly regarded materials experts from Underwriters Laboratories to conduct flammability research for this project. The research conducted by UL for this project focused most strongly on preventing fires from occurring in the first place, and keeping fires small if they do occur, so that the results are easier to manage.

The UL research indicates that existing bench-scale tests do not predict real-world fire performance of materials available for use in the interiors of rail cars and buses. However, other well-known and commonly used fire testing methods may be used to select materials able to withstand typical mass transit fire ignition sources. This avoids additional testing expense for materials producers.

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