Fire suppression systems need of the hour

Another bus, another fire and bus owners are pushed into a similar predicament: Why can’t they install safety equipment just like other countries?

Not even months have passed since the Mahbubnagar Bus Tragedy which charred about 45 passengers to death. Wednesday witnessed another such horror in the district where a bus carrying more than 35 passengers from Tirupati to Hyderabad, caught fire. Luckily there were no causalities and passengers escaped with minor injuries.

This incident underscores that better knowledge and awareness on safety among passengers reduces the number of causalities. On the other side, the bus owner, travel agents have been hoodwinking the authorities on fire safety norms of the vehicle. The international brand Volvo’s proclamation of training drivers in India, indeed looks like an exercise in futile, as even this time, the first to flee were the drivers.

Most of the bus owners and agents fail to understand a simple fact. When they are shelling out so much for buses, a proper and automated fire suppression system can be attached to the vehicle, for a meager amount of a lakh or two. While countries like Sweden, from where Volvo hails, have successfully evaded fire related traumas for years, India too can also reduce fire accidents if a technology of a similar sort is put in place.

What is Fire Suppression System?

Mass transit is a critical component to many. Bus fire suppression systems ensure that buses and passengers remain safe.

Most fire suppression systems offer a unique approach to many of the fire prone areas of the vehicles. Fire detection and suppression systems detect fire using the proprietary Red Detection Tubing. It is a heat sensitive polymer tubing which is pressurised. It reacts to the heat and radiant energy of fire by bursting, thus activating the fire suppression system.

The tubing is ideal for fire detection in buses as it tolerates the vibration, dirt, temperature extremes of the environment in which the buses operate. Also, as the systems are pneumatically operated, they require no power from the vehicle to operate and do not place additional strain on the vehicle's electrical system.

These systems are in use on many buses worldwide, along with thousands of para-transit vehicles, and light and heavy rail. In fact, many international private firms receive monthly reports on buses being saved.

These can be easily retrofitted to the existing fleet or added to buses purchased in the future.