Train fires: Understanding the risks and controlling them

摘要

FIRE ON THE RAILWAY often comes in the form of a secondary incident; after a collision, for example. Once a fire breaks out, there can be a horrible inevitability about the destruction, death and injury that follows. This has certainly been the case in the past. The rail industry has long aimed to learn from past incidents. Fire played a major part in Britain's worst-ever train accident. In May 1915, over 200 people - many of them troops bound for the Somme - were killed when three trains collided at the barren outstation of Quintinshill, near the Scottish borders. The vehicle bodies were constructed from wood and equipped with gas lighting; a dangerous combination which contributed to the loss of many, many lives that day. Nowadays, carriages are made from less flammable, sturdier material, while better train control and the reduction of flammable fuels within the passenger compartment has reduced the associated risks considerably.