Tackling fires on green buses helped by new approach in London

Following the Potters Bar bus depot fire in 2022, Transport for London shares its work with the London Fire Brigade to improve the information available at bus incidents. As the capital’s bus fleet becomes increasingly zero emission, this work aimed to assist the emergency services with all of the bus propulsion systems they may encounter.

Learning from previous fire incidents involving zero emission buses, Transport for London (TfL) worked with London Fire Brigade to gather feedback and lessons learned. One area of feedback was the lack of information available to crews on bus propulsion type and vehicle hazard information.

To tackle these areas, TfL set a goal to:

• Provide a way to assist the fire and rescue service in quickly identifying bus propulsion type
• Provide a method for the fire and rescue service to access key bus hazard information quickly, to assist in the safe management of operational incidents.

To achieve these goals TfL worked with London Fire Brigade to understand how vehicle information is currently provided to the fire and rescue service. TfL learned how manufacturers provide Rescue Sheets and Emergency Response Guides to the ISO 17840 standard. This information is easily accessible on fire appliances, providing key information to fire crews.

To see how ISO 17840 could assist TfL with their goals, TfL worked with Kurt Vollmacher who was instrumental in the creation of the ISO 17840 standard.

Propulsion identification

TfL needed a way to provide easy identification of bus propulsion type, the solution needed to be standardised and it needed to be clearly visible in different lighting conditions. Using the guidance in ISO 17840, TfL produced signage for the 4 types of propulsion in their fleet.

The image below shows the hazard identification stickers for: Hydrogen, Electric, Diesel and Diesel Hybrid. All of the symbols are easily recognisable, internationally standardised and are retro-reflective to be more visible in different lighting conditions.

TfL printed the designs onto retroreflective stickers and worked with their contractor to develop a rollout strategy, ensuring correct propulsion signs were applied to 9,000 buses in a timescale of only 8 months. The signs are in standardised areas on all TfL buses to assist firefighters in quickly identifying the propulsion type.

Hazard information

For road traffic collisions involving cars, the fire and rescue service use ISO 17840 Rescue Sheets and Emergency Response Guides. These documents allow firefighters to see: hazard areas, isolation points, access points and many other useful pieces of information. TfL was keen to provide this information to the fire and rescue service, to assist with incident operations, first responder safety and passenger/staff safety.

TfL consulted with its vehicle manufacturers and operators to discuss their plans to provide this information. All parties were very keen to be part of this project and to provide this information. TfL is working with manufacturers to provide Rescue Sheets and Emergency Response Guides to its buses.

In the latest TfL Bus Vehicle Specification, TfL has mandated that all new buses will be provided with ISO 17840 Rescue Sheets and Emergency Response Guides. This information will be uploaded onto the system currently used by the fire and rescue service, ensuring that hazard information will be available for any incident involving a TfL bus. The fire and rescue service will be able to search by vehicle make/model or by vehicle registration to access the information they need.

As TfL bus incidents can be attended by neighbouring London counties, the standardised type of propulsion identification and hazard information will benefit firefighters of multiple fire and rescue services.

TfL is hopeful that this hazard identification and information will be adopted by all bus networks and all road transportation modes in future.  

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Updated: 25 January 2024.