Fire preventing on railway

 

As in all the sectors, at the Railway the activity of training on defense problems against the fires is complex and is based on norms approved by the General Inspectorate of the Military Firemen Team within the Ministry of the Interior.

According to the last up dates of the information, on CFR network, in the last seven months have been recorded 117 PSI events (66 cases at CFR-SA, 30 cases at CFR Calatori SA, seven cases at CFR Marfa SA, 13 at SAAF SA and a case at SNCFR RA). Most of these fires are produced by unidentified persons who put fire on the vegetation next to the railway track, the fire destroying TTR pillars and wooden sleepers from the current lines and leading to the perturbation of the passengers, as well as freight traffic. This type of events put, unfortunately, every year lot of problems to the firemen that collaborate with CFR. This summer it draw the attention of the public opinion, especially due to the television transmissions, the event happened on August 20, when the locomotive of the passengers train no 986, that has left for a short period of time from Constanta railway station towards Bucharest, was set on fire. Details about this case we found out from the General Inspectorate for safety Circulation and Control, whose personnel is always amiable to offer well processed and clear information to any demander. We had the luck to talk to Mr. Viorel Carabineanu, SC central inspector, being in charge with the department of the defense against the fires. Thus, we have found out that "around 8:13 p.m. on August 20, the current year, on Constanta Rail Region area, in Fetesti railway station has occurred the unordered uncoupling of the automatic cutout of the locomotive that was hauling the train no. 986, with almost 200 m before XCF entering signal. Entering the machines cabin, the engine driver noticed a start of a fire in S7 apparatus block area.

There were put out of order contact lines afferent to tracks 1, 2 and 3 from Fetesti station and the operational lines I and II on Fetesti - Baraganu section, in order to enhance military firemen intervention, arrived at 8:40 p.m. who succeeded to stop the fire at 9:15 p.m. In this period of time, the train set has been stopped in order to avoid the extension of the fire to the passengers' coaches. Although for a short period of time, the fire destroyed an important section of the electrical equipment of the locomotive, the damage being calculated to over 435 million lei, and has produced the delay of nine passengers' trains with almost 424 minutes. Research team established that the fire was caused by the explosion of the protection condenser of the hauling engine no. 3, fact that led to the short-circuit of the force path and overheating of the contact line, alternative power side, the case being considered as a technical defect. No guilt was found for the exploitation personnel of SNTFC "CFR Calatori SA". Additionally, we could say, the presence of spirit of the engine driver was salutary.

The activity developed by Mr. Carabineanu at the control department of the access on the public infrastructure and the synthesis consists mainly on controls performed in order to prevent railway situations. Together with the employees from rail regions and in collaboration with the specific bodies of the Ministry of Interior are performed periodically testing all CFR employees in the field of preventing and defending against the fires. Due to the complexity of CFR - SA activity every sector has special norms and the examination subjects are very large. Preventing activity supposes a permanent and direct relation with those in charge with existent PSI problems within railway rail regions and the sub-units of CFR - SA, for the elaboration of the measures programs in order to solve existent problems, as well as for the elaboration of the new directions to be approached. Additionally, there is a good collaboration with the other railway companies in order to solve the situations in which they were involved in, as well as through the exchange of ideas and solutions for the optimization of the activity, a proof in this respect being the collaboration in the elaboration of the new defense general norms against the fires in the railway transport units.

 

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