'Flammable material carried by travellers main cause of fire'

Flammable materials carried by passengers caused fire in trains, Railways today said while admitting it has not succeeded in preventing travelers from carrying such things.
"It has been found that in nine out of 13 cases, fire was caused by inflammable materials carried by passengers," said Arunendra Kumar, Chairman Railway Board (CRB) said here.
He said passengers carry battery, alcohol and other inflammable materials in trains, also there were cases of fire caused by passengers smoking in rail premises.
Kumar, however, said that short circuit was also one of the reasons for fire in the trains.
"We are making concerted efforts to educate passengers not to carry inflammable materials in trains as passenger safety is our top priority. But we have not succeeded in preventing passengers from carrying these materials," he said.

Asked whether foreign technology would be of any help in preventing fire, Kumar said "It has to be as per the Indian condition because ours is a different railway system. We have broad gauge system while in abroad it is metre gauge. Then coach design and other conditions are also different."

Railways has organised a two-day global conference to seek expert views on fire prevention measures. Experts from nine countries including Germany, Australia, UK, Japan, France, Belgium, Austria, Poland and Italy would be participating in the meet, which began here today.
CRB elaborated about several steps being taken to prevent fire in trains such as use of fire resistant paint, mist spray, fire detection alarm system, emergency light and evacuation strategy.

"Our first preference is that there should not be any fire. If something causes fire then it should not spread to other coaches and there should be a system for evacuation of passengers safely while at the same an effective mechanism should be in place to douse the fire," he said.
As far as other measusres were concerned, Kumar said Railways has been using fire retardant materials, fire extinguishers and has conducted trials with smoke and fire detection systems.
Railways has installed fire alarm system in Jammu Rajdhani and Bhubaneswar Rajdhani.
"We will install the fire alarm system in 29 more trains," he said.

Apart from these, Railways has also made efforts to spread safety awareness by using fire posters and conducting training for on board staff.
Provision of emergency exit windows, modification of fuse boxes and conducting of internal safety audits were other endeavours in this area, he added.