The Fire Prevention Commission has reformed and started up again with a wider focus

The Fire Prevention Commission of the CTIF held a virtual meeting on 31 st May 2024. The meeting
was attended by 7 participants from 4 member countries.

It was agreed that for the restoration of this commission an election of a chairman, and eventually also a vice-chairman and a secretary, is necessary. 

A proposal was made by the organizer of the meeting, the Vice-President of the CTIF, Martin Nekula,
who asked potential candidates for these positions to apply by sending their CVs in preparation for the next meeting when the elections will be held. 

The participants of the meeting also decided that a space for sharing data, documents, information, etc. will be established.

 It was also agreed that another virtual meeting will be organized by the end of this year and next year the members of the commission will meet in person. Last but not least the direction of the commission was set up as the main topics were discussed to be focused on such as photovoltaic systems, batteries, battery storage – preventive measures, statistical data – mortality related to fire detection, fires of waste containers, the issue of house insulation, garage parking of alternative drive vehicles, hydrogen technologies, fire safety in "green" buildings, integration of fire safety and smart buildings, the impact of climate change on fire safety, role and training of fire safety professionals and smart fire safety solutions.

The meeting of the commission on May 31 was opened by the vice-president of the CTIF, Martin Nekula, who welcomed the participating members. The president of CTIF Milan Dubravac greeted the participants of the meeting with a short foreword.  

The commission was very active and had good results in the past. Due to the challenges which firefighters worldwide have to face and which are connected with fire prevention issues the restoration of this commission is very important.

Cover Photo (Above): This particular meeting was held online, but historically most Fire Preventin meeting has been held in person This photo is from the meeting in Las Vegas in 2018, which was held in connection to the CTIF yearly Delegates Assembly. 

Roll call of participants and overview of participants
 

Martin Nekula – Czech Republic
A member of the Fire Rescue Service of the Moravian-Silesian Region, the vice-president of the Czech Association of Fire Officers and he is also the Vice-President of the CTIF.

Michal Valouch – Czech Republic

 He is a director of prevention at the Ministry of Interior – General Directorate of the Fire
Rescue Service of the Czech Republic. According to Michal a very important issue to solve is the Green deal.

Tiina Kiil – Estonia
They are facing the same problems regarding batteries, fire safety, rules, statistics, behavior of people causing fires.
 

Heikki Rajalo – Estonia
He works in Estonian rescue board as a fire and safety inspections expert. The topics in the agenda are very interesting and up to date.
 

Tuuli Taavet – Estonia
An expert in the preventive work department in the Estonian rescue board. The main topics are how to prevent fires in the home environment, landscapes and forests and addiction connected fires. Deaths due to electrical causes.
 

Aleš Jug – Slovenia
A member of the fire prevention commission under the Firefighters association of Slovenia. A head of the fire research and innovation section of the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute. In Slovenia October is  Fire Prevention Month: this year the institute will focus on very generic topics such as electro-mobility, micro-mobility, and the issue of increased numbers of elderly people dying in fires. Also the fire statistics and research regarding causes of fires should be included as topics in this commission.
 

Richárd Derzsi 

(No further info)
 

2. Responsibility for the commission

If someone is interested in this topic and would be willing to take part in the commission as a chairman or a secretary they should provide their CV to Martin Nekula. Martin will ask member countries for the suggestions for the chairman and the secretary. It should be somebody who will be active and willing to lead the commission as well as experienced in the area. Aleš was the last acting chairman in this commission, the commission never had a vice-chair, but Aleš thinks a vice-chair would be very helpful. 

The position of secretary was appointed for a specific event ad hoc. Meeting were usually one live and one virtual.
 

3. Internal activities in countries

Connection with point 4. – exchange of experience. Which of the topics are interesting for the member countries and appropriate for solutions. It is important to provide feedback between the countries.
 

4. Lessons learned – exchange of experience
 

- Photovoltaic systems, batteries, battery storage – preventive measures
-  legislation, methodical procedures
- statistic data – fires of photovoltaic systems, flammability ratio of different kinds of
batteries (LiFePo, Li-Pol, Li-ion)
- experience with different battery types
- fire hazards of batteries and photovoltaic systems
- fire safety of charging station infrastructure
- firefighting requirements for electromobility and photovoltaic fires
- Statistic data – mortality related to fire detection
- exchange of statistic data, different rules among countries
- Fires of waste containers
- fire prevention measures
- densely populated areas near cars
- Estonia – many fires, waste recycling systems
 

The issue of house insulation

(No further info in Minutes)
 

Legislation and standards relating to wooden buildings
- fire prevention measures
- regulations and limitations
- Garage parking of alternative drive vehicles
- requirements, construction engineering design, fire safety equipment
 

Hydrogen technologies
-  regulations, standards
 

Fire safety in "green" buildings
-  the impact of new green materials and building technologies on fire safety
- specifics of fire safety in green buildings and passive houses

- legislation of EU, development of experience and knowledge between members
- Integration of fire safety and smart buildings
- use of IoT and smart technologies for fire safety monitoring and management
- gain data from the inervetntion of units
- statistic data of systems
- future
- automatic fire detection and extinguishing systems in smart buildings
- The impact of climate change on fire safety
- the relationship between climate change and fire risk on safety measures
- adaptation of existing fire protection systems to new climatic conditions
- Role and training of fire safety professionals
- current trends in the training and certification of fire safety professionals
- the importance of continuing education and adapting to new standards and
technologies
- Smart fire safety solutions
- fire detectors

5. Discussion
Heikki asked what is the plan for the future of this commission. Martin stated that a shared space will be created in order to share documents, files, presentations, etc. and also to have a platform forcommunication and feedback among countries. Then meetings will be organized both virtually and in person. The virtual meeting will be organized around 5 PM CET. The meeting in person should include ideally more than 10 countries. 

The President of the CTIF stated that it is important to restart the commission which used to be very active and had good results in the past. All the countries will be informed about the activity of this commission and they will nominate the members to represent them in
this commission. 

The countries will also suggest their priorities so the outputs of the commission will be
useful for them. Then the commission will provide sharing of knowledge, experience, specific legislation, etc. The database of contacts will be created and shared for the members of this commission.

6. Opportunities for collaboration

(No further info in Minutes)

7. Next meeting plan
 

The next virtual meeting should take place at the end of the year in November and in then it would be
appropriate for the commission to meet in person in 2025.

8. Conclusion
 

Regarding the conclusions the main directions of the commission were set up.
Next steps for the commission include important tasks, mainly to vote the chairman and the secretary of the commission. 

Another issue to deal with is the platform for sharing knowledge, information, documents etc. It will be established on a non-conflict version of software available ideally in all countries.