Operational guidance Railway Incidents Operational guidance Railway Incidents Published by TSO (The Stationery Office) and available from: Online www.tsoshop.co.uk Mail, Telephone, Fax & E-mail TSO PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN Telephone orders/General enquiries: 0870 600 5522 Fax orders: 0870 600 5533 E-mail: [email protected] Textphone 0870 240 3701 TSO@Blackwell and other Accredited Agents © Crown copyright 2012 Published with the permission of the Department for Communities and Local Government on behalf of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Application for reproduction should be made to HMSO, e-mail: [email protected]. ISBN: 9780117541122 Printed in the UK by The Stationery Office Limited on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office ID2483265 03/12 Contents 1 Foreword 5 2 Preface 6 3 Introduction 7 4 Legal framework 13 Introduction 14 Specific legislation 18 Further reading 18 5 Strategic role of operational guidance 21 Strategic perspective 23 At the incident 23 Values 24 Operational guidance review protocols 25 6 Generic Risk Assessment 27 Introduction 29 7 Key principles 31 Introduction 33 8 Fire Service Operations 35 Part A Pre-planning 37 Part B Operational considerations – Generic Standard Operating Procedure 51 Part C Technical considerations 85 1 National Rail systems 86 2Metro systems 89 3 Sub-surface railway incidents 92 4Tramways 95 5 Industrial and heritage railways 98 6 Rail infrastructure 101 7 Power systems 110 8 Utilities 116 9 Fixed structures on the railway 117 10 Rail vehicles 125 11 Specialist equipment 145 12 Specialist personnel 147 Contents 3 9 Appendices 151 10 Acknowledgements 155 11 Abbreviations and glossary of terms 161 12 References/Supporting information 173 13 Record of obsolete or superseded previous operational guidance 179 4 Fire and Rescue Service Operational Guidance – Railway Incidents SECTION 1 Foreword Major incidents involving Railways in the United Kingdom are rare. Such incidents place significant demands on local Fire and Rescue Services and often require resources and support from other Fire and Rescue Services and emergency responders. However smaller scale incidents involving railways are more prevalent and these may require a response from any Fire and Rescue Service in England. The Fire and Rescue Service Operational Guidance – Railway Incidents provides robust yet flexible guidance that can be adapted to the nature, scale and requirements of the incident. The Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser is grateful for the assistance in the development in this guidance from a wide range of sources, including the Fire and Rescue Service, rail operators and rail industry experts. It is anticipated that this guidance will promote common principles, practices and procedures that will support the Fire and Rescue Service to resolve incidents in this type of structures safely and efficiently. Foreword 5 SECTION 2 Preface The objective of the Fire and Rescue Service Operational Guidance – Railway Incidents is to provide a consistency of approach that forms the basis for common operational practices, supporting interoperability between Fire and Rescue Services, other emergency responders, railway and train operators and the rail industry. These common principles, practices and procedures are intended to support the development of safe systems of work on the incident ground and to enhance national resilience. Operational guidance issued by the Department of Communities and Local Government promotes and develops good practice within the Fire and Rescue Service and is offered as a current industry standard. It is envisaged that this will help establish high standards of efficiency and safety in the interests of employers, employees and the general public. This Guidance, which is compiled using the best sources of information known at the date of issue, is intended for use by competent persons. The application of the guidance does not remove the need for appropriate technical and managerial judgement in practical situations with due regard to local circumstances, nor does it confer any immunity or exemption from relevant legal requirements, including by-laws. Those investigating compliance with the law may refer to this guidance as illustrating an industry standard. It is a matter for each individual Fire and Rescue Service whether to adopt and follow this Operational Guidance. The onus of responsibility for application of guidance lies with the user. Department for Communities and Local Government accept no legal liability or responsibility whatsoever, howsoever arising, for the consequences of the use or misuse of the guidance. 6 Fire and Rescue Service Operational Guidance – Railway Incidents Introduction SECTION 3 Introduction 7 8 Fire and Rescue Service Operational Guidance – Railway Incidents Purpose 3.1 This Operational Guidance is set out in the form of a procedural and technical framework. Fire and Rescue Services should consider it when developing or reviewing their policy and procedures to safely and efficiently resolve emergency incidents involving any aspect of Fire and Rescue Service operations involving railways. 3.2 The term ‘rail infrastructure’ is a general term encompassing: UÊ rail vehicles UÊ traction systems UÊ all aspects of the built rail environment including: –Ê tracks –Ê stations –Ê termini –Ê bridges –Ê viaducts etc. 3.3 For the purposes of this guidance a rail system is defined as: ‘Transport infrastructure managed for the mass transportation of people or goods, guided by one or more fixed rails. This description is intended to include national rail, metro, tram and heritage rail networks. This may also include temporary rail systems. It will also be useful when dealing with incidents on rail systems associated with dockyards, nuclear installations, quarries or other large industrial undertakings.’ 3.4 Although non Fire and Rescue Service organisations and agencies may use other more specific definitions for their own requirements, the above is the one most appropriate for Fire and Rescue Services to base their risk assessments and planning assumptions on. 3.5 A Fire and Rescue Service may respond to a wide range of incidents involving tunnels and underground structures that have the potential to cause harm and disruption to firefighters and the community. 3.6 The purpose of this guidance is to assist emergency responders to make safe, risk assessed, efficient and proportionate responses when attending and dealing with operational incidents involving the rail infrastructure. 3.7 Whilst this guidance may be of use to a number of other agencies, it is designed to provide relevant information for the Fire and Rescue Service in England relating to planning and operations for incidents affecting the rail infrastructure. Introduction 9 Scope 3.8 This guidance covers a wide range of incident types associated with the rail infrastructure that are likely to be encountered. It is applicable to any event regardless of scale, from incidents, such as small fires occurring on rural rail embankments to large scale collisions involving large numbers of Fire and Rescue Service resources and members of the public. 3.9 It focuses on the tactical and technical aspects of rail incidents to assist Fire and Rescue Services with: UÊ the development of safe systems of work UÊ interoperability at large or cross border incidents where more than one Fire and Rescue Service is in attendance UÊ multi-agency working. 3.10 This guidance covers the time period from the receipt of the first emergency call to the closure of the incident by the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Commander. 3.11 In addition to detailed tactical and technical information it also outlines the key operational and strategic responsibilities and considerations that need to be taken into account to enable the Fire and Rescue Service to train for, test intervention strategies and plan to ensure effective response to any incident involving the rail infrastructure. Structure 3.12 This guidance is based on nationally accepted good practice. It is written as an enabling guide based around risk-critical operational principles rather than a strict set of rules and procedures. This is done to recognise local differences across England and elsewhere in the UK in terms of risk profiles and levels of resource. 3.13 Section 8 contains the main body of the guidance and is divided into three parts: UÊ Part A – Pre-planning considerations UÊ Part B – Operational considerations UÊ Part C – Technical considerations. 10 Fire and Rescue Service Operational Guidance – Railway Incidents Part A – Pre-planning Information supporting Fire and Rescue Service personnel when undertaking preparatory work for dealing with incidents that may occur in their service area involving railways. This section covers planning considerations at both the strategic level when planning for service wide response options and for those associated with local site specific risks. Part B: Fire and Rescue Service operational considerations Guidance to Fire and Rescue Service staff on responding to and resolving railway incidents. It is structured around six emergency response phases common to all operational incidents. The procedure detailed uses the incident command system decision making model as its foundation. It is a generic standard operating procedure for dealing with railway incidents that Fire and Rescue Services can adopt or adapt depending on their individual risk assessments and resources. Each section of the generic standard operating