Road Safety, Vehicle equipment
VEHICLE FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
In order to ensure the road safety of the circulating vehicles from fires, the Greek legislation, with Y.A. 50292/3549/08/2009 (Government Gazette 272 / Β ‘/ 16.2.2009), imposes on the owners the supply of their vehicles with portable fire extinguishers. At the same time it determines the type and the minimum number of fire extinguishers required.
Portable fire extinguishers should be dry powder and suitable for fire categories A (solid), B (liquid), C (gaseous) and for electricity up to 1000V. They are divided into the following categories according to their extinguishing ability:
- Type 1: 8A, 34B, C (usually 2kg)
- Type 2: 13A, 55B, C (usually 3kg)
- Type 3: 21A, 113B, C (usually 6kg).
Especially for vehicles transporting dangerous goods, the ADR agreement (Government Gazette 2915 / 24-8-2017) in chapter 8.1.4 (Firefighting equipment) sets additional requirements for the minimum number of fire extinguishers.
Briefly, the requirements for vehicle fire extinguishers are shown in the table below.
Where mass is indicated is the maximum permissible mass of the loaded vehicle (gross).
The inspection authorities and vehicle inspection centers for portable fire extinguishers control:
- The existence of relevant entries, markings, labels, properly completed.
- The extinguishing capacity according to article 3 of No. 50292/3549/08 Ministerial Decision for the vehicle category.
- That there is no damage, erosion and damage to their shell.
- That the pressure gauges of the dry dust fire extinguishers are within the green zone.
- That they have not been used (not even partially) and their safety is in place intact.
- That they are always in the positions and bases provided.
- That it is in force and the date of the next annual audit has not passed.
- That they have a control ring on the neck of the fire extinguisher.
Regarding the penalties provided during the audits, the following applies:
According to the Road Traffic Code (paragraph 26 of article 81), the lack of fire extinguishers or their non-compliance with requirements 1 – 8 results in a fine of € 80 to the vehicle owner.
According to the ADR control legislation (Government Gazette 3135 / 31-7-2018), the lack of fire extinguishers or their non-compliance with the requirements (fuses / inspection dates) results in a fine of € 300 to the vehicle owner.
Argyris Chrysomallidis
Electrical Engineer, MBA, SAMEE
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