NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 17

the challenge for bolstering bus safety
in the city. So far this year, nobody has
been seriously hurt in any of the Rome
bus fires.
But history demonstrates just how
catastrophic bus fires can be.

A report published in
November 2016 by the
U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration, which analyzed
data from 2004 to 2013,
found that fires in motor
coaches (defined as buses
designed for long-distance
passenger transportation)
occurred almost daily on
average, while fires in
school buses occurred
more than daily for a
combined average of over
550 each year.
In 2005, 23 people were killed when a
fire tore through a bus that was evacuating nursing home patients from Houston
in anticipation of Hurricane Rita. A
federal investigation found that the
company that owned the vehicle failed
to conduct proper maintenance and
inspections, resulting in the deadly fire.
London

reporter Gaia Pianigiani, who witnessed
a bus burst into flames from the backseat of a cab on May 8. "The buses are
too old and almost certainly too little
serviced," Pianigiani wrote. "The two
buses that burst into flames on Tuesday
were built in 2003 and in 2004. On average, public buses should be in service
for six to seven years, not 15, transportation experts say."
Aware of the problems in cities like
Rome, the Italian government last year
launched a plan to renovate the entire
country's public transportation fleet,
Pianigiani said, but the process has
been moving slowly. ATAC, the company in charge of Rome's public bus
and rail transportation, in particular has
a reputation for absentee employees
and passengers who get away with
riding for free, she said, heightening

Grenfell hearings begin near
anniversary of deadly blaze
Ten days before the one-year anniversary of London's Grenfell Tower fire,
which killed 72 people on June 14, 2017,
hearings began in the
government inquiry into
the incident. The judgeled inquiry is expected
to last over a year, and
aims to expose the
causes behind the fire
as well as prevent future
catastrophic blazes
from occurring.
According to BBC
News, early evidence
presented in the inquiry
pointed to a number
of inadequacies in the
high-rise building itself
that led to the rapid
spread of smoke and
flames and the high
number of fatalities.

For example, reports by five expert
witnesses, which were presented as
evidence in early hearings, show that
the fire doors, dry risers, and smoke
control systems inside Grenfell Tower
didn't function properly. Additionally,
the reports point to a lack or failure of
broader guidelines in the United Kingdom related to fire alarm systems and
exterior wall assemblies in high-rise residential buildings. To read the evidence
and follow updates on the inquiry, visit
grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk.
In response to the fire, NFPA released
a number of resources to guide officials through the fire safety risk and
regulation of combustible exterior wall
assemblies, including components such
as combustible cladding. The tools, as
well as the NFPA Journal feature article
on the Grenfell Tower fire, "London
Calling," are available at nfpa.org/
exteriorwalls.
Guatemala
Hundreds die in Central American
volcanic eruptions
Not long after volcanic eruptions began
plaguing Hawaii in May, eruptions from a
volcano named for the Spanish word for
"fire" proved far more deadly in Guatemala. By some reports, 150 people died,
and as of June 17, about 200 more were
still missing, after the Fuego volcano
spewed hot ash and dirt over villages in
the Central American country.
The hardest-hit area was the village
of San Miguel Los Lotes. The New York
Times chronicled the devastation there
in an article titled "A Volcano Turns a
Town Into a Cemetery."
"I've lived there 50 years," one San
Miguel resident told the Times. "The
volcano would grumble and make noise.
We never thought it would take our
things and leave us with nothing." -A.V.

Firefighters in Guatemala
during rescue efforts
following deadly volcanic
eruptions.

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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http://grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk http://www.nfpa.org/exteriorwalls http://www.nfpa.org/exteriorwalls http://nfpa.org/journal
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2018
