Certification with regard to fire safety of vehicles

Fires in buses and coaches are very common and on average several buses worldwideare involved in a fire incident each day. For instance, in the US approximately 160bus fires were reported each year between 2004–2008 [1]. In Australia there areabout 70 bus fires per year resulting in insurance claims [2] and in northern Europeabout one percent of all buses in service will suffer from a fire incident each year[3, 4]. In addition, fires are not limited to buses and coaches. For example, firesin the media drift and distribution level sections of Swedish non-coal mines andGerman potash and rock salt mining are predominantly caused by service vehicles,drilling rigs and loaders [5, 6, 7].