Consideration of Pressure Vessels Codes and Standards for Fire Emergency Rescue in China: Now and Future

As of the end of 2015, more than 20 transportable pressure vessel leakage accidents were put out every day by fire forces in China. Accidents put out by fire forces are primarily handled in accordance with codes and standards. This paper investigates and analyzes the codes and standards systems for pressure vessel and fire emergency rescue (FER) in China. Existing codes and standards for pressure vessel leakage do not include FER, which results in the firefighters being encumbered when addressing these accidents. Treatment methods for hazardous chemicals are included in the FER codes and standards, but they are not aimed at pressure vessels. One of the goals of the Plan for Furthering the Standardization Reforms released by the State Council in 2015 was to integrate and reduce the number of codes and standards. It is impossible to establish new FER standards for pressure vessels. To address this issue, this paper presents a new concept of pressure vessels standard for FER. This new concept features two aspects: (1) China’s Standardization Committee on Boilers and Pressure Vessels should absorb some fire practitioners, in particular fire scientific researchers and firefighters; and (2) the pressure vessel FER technologies, methods, and structural components should be added to the pressure vessel codes and standards.