Episode 313: Why First Responders Need One Global Language for Safety with Kurt Vollmacher

Episode notes

How do you prepare firefighters for risks that did not exist 10 years ago?

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy.

Recorded live at the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) 2025 Conference alongside the AFAC, WAFA, and Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience Conference in Perth, Australia.

After 4 decades in the fire service, Kurt Vollmacher has seen firsthand how quickly the job is changing. What used to be a world of diesel and gasoline has evolved into one filled with lithium ion batteries, hydrogen, ammonia, and a growing list of complex energy sources. For first responders, that shift brings new risks and a critical need for clear, reliable information.

In this episode, Kurt shares how his experience led him to focus on one simple but powerful idea: giving responders the right information at the right time. His work on ISO 17840 is helping create a standardized system of symbols, rescue sheets, and guidance that can be understood across countries, languages, and incident types.

This conversation explores the growing complexity facing firefighters, the challenge of aligning manufacturers and responders, and the importance of training around consistent, recognizable information. Kurt also reflects on the long road of building global standards, the partnerships driving the effort forward, and the mindset required to keep pushing progress.

At its core, this episode is about making emergency response safer through clarity, collaboration, and persistence.

So take a listen to hear what he has to share.

Head to www.smartfirefighting.com to discover how SFF accelerates innovation for emergency responders, to find out when our next event is, or review our curated resources.

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Chapters

1. 0:00 Intro, live from Perth
2. 1:15 What 40 years in the fire service taught Kurt
3. 2:40 Why it got so complicated
4. 5:12 Where the program stands
5. 6:37 The ISO 17840 standard
6. 8:15 Balancing responders and manufacturers
7. 9:10 The vision: one global standard
8. 10:17 Words to live by

Questions answered in this episode

What is ISO 17840 and what does it cover?

Kurt Vollmacher explains that ISO 17840 is an existing standard for road vehicles including passenger vehicles, trucks, and buses. It has four parts: rescue sheets for passenger vehicles, rescue sheets for buses and trucks, emergency response guides, and identification of the drive line.

Hear it at 6:47

Why is standardized labeling for vehicles and energy systems important for firefighters?

Kurt Vollmacher says firefighters now face many new fuel types beyond diesel and gasoline, including hydrogen, LPG, LNG, ammonia, ethanol, and methanol. A worldwide standard with symbols helps responders know what to do, and training with symbols means when they are confronted with an intervention with hydrogen or lithium-ion batteries, they will know what to do. He adds that lithium-ion battery in Belgium is the same in Australia.

Hear it at 2:52

What challenge do volunteer firefighters face according to Kurt Vollmacher?

He says it is getting very complicated for volunteers, who are people that bake your bread in the morning and save you at night out of a car. They need the right information, and standardized templates and symbols help ensure they can understand hazards quickly.

Hear it at 1:32

How does Kurt Vollmacher plan to expand the ISO standard beyond road vehicles?

He is working to apply the same templates and symbols to energy storage systems, trains, trams, buses, and boats. The goal is to use as much as possible the same colors and information, and always try to find the red line so the responders will recognize the same headings.

Hear it at 2:39

What is Kurt Vollmacher's long-term vision for responder safety standards?

His dream is to have one standard for responders worldwide. He says he will work on it until retirement and beyond, bringing together motivated people in different countries who are passionate about the mission.

Hear it at 9:22

Transcript

Machine transcript of the published audio. Names may be misspelled and some sections are missing.

Ep 313 transcript

Why First Responders Need One Global Language for Safety with Kurt Vollmacher

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Kurt Vollmacher

Source: Whisper medium.en machine transcription of the published Podbean audio (no original transcript found in Drive), lightly cleaned. Speakers were separated by voice clustering and then checked and assigned by hand at every speaker change. Gaps where the model returned no usable text are marked [inaudible m:ss].

[0:00] Kevin Sofen: Welcome to our podcast mini-series, recorded live at the Institution of Fire Engineers 2025 Conference in Perth, Australia, alongside the AFAC, WAFA, and the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience Conferences. With over 28 conversations with fire chiefs, engineers, researchers and innovators, we explored how the fire and emergency community is adapting into a rapidly changing world. From climate resilience and community-led adaption to the rise of new technologies like satellites, AI, and simple tools designed for the field to the importance of mental health, diversity, and global collaboration, these episodes highlight the shared challenges and inspiring solutions shaping the future of safety. Enjoy. Back in Tin Tam Arena alongside Kurt Vollmacher. Kurt, how are you doing?

[0:52] Kurt Vollmacher: I'm very good. Thank you very much.

[0:54] Kevin Sofen: So you're from Belgium.

[0:55] Kurt Vollmacher: I'm from Belgium indeed. I've been a firefighter for 40 years. So still I am, but now I'm in education. So, and I was very happy to be invited by the Institute of Fire Safety Engineers from Australia. I know like Sean, Rafael, a long time through Mark. And so, yeah, I was very happy that I'm here.

[1:15] Kevin Sofen: Likewise, I have to pinch myself that I'm here in Perth, Australia, working with such incredible people like yourself. So you mentioned education is a big thing that you're leading and that you're focused on, what have you learned within your 40 years in the fire service that has driven you to the work that you're doing today?

[1:32] Kurt Vollmacher: It's getting very complicated for firefighters, especially for the volunteers. Those people, I always say that those people are the people that bake your bread in the morning and save you at night out of a car. So we need to have that those guys have the right information. So 10 years ago, I started a project with drawing symbols, with drawing guidelines, templates for guidelines. So the manufacturer can give us information that we need as a responder. Bit by bit, has my work been growing out for international standards. So this ISO 17840 and therefore part of it. But this standard was for road vehicles, obviously for road vehicles. So the problem is, it would be good that the firefighters have this for everything. So for road vehicles, for buses, like road vehicles are buses, passenger vehicles and trucks, but then also for energy storage systems, for trains, for trams, for boats, everything, with everything always, with the same template, with the same symbols, with the same understanding, keep it always super simple, the KISS principle.

[2:39] Kevin Sofen: I'm curious in terms of how it became so complicated and how it became such an issue. Why did the labeling and the communication of information, how did it become such a bird's nest of random intel?

[2:52] Kurt Vollmacher: I think we used to have a time where we have diesel, where we have gasoline, where we have LPG. But now with our planet is changing, we have a warm-up, so a lot of new energy is coming. So what used to be in factories is coming out of the factories. Hydrogen, we have LPG, we have LNG, we have hydrogen, we're going to have ammonia, vehicles running on ammonia, vehicles running on ethanol, methanol. So it's so much, so much to understand. It used to be that we have a lot of labeling for the dangerous goods that the truck is carrying. But now we need this also information for the truck itself because it can be a truck on hydrogen that carry, I don't know, maybe LPG, for instance. So it's getting difficult more and more.

[3:43] Kevin Sofen: Especially when you're talking about going across state lines, across country lines, across languages. I imagine that's a challenge, especially when you're thinking about the hazardous materials from hydrogen to lithium ion. I mean, these challenges, regardless of the language, persist in every culture. It's just a matter of how is it labeled properly to make sure that first responders are aware of the risks that they're dealing with.

[4:09] Kurt Vollmacher: Indeed, and it's also a big advantage if you make something worldwide, because lithium-ion battery in Belgium is the same in Australia. So the manufacturers also want to have one way to give information to responders. And if you can do that in a standardized way, it's good for everybody. It's good for the responders, it's good for the manufacturers. And the biggest benefit is also if you have a standard with symbols, you can take this up in training. So you can train before the responders, but the symbol means how the information is built up. So when they are confronted with some intervention with hydrogen or some other thing, lithium-neon batteries, they will know what to do.

[4:49] Kevin Sofen: And I think that's one of the key parts of what I'm understanding of your work is enabling first responders to know what they're dealing with and to know what to do. And I'm looking at this work that you're leading with Dr. Judy. Jeremiah and the work with UL and Esri. Tell me about this. I think we've kind of touched on it, but this stepping up first responder, first and second responder safety when dealing with this. Where are you at with the program right now? What is this whole initiative?

[5:16] Kurt Vollmacher: So I was very happy that Dr. Judy De Revajan has said, I want to help you, Kurt, and I was very proud. The doctor is a specialist in batteries. She has worked with NASA. So she's very keen on all those things. And we're trying to motivate together people worldwide to try to establish the eyes on arm to make aware that there's an eyes on arm existing. So we're road vehicles. and then also how we can enlarge it to energy storage systems, to trains, to trams, to buses. So in November, I go to get a bit duty to Singapore, also on a battery safety summit. What are we going to talk also about this? It's really trying to convince manufacturers, say to the responders that we are working on something, so it's an ongoing work. Never give up.

[6:10] Kevin Sofen: Never give up. Well said. I've heard that phrase a couple times today, And I think I might have to get a, I can't get a tattoo, but I think I might have to put it on my wall somewhere because it's true. It's easy to get kind of stuck in the ways and assume this is the way it's always been. But there are better ways to do, there are always a better way to do things. And then particularly with what you're doing, just because this is the way it's always been doesn't mean that now that we have better information, we can't improve upon it and make it safer for everyone. And so I see this term ISO 17840, is this a standard that exists now or is it an evolving standard? Tell me more about that.

[6:47] Kurt Vollmacher: This standard is existing. The standard is ISO 17840 is for road vehicles. So for passenger vehicles, for trucks and for buses. This consists of four parts. The first part is this is a rescue sheet for passenger vehicles. The second part is rescue sheet for buses and trucks. The third part is emergency response guide and the fourth part is edification of the drive line. So there are four parts. And this is an existing norm. And what we try to do, the existing norm, try to attach to other things, to energy storage systems, to ships. But you cannot, like, if you give information about the vehicle, sometimes the headings will be a little bit different. But the main thing that we try to do is always try to find the red line of how you call it in English, the fuselage in France. There's always one line that is the same. So that the responders, if you see a heading, we will use the same colors. Much as possible, the same information in it. But like if you go with a vehicle, there's a chapter that talks about a case of submergence. You cannot do this with the ship because it's already in the water. Then you may say what intrusion, what you're going to do with water coming in the ship, coming in the basement where the lithium-ion batteries are in, what's going to be then. So it's adapting a little bit, but always try to find the headlines.

[8:14] Kevin Sofen: And you mentioned that now a lot of this is applicable to road vehicles, But what about the other sectors and how this work can continue to be useful to other sectors to ultimately benefit first responders with better information?

[8:29] Kurt Vollmacher: Yeah, this is all about, it's trying to find the balance within the first responders and within the manufacturers. So sometimes the first responders talk a certain language, manufacturers talk a certain language. And it's really trying to find a good way between that the manufacturers also can be convinced that it's good to help the responders. And within those 10 years, I have understand the manufacturers also, what their thinking is, what the responder's thinking is. And you must, if you work on such a project, you must try to find a way between. So that is really, that's something in for the manufacturers and also for the responders. And then you really, you really get somewhere.

[9:10] Kevin Sofen: Yep. And so it's August 2025. What's your hope and vision for this? Is it, is this something that you see some of these new standards going into effect in six months, a year, or where do you see this in the next one, five years?

[9:22] Kurt Vollmacher: Well, I hope till I go to pension, but I think I will work after my pension also.

[9:28] Kevin Sofen: You're not retiring anytime soon.

[9:29] Kurt Vollmacher: No, no. My dream is to have one status for responders worldwide. And we will work on this till we have it. And it's also very good. Like in Australia, this Kim Tai from AFAC. She's the project leader for Australia, so I'm very happy that Kim is helping within this is really good because you have motivated people and countries who help to establish this project. At the end, we are all doing this. together. And we try to find also people who don't talk about it, but do it. That really, you have to be passionate to do this because it's not easy. And at the end, we are one team, we are together strong, and only together we will make this happen.

[10:16] Kevin Sofen: Well said, Kurt. I'm curious, you've mentioned a couple quotes that I've written down, but is there any quote that you live by or words of wisdom that you could share with us today as you've learned in your role in the fire service or the role that you've applied to continue to drive your mission that you're doing with energy safety?

[10:33] Kurt Vollmacher: I have said it before, never give up how hard it may get and to get it strong. This is really never give up to get it strong. This is my way that I try to go.

[10:44] Kevin Sofen: Kurt, I believe in you, I believe in this mission and I'm excited about your role with the IFE and how we can continue to never give up and strive towards this universal standard.

[10:53] Kurt Vollmacher: Yeah and I want to thank again the IFE to invite me. that was a very big honor. What you're doing with AFI is great. You're bringing, I have met so many people here, you're bringing really the good within people together. It's great work that you do and I should say go on with this is very needed.

[11:13] Kevin Sofen: We're just getting started. Okay. Thanks, Kurt. Appreciate it.

[11:17] Kurt Vollmacher: No problem.

[11:18] Kevin Sofen: Nice talking with you.

[11:19] Kurt Vollmacher: You're welcome. Bye-bye.

[11:22] Kevin Sofen: And that's a wrap for this episode of the Smart Firefighting Podcast. If you found value in this conversation, hit like, leave a comment, share it to someone, and tell us what you enjoyed most. Take care and thanks for listening.