BS EN 13204:2025

Powered rescue tools for fire and rescue service use. Safety and performance requirements. | Status: Current

1 Scope This document specifies safety and performance requirements for powered rescue tools manufactured after the date of publication. This document is applicable to powered rescue tools which are intended for use by the firefighting and rescue services, principally for cutting, crushing, spreading, squeezing, pushing or pulling the structural parts of road vehicles, ships, trains, aircraft and building structures involved in accidents. This document is not applicable to hydraulic power packs covered by 2000/14/EC. Powered rescue tools consist of tool(s) and the necessary system components (e.g. energy source, drive system and prime mover) and intended accessories, as defined in Clause 3. This document deals with all significant hazards, hazardous situations or hazardous events relevant to the machinery, when it is used as intended and under conditions or misuse which are reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer.

NOTE 1 The aim of powered rescue tools is to assist the firefighting and rescue services while extracting the casualties or to create a working space for paramedical services taking the local conditions into account.

This document does not include:

• — tools with pneumatic drive systems or pneumatic energy sources;
• — tools which are single acting (for example spring /gravity return jacks, powered struts, etc.).

It is not applicable to additional requirements for:

1. a) operation in severe conditions (e.g. extreme environmental conditions such as temperatures outside the range –20 °C and +55 °C, corrosive environment, tropical environment, contaminating environments, strong magnetic fields, potentially explosive atmospheres, underwater use);
2. b) the risk directly arising from the means provided for the portability, transportability, mobility and decommissioning of powered rescue tools during periods of their operation;
3. c) generic tools such as, but not limited to, powered drills, angle grinders, saws, not solely intended for extrication purposes;
4. d) tools intended to lift and/or hoist, not solely intended for extrication purposes.

NOTE 2 EN 13731:2007 deals with lifting bag systems for fire and rescue services.

NOTE 3 For the EU/EEA other Directives can be applicable to the equipment in the scope, for example the Electro Magnetic Compatibility Directive.