Fire Safety Testing - Case Studies

A review of how a fire spread through a West Midlands hotel is being carried out by West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS). Firefighters arrived at the Holiday Inn near Walsall within 4 minutes of being mobilized. They immediately started to tackle what was already a significant fire, which soon consumed much of the building. West Midlands Hotel Fire 999 calls started to be received shortly before 4pm on Friday 2 August 2019, to the site near Junction 10 of the M6 motorway. WMFS were supported at...

BizSpace is the United Kingdom’s renowned provider of regional and flexible workspace for professionals. They offer modern offices, studios and workshop units to a vast range of small businesses across the country. fire and security installation APE Fire & Security were tasked with delivering a complete fire and security installation for Steel House in Fareham, one of BizSpace’s well-established and refurbished centers in the South West England region. The revamped building wil...

Skyscrapers form the center of the world’s modern cities. As a result of progress in the construction industry, there are hardly any limits to the shape and construction of buildings. As a manufacturer of high-pressure water mist technology, AQUASYS is meeting this challenge together with a worldwide network of partners, supporting experts in cost-efficient planning. The company was once again able to prove its worth, in the center of Tallinn in Estonia, by protecting the new built 30-sto...

The Thomas Fire in December 2017 claimed two lives, burned 281,893 acres, and destroyed more than 1,000 structures before it was contained on Jan. 12, 2018. The Montecito Fire Protection District (MFPD), a small coastal community in California, saw the loss of only seven structures, a remarkably low number given the extreme fire behavior it experienced. The low fire loss was due to the successful mitigation strategies the Montecito community pursued for over two decades beginning in 1994....

Men and women of the Tuftonboro Fire Department welcomed the delivery of their new Toyne Tailored Pumper Tanker. Bearing the “Engine 2” unit ID, this fully customized pumper tanker will join alongside the department’s other Toyne apparatus, “Engine 1”. With the new addition, Tuftonboro fire crews are better equipped to take the call. Tanker Capabilities Stall-built with bolted stainless steel, Toyne mounted the pumper tanker body on a Spartan Gladiator MFD chassis...

Recently fire crews were called to a fire at Felixstowe docks, the UK’s busiest port. A fire had broken out in one of the dockside cranes. While the fire in the ship-to-shore crane was small, dock workers were moved to a place of safety and operations were halted temporarily. This incident could have been much more serious. Docks and ports handle many potential hazards such as fertilizers, animal feed, and wood chip. Additionally, the engines of large cranes and vehicles used to move carg...

Global safety products manufacturer and service provider, VIKING Life-Saving Equipment has won a contract to supply CNOOC Petroleum Europe Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited, with personal protective equipment (PPE) and servicing for approximately 16,000 passengers annually flying to and from the company’s platforms in the North Sea. VIKING has already begun providing helicopter carry-on safe equipment, survival suits, lifejackets, armbands and helicopter transit bags for...

A prison in the south of England with an operating capacity of 690 prisoners is currently being comprehensively renovated as part of a five-year construction work program. Work has already been completed and includes changes in the health sector, a new electrical system, a new visitor complex and the modernization of the fire protection concept. Firefighting system AQUASYS developed an optimized firefighting system for prison cells and common security areas. This system must ensure efficient c...

When the Dusseldorf Fire Department's diver squadron is alerted, they are instantly on the move. After a minute of set-up time, the crew is sitting in the vehicle and on its way to the scene. Everything it needs for the mission is there already on board the water rescue truck, a Rosenbauer AT on a MAN TGM 13,290 with 290hp, all-wheel drive and 13 ton gross vehicle weight. The lifeboat, if necessary, is already attached as well. Water rescue truck Dusseldorf Fire Department's water rescue truck...

Spectators, players, and property at India’s Mohali International Cricket Stadium are being protected by a highly-sophisticated Taktis panel from Kentec, a manufacturer of life-critical control systems. The Taktis 8 loop addressable fire panel, installed by Firehut Commercial Equipment Pvt Ltd, was chosen by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to replace a faulty system, and to provide a reliable and user-friendly control panel. 700 detectors and devices The Mohali International Cri...

GearGrid’s products are being used by all of the student-athletes at Hutchinson High School, located in Hutchinson, Minnesota, daily in practice. “Each sport has its own storage cage. They have padlocks that only the coaches can access,” said Thayne Johnson, Hutchinson’s Activities Director. GearGrid’s storage solutions These storage cages replaced Hutchinson High School’s old flimsy cabinets that weren’t holding up to the various requirements of the s...

The City of Port St. Joe Fire Department has received delivery of their very first custom-built Toyne Pumper. Delivery of the department’s new Toyne Tailored Apparatus was completed in late March. The addition of the new pumper will have a positive impact on the department’s emergency response capabilities; currently, the department has two Class A pumpers, one 75-foot ladder pumper, one brush unit, and one rescue unit. Custom-built Pumper Toyne mounted the bolted stainless steel...

Global safety products manufacturer and service provider, VIKING Life-Saving Equipment has announced winning a major contract to build and supply a VIKING Norsafe Munin S1200 patrol boat for the Norwegian police force. Police patrol and rescue boats The vessel, which will be built in Arendal, Norway and delivered in December, will carry out police patrol and rescue missions in the East Police District covering the 38 municipalities from Gardermoen to the Swedish border. Seeing off competition...

Northern Ireland’s first ‘lifestyle inspired care home’ is being protected by C-TEC’s innovative life-safety systems. Designed by Bailie Associates, installed by Turner Electrical NI and supplied and commissioned by Fire NI, the systems provide the highest levels of protection for residents and staff at Milesian Manor, an award-winning care home in Magherafelt. Employing over 50 dedicated staff, the luxurious home specializes in creating spaces designed to conjure up mem...

The Knox-Center Township Volunteer Fire Department received delivery of their new customized Toyne Pumper. This is the department’s second Toyne Tailored Apparatus. A new pumper was needed to replace an older engine in the fleet. Specialized equipment on the Toyne apparatus will greatly increase the department’s firefighting capabilities. Pumper Customization Mounted on a Spartan Metro Star MFD chassis, Toyne customized the bolted stainless steel pumper to the department&...

Barlow Fire Department was dispatched mutual aid to assist with an accident with entrapment. The crew was given the first assignment to stabilize the passenger vehicle and trailer of truck. The company requested the Amkus O cutter and speedway cutter. The crew assisted in deploying these tools to assist in extrication efforts. After a 15-20 minute extrication time, the patient was free from the vehicle.

Elko County Fire Protection District in Elko County, Nevada recently received delivery of four Toyne Tailored Apparatus. Toyne delivered two Wildland, one Pumper Tanker, and one Rapid Attack apparatus in early February. With one of the largest counties in the nation, Elko County Fire Protection District has had to expand its fleet of fire trucks in order to tackle the growing threat of wildfires in northeastern Nevada. Wildland apparatus Two Toyne Wildland apparatus were built to identical sp...

A major chemical company in the UK had been running a large spray drying process for many years. They thought the explosion risk had been mitigated by installing suppression systems on the main dryer and cyclone and flameless venting on the filter. These had activated over 30 times, for real explosions, and the system had so far done its job. However, the frequency of activations increased and eventually an explosion in the main filter led to damage in the plant, despite the protection system....

Southern Supply Company is a wholesale distributor located in Springfield, Missouri. Southern Supply has a critical data center through which it handles all of its business activity, from shipping and receiving to accounting, for its 12 locations in Missouri and Kansas. Because it is key to the operation of its business, Southern Supply decided to protect its data center with a clean agent fire suppression system, rather than just a traditional sprinkler system. By choosing a clean-ag...

A U.S.-based division of a cosmetic manufacturer employs high-value data center technology to maintain their day-to-day operations. Protecting this high-value asset equipment from fire is essential and had been accomplished with a Halon fire extinguishing system. However, it is now known that Halon is damaging the ozone and adding to the global warming problem. In response, the European Community issued regulation 2037/2000, making the removal of Halon mandatory by 2003. The European-based corp...

In 2003, Jeffrey Energy Center (JEC), the coal-fired plant in Kansas, was recognized by the Powder River Basin (PRB) Coal User’s Group as its PRB Plant of the Year. Industry recognition was achieved through plant safety, plant performance, environmental achievements and overall plant cleanliness. Over the years JEC has undertaken a number of projects and process changes to further improve the plant. Enhancements to the fire detection and suppression systems have been a vital part of the p...

A Louisiana-based paint additive manufacturer experienced a Halon 1301 system discharge in their Rack Room that is vital to the day-to-day operations of the company. Seeking a Halon refill, the company called Fike’s distributor, C & S Safety Systems, in New Iberia, Louisiana who in turn presented ECARO-25®. After learning the many advantages of ECARO-25, this customer agreed to install this exciting product as long as the installation time would be equal to that of recharging the...

The Colruyt supermarket chain has become a successful company by offering the best available and most reasonable ‘discount’ on goods to consumers. To preserve the ‘lowest prices’ and to remain at the forefront with competitive products, Colruyt made substantial investments into computer technology and integrated a high-technology information system which runs non-stop 365 days a year. Needless to say, a highly relied upon asset of this type is essential to the continuous...

San Carlos, CA, located midway between San Francisco and San Jose, has been a magnet for families, due in large part to the small size and high educational value the San Carlos School District offers. In an effort to maintain this standard, the district has undertaken a large facility modernization project, affecting multiple schools. In order to continue the project throughout the school year, the district set up temporary housing for displaced classrooms, creating a unique and immediate need...

The Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) in Lafayette, LA is a state-of-the-art 3D immersive visualization resource center featuring one of the world’s first six-sided, digital virtual reality cubes, as well as the world’s largest digital 3-D theater. This leading-edge visualization environment is powered by one of the largest shared memory resources in the world, a 4.1TB of RAM high performance computing system. The LITE facility, a State entity governed by a Board of...

WAGNER Rail GmbH, based in Haar near Munich, has installed a fire protection solution in a people mover in Russia for the first time: at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Ensuring passenger safety Since May 2018, the so-called Cable Liner has been running fully automatically on a route of around two kilometers, connecting the northern and southern terminal complexes. It is the first Cable Liner to run underground in a tunnel. To make the journey as safe as possible for passengers, the producer,...

Pierce Manufacturing Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation company, has announced that it has secured an order of 11 custom apparatus for Greenwood County Fire Service in South Carolina. The order is made up of custom apparatus including five Saber FR pumpers, four Pierce dry-side tankers, an Ascendant 107’ aerial ladder, and a Pierce 100’ heavy-duty rear mount aerial tower. This monumental apparatus order for Greenwood County Fire Service has been placed in partnership with South Carolina&rs...

The Storm Lake Fire Department in Storm Lake, Iowa has expanded its fleet’s ability to respond to the variety of incoming calls it receives, after purchasing two custom-built Toyne apparatus. The department received delivery of a pumper tanker and a rapid attack in mid-November of 2018. These new trucks were a welcome sight to the ever-alert Storm Lake Fire Department, which responded to over 170 calls in 2017. Tanker Characteristics Storm Lake’s new pumper tanker is mounted on a S...

A powerful network of C-TEC’s ZFP addressable fire panels is safeguarding Sunbury Manor School in Middlesex. Programmed with sophisticated cause and effects to suit the school’s special requirements, the 4-loop touch-screen control panels connect to a series of detection devices including 250 of C-TEC’s EN54-23 certified visual alarm devices to provide top quality fire protection at the 1025-pupil capacity school. Emergency Lockdown Policy The system also has a lockdown facil...

The South Holland Fire Department, located south of Chicago, Illinois, employs 24 full-time and 19 paid-on-call firefighters. These employees staff two stations 24 hours a day and respond to nearly 4,500 calls annually. The department protects approximately 22,000 residents with a response area comprised of over 8,000 homes, industrial facilities and commercial businesses. Just a few miles to the west, the Midlothian Fire Department, located in the village of Midlothian, Illinois, maintains two...