24 Jun 2019

Earlier in June, 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. Whilst the fire in the ship-to-shore crane was small, dock workers were moved to a place of safety and operations were halted.

This incident could have been much more serious. Docks and ports handle many potential hazards such as fertilisers, animal feed, and wood chip. Additionally, the engines of large cranes and vehicles used to move cargo and containers operate at high temperatures therefore posing a potential fire risk. It is therefore crucial to protect these business critical assets from the threat of fire.

Unique fire suppression system

Firetrace provide a unique fire suppression system which can be fitted to dockside cranes, forklifts and loading machinery. The Firetrace system stops fires breaking out before they start, preventing fires becoming a serious problem. The Firetrace system can also be retrofitted by one of our highly trained installation engineers. The systems and components are flexible enough to be installed on almost any port equipment.

A key element of the Firetrace system is the pneumatic tubing which can be easily routed in and around the hazard area in dockside machinery thus reducing the detection time and limiting the damage caused. The detection tubing bursts when exposed to a fire’s radiant hear and releases a fire suppressing agent providing fast, reliable fire detection and suppression.