Fire Industry News for August 2019

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...

On September 24th, 2004 BRS-Intron, a computer company based in Visby, Sweden, averted what could have been a major disaster. Because it is a full-service company, specializing in complete product solutions, servicing and financing, BRS-Intron’s business is heavily dependent on the continuous operation of its business systems. For this reason, it chose Fike Corporation’s FM-200® (HFC-227ea) clean agent fire suppression system for the protection of its computer equipment. This fa...

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...

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 made the decision to protect their data center with a clean agent fire suppression system, rather than just a traditional sprinkler system. By choosing a clean-...

The Hampton Inn & Suites in Moline, Illinois is known for its cleanliness and comfort. Conveniently located near the Quad City International Airport, this newly constructed hotel boasts of 98 guest rooms, a fitness center, indoor pool, business center, and a breakfast area among its other services. With the help of Heartland Fire and Fike Alarm Systems, this Hampton Inn can add safety to its long list of amenities. Due to local fire codes, and the facility’s large number of rooms and...

Wharton Esherick (1878-1970) was an artist who produced paintings, decorative frames, woodcuts, sculpture and furniture. While Esherick’s work is displayed in major American museums and private collections, a large compilation of his work is found in his studio. His studio has been preserved and maintained since his death, enabling visitors to learn more about the artist’s life as well as view his work. With so many valuable artifacts and artwork in one studio, a superior fire prote...

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...

Anaheim Hills, CA, devoted to preserving the natural beauty of their community, has built the nation’s first underground electrical switching station. With only a three-tiered retaining wall and metal door showing above the substation, lies a gorgeous park, complete with running paths and quaint park benches. The Park Substation is an innovation of the city’s public utilities department in cooperation with the local neighborhoods, resulting in a new recreation area, rather than an un...

Liberty University, located in Lynchburg, VA, is committed to providing quality education within a Christian environment. They are proud to represent more than 15,000 students from all fifty states and over seventy countries around the world. Their campus spans across 5,000 acres making it the largest evangelical higher educational facility in the United States. Because of the size of the property, the campus employs their own emergency response team, responsible for monitoring over 80 building...

Motorola Solutions has signed a five-year maintenance, support and TETRA digital radio system upgrade agreement with the Information Technology and Communications Department under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania to modernize and maintain the country’s nationwide TETRA digital radio network. The network provides Lithuania’s public safety organizations such as the State Border Guard Service police, fire and rescue departments as well as ambulances and state la...

FLIR Systems, Inc. announced the industry’s first high-definition (HD), handheld optical gas imaging (OGI) camera, the FLIR GF620. Designed for oil and gas industry professionals, the GF620 camera sets a new standard for detecting and visualizing invisible leaks of hydrocarbons, such as methane, and common volatile organic compounds (VOCs). With four times the pixels of previous models, the HD resolution GF620 helps inspectors survey for fugitive hydrocarbon emissions from further, safer d...

FLIR Systems, Inc. announced the FLIR GF77 Gas Find IR, its first uncooled thermal camera designed for detecting methane. This handheld camera offers inspection professionals the features they need to find potentially dangerous, invisible methane leaks at natural gas power plants, renewable energy production facilities, industrial plants, and other locations along a natural gas supply chain. The GF77 provides methane gas detection capability at roughly half the price of cooled gas inspection th...

A new purpose built fire station fit for 21st century firefighting was officially opened in Ramsgate on February 5, 2019. Nick Chard, Chairman of the Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority, launched the station and training facility based in Newington Road. The site was selected for its good location in terms of accessibility to key road networks, and has been built to provide a reliable and efficient modern day service for local people. As of 7th January 2019, it became home to whole-time...

Volunteer firefighters and emergency service personnel put their lives on the line every day in their mission to serve and protect families, neighbors and country. It’s their passion and selflessness that inspired VFIS founder, Arthur J. Glatfelter, to create the first-ever specialized coverage for volunteer firefighters fifty years ago. Today, VFIS continues to see it as its purpose to provide meaningful benefits and protections to the nation’s first responders. Serving Fire Depar...

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has signed a contract with CEIIA-Centro de Engenharia e Desenvolvimento for long range endurance maritime surveillance. CEIIA will provide services based on the Hermes 900 RPAS subcontracted from Elbit. This RPAS has advanced capabilities in terms of operational flight duration (more than 12 hours) and payload configuration. It carries optical and infrared cameras, a multi-mode maritime radar, AIS and distress signal receiver, thereby giving it long ra...

The Indonesian Ministry of Defence has placed an order for eight Airbus H225M SAR helicopters.  Completion of the mission equipment outfitting and other customization work will be handled by local plant PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) at its facility in Bandung, Indonesia. These additional helicopters will join the air force’s existing fleet of six H225Ms to perform similar combat search and rescue missions. Combat-Proven Helicopter “We welcome Indonesia’s selection of ou...

When a large-scale emergency strikes, inter-agency collaboration is key to a coordinated response across cities and provinces. With Motorola Solutions’ cloud-based Critical Connect, Canadian public safety agencies can quickly connect their ASTRO 25 land mobile radio (LMR) systems to communicate with each other. Using Critical Connect, public safety agencies from different areas have the ability to connect securely to each other in minutes, regardless if it is two or 20 agencies at once. T...

Western Australia’s aerial firefighting fleet can fly further and for a much longer period than ever before, thanks to a new well-equipped Dauphin helicopter with advanced hazard-mapping technology.  Known by its callsign ‘Firebird 661’, the aircraft will boost WA’s aerial surveillance and reconnaissance capability, with targeted availability of up to 306 days per year compared to the previous 110-day fixed service. The new helicopter provides a higher speed and lon...

Kaman Aerosystems have announced that it received its third order in the quarter for the K-MAX medium-to-heavy lift helicopter, taking the total number of firm orders since the relaunch of production to eleven units. The most recent order is from Precision Lift, LLC of Baker City, Oregon. This is the second aircraft purchased by Precision Lift in the last twelve months and it will join their fleet of firefighting assets. “We have many operators that own multiple K-MAX aircraft and we are...

Firefighters are issuing a safety warning about electrical chargers after a kitchen was severely damaged by a fire in Tunbridge Wells. Crews were alerted to the fire in Salisbury Road, Langton Green on Sunday afternoon (16th December) after the occupant’s mother entered the house while checking on the dog and discovered it to be smoke filled with a small fire ablaze. She quickly got the dog and herself out of the property and raised the alarm. When crews arrived, the ground floor of the...

Firefighters are urging drivers to be careful not to park over, or too close to, fire hydrants which give crews access to a crucial supply of water during incidents. Hydrants can be found on public roads, pavements or grass verges and are clearly marked with a yellow ‘H’ next to the hydrant cover, or on a nearby piece of street furniture e.g. lampposts. The plea comes as a result of crews not being able to get to the water supply on a number of occasions, whether it be during a fire...

Gardner Denver Holdings, Inc. announces that Neil Snyder will succeed Todd Herndon as the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective January 1, 2019. Herndon will stay on with the company to assist in the transition of the CFO role to Snyder. Snyder, currently Senior Vice President of Global Finance, Business Development & Planning, will, in his new role, report directly to Vicente Reynal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Expanded Responsibilities Snyder joined Gardner Denver i...

Tunbridge Wells firefighters are calling on residents to give serious consideration to how they park in side streets and to make sure emergency services can get through. Today’s plea follows call outs this month to the Stanley Road and St Stephens Court area, where efforts to reach properties following a 999 call have been hampered by delays. Inconsiderate parking in residential streets has become a frequent problem for firefighters who fear that it is only a matter of time before this is...

This year, the award was given to Chief Jake Rhodes of the Kingman Fire Department in Kingman Arizona. It was presented during the 2018 International Association of Fire Chiefs annual conference in Dallas, Texas. Chief Rhodes was selected as the award recipient after he successfully implemented a bold new medical and physical program that helps deliver on the promise of making sure that everyone across his organization is mentally and physically fit for the long haul. Health and Wellness Progr...

Vina’s endless commitment to the fire service industry stems from the untimely death of her husband, Captain John Drennan, from burns sustained while battling a fire in Manhattan, in a building that was not equipped with fire sprinklers. Following the loss of her husband, Vina became a compassionate advocate and supporter for fire safety. She became an active part of the NFFF and the FDNY Foundation and her passionate presentations about the situation surrounding her husband’s death...

An England Women Rugby Team player Shaunagh Brown has teamed up with Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) to encourage sports fans to think about testing their smoke alarms this season. 28-year-old, Shaunagh, who has played 4 caps for the England Women team, is also a firefighter based in Chatham and stars in a new 24-second video for the KFRS. She is shown in the film in both her England kit and fire gear as she is lifted, line-out style, by two of her fellow firefighters, Jody Morgan and Aaro...

A Dover resident was lucky to escape with her life after being overcome by smoke from a bedroom fire at a flat in Christchurch Way in the early hours of Saturday morning (10th November 2018). Fire crews praised the efforts of police officers, who were initially called to the scene after a neighbor reported hearing cries for help from a ground floor flat. Kent Police officers discovered the fire and realized someone was trapped inside. Unfortunately, there were no working smoke alarms in the fl...

Gardner Denver Holdings Inc., a provider of mission-critical flow control and compression equipment, announced that it has acquired DV Systems Inc., funded with cash on hand. Based in Barrie, Ontario, DV Systems is a manufacturer of rotary screw and piston compressors and associated aftermarket parts. DV Systems will be part of Gardner Denver’s Industrials Segment. Mission Critical Technologies “DV Systems is a Canadian market-leader with a history of innovative products, strong t...

To reduce the fire risk, and comply with regional regulations, a Mpumalanga macadamia-nut processing company called on risk consulting specialist ASP Fire during the planning of its processing plant to implement a turnkey solution. This involved designing compartmentalization, safety distances, access routes, and the installation of the fire-detection system itself. “Macadamia nuts have a high fat content of 70%,” says ASP Fire CEO Michael van Niekerk, which poses a high fire risk i...

Keeping you and your family safe was the main message of the day when Tonbridge fire station opened their doors to their local Nepalese community. The free event gave people the chance to chat to firefighters and get life-saving tips to help prevent a fire in their home. Around 100 visitors saw the devastating effects of putting water on to a cooking oil fire, with a cooking fire demonstration. Firefighter, Wayne Apps who helped organize the day said: "We really enjoyed meeting with the Nepales...