Paris Fire Brigade acquires state-of-the-art trainers
Published: 01 September, 2006
The decision to install two new fire trainers was based on the Paris Fire Brigade’s central development plan. This plan was to build a new fire trainer to replace its out-of-date equipment at the brigade’s management training centre.
A second simulator was planned for the recruits’ training centre in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. Despite using many stopgap measures, the Paris Fire Brigade was obliged to modernise its training tools to meet new standards, especially environmental ones.
Colonel Rodriguez explains: “Obviously, the first stage was to consider the equipment that already existed in Europe. Many research consultancies have already considered this subject, and the aim was not to study new principles but to list and compare current techniques. We therefore contacted several potential manufacturers and visited their premises, especially the equipment made by KIDDE FIRE TRAINERS in Europe and the US. This enabled us to determine the gap that separated us from our European neighbours in the area of fire simulation.”
Installations & regulations
The areas where construction was planned for the two simulators were subject to draconian town-planning regulations and obtaining building permits was, therefore, extremely difficult.
At Villeneuve-St-Georges, for example, building a concrete structure that would be obviously visible from the outside was impossible. A decision was made to built a metal training tower in place of the existing tower. ‘Tank-type’ units containing the simulators were placed along its sides. This structure can be fully dismantled.
Saint-Denis presented a different problem. It would have been possible to carry out additional building work, but only within the constraints imposed by the regulations. La Briche Fort is traversed by four high-voltage power lines requiring a safety area covering a large section of the fort. The only possible location for the simulator was the former fire house. The solutions proved to be a compromise between the regulations, the constraints of the available plot and the Fire Brigade’s requirements.
The concreted section of the building was reserved for manoeuvre-training. The firefighting training section is now composed of metal tanks that are identical on the two sites.
There are three main families of gas simulators present, depending on whether they are used in closed spaces and according to the type of diffuser: in water, in a dry format or in the form of a ramp. The brigade opted for the dry diffuser simulators supplied by KIDDE FIRE TRAINERS.
In common with any technical decision, the advantages and drawbacks were studied for each solution with regard to future intensive use. All the above techniques were considered equal - and the solution was naturally the one that best met the Fire Brigade’s requirements.
Maintenance and servicing issues were deemed to be matters of great significance to the brigade’s officers. Even though the unit was controlled by electronics it has to be sufficiently robust to meet training needs. Certain computerised options were immediately rejected, such as sensors which recorded the number of uses, for instance. In fact, the more sophisticated equipment tended to lengthen the number of procedures required and - logically - it was natural that more attention was paid to safety.
Propane option
Most of the European installations are fuelled by propane gas which requires a tank storage capacity. This type of fuel, in fact, provides a perfect solution to the technical features of the simulators used. Over the last few years KIDDE FIRE TRAINERS’s technology has significantly progressed and it is now possible to use natural gas. As far as the Fire Brigade was concerned, after rapidly assessing future gas consumption against the number of simulator training sessions, it appeared that it would be necessary to stock up every month. The difficulties in accessing the Villeneuve-St-Georges site, the lack of space at St Denis and the rules relating to the scheduled establishments with regards to storing gas in tanks all justified the choice of natural gas when analysing the tenders.
“According to the information I obtained from the manufacturers, many projects are currently ongoing; however, it appears that only one fire trainer of this type is currently operational in France, in Colmar in the Department of the Haut-Rhin. It is an installation built along traditional lines, with propane gas simulators. We had the great pleasure of visiting the site and were warmly received. A French manufacturer also recently produced a training simulator for tunnel fires. However, with regards to our type of energy, natural gas, we believe our installation is a ‘first’ for France,” Colonel Rodriguez reports.
“My colleagues who provide the training appreciate that this equipment will revolutionise firefighter training,” he says.
“The possibilities offered in terms of training scenarios are only limited by the instructors’ imagination. Moreover, using computer technology, the same scenario can be repeated with the same fire conditions as many times as necessary, and in complete safety. It is therefore possible to compare the actions of different teams faced with an identical situation,” he concludes.
