PPE must provide the right level of protection for the anticipated exposures without causing undue stress to the firefighter. It should be remembered that for complete protection, as well as protective clothing for the upper and lower body, the firefighter will require other suitable PPE to protect the head, hands and feet, as well as vision and hearing and respiratory protection might also be required as applicable.

Good preparation means that half the job is already done when disaster happens. Knowing where the problem is likely to be the first step in avoiding it. All the following manufacturers of HazMat and chemical emergency equipment want you and your team to be well prepared.

* ALBERT ZIEGLER GmbH & Co. KG:
Jörg Hitzler,  Sales Director - Export, tells IFJ: “A market leader in Germany for fire trucks from 7.5 tons upwards, ALBERT ZIEGLER GmbH & Co. KG from Giengen/Brenz, exhibited an impressive range of products. These included a display of 35 fire trucks of different sizes for virtually every application - small size vehicles for villages as well as communal fire trucks, fire appliances for professional fire departments and for industrial firefighters were on show.”

Explains Arnie Arnold: “Firewater is the key to what can be done and it depends on the supply available. At Coryton the resource is sufficient for the worst case scenario but is continually seeking to improve.

Bronto Skylift stole the show at INTERSCHUTZ with its display of the world’s tallest rescue and firefighting platform. It has a working height of 90-metres (the height of a 33-storey building).

The new PDX Firemist technology is most certainly in the ‘exciting innovation’ category and one could argue that such advances in the field of fire suppression, brought by Pursuit Dynamics plc, will finally establish water-mist as the obvious and natural replacement for the now ‘outlawed’ Halon systems.

Once upon a time, the halon gases used to knock out fires in computer rooms were equally hazardous to any human beings exposed to the extinguishing atmosphere. Almost 20 years on, however, a solution has been developed which offers an environment in which people can work and in which it is impossible for a fire to burn.

Firefighting foams are widely used to control and extinguish fires involving Class B flammable liquids. There are many claims made that specific products are the best. A bewildering choice of foam types, grades, manufacturers and brands available, so how do you know which one is right for your particular application? asks Mike Willson.

The environmental impact of firefighting foams has become of increasing concern to both national regulatory authorities and fire services, as well as to manufacturers of the surfactants used and to companies in the fire engineering industry which formulate foam concentrates, following on from the announcement by 3M in May 2000 that they were phasing out fluorosurfactant production based on perfluorooctanyl sulphonate (PFOS) chemistry.