Monitor capability: 30,000 lpm & discharge over 100m on jet.
Fire Hawk ultra high flow rate foam water monitors delivered to Irish refinery
Published: 15 July, 2011
A large oil refinery in Ireland has recently ordered two trailer mounted Fire Hawk Ultra high flow rate monitors (30,000lpm) and pumpsets (15,000 lpm) along with a hose laying unit complete with 1km of 5 inch (125mm) Angus Hi-Vol hose, manufactured to the same high standard as Angus Duraline lay flat hose.
Featuring a specially formulated high grade synthetic rubber extruded through a synthetic woven jacket, it offers the same high resistance to abrasion, heat, chemicals and oil during operational use, and to UV, ozone and weathering during storage. There is an additional capability to add a further 2km of fire hose in the future. Using larger bore hose and stortz couplings provides key benefits such as reduced pressure drop over standard 64/70mm lay flat hose coupled with a reduction in the spaghetti effect as emergency responders attempt to deliver the water capacity needed to fight large tank fire when using many more standard hoses.
Design & build
Hawkes Fire has a fully equipped fabrication and maintenance workshop on its Wilton International site, right at the heart of Europe’s largest chemical complex on Teeside. Design was carried out after extensive consultation with the refinery in Ireland. Fire Hawk monitors were chosen by competitive bid to identify best value.
“It is gratifying to see that a wholly UK company can compete in this highly specialised arena,” Marty Hawkes, Engineering Director of Hawkes Fire.
Joe Hawkes and his sons, Marty and Andy, together with their Field Engineers, are all trained industrial firefighters and understand the challenges of major flammable liquid fires having attended the Buncefield incident for 16 weeks. The team combined this experience with their engineering expertise to develop the high flow rate monitors and pumpsets.
Hawkes is a distributor for Angus Fire and the French fire truck manufacturer Sides, one of the largest fire truck manufacturers in Europe and fully supported in the UK by a service package in the field of mobile qualified engineers. Planned maintenance and emergency call-out are all in a day’s work, this provided reassurance to the monitor and pump end user that a whole of life service package was realistic. Investment of this type is all too rare and is comparable to a major fixed system project where perhaps a 20-year service life is the expectation. Ongoing support for emergency deliveries of foam is provided by the Hawkes and Angus Fire teams in the UK – one phone call to the hotline triggers a complete response package, from additional foam concentrate to expert manpower.
15,000 lpm trailer pumps ready for shipment.
The Fire Hawk foam/water monitor trailer is equipped with 5 inch stortz inlets feeding a manifold and 8 inch waterway supplying the tiller bar controlled monitor. At 10 bar a throw of over 100m is achieved on jet with easy control back to wide angle spray giving massive cooling capability. Every firefighter knows that, to paraphrase ex-President Bill Clinton, “it’s about the footprint stupid.” Getting foam onto the top of the tank is the challenge with the large storage tanks in use today. Of greater importance is maintaining a safe zone for firefighters in the event of boil-overs, vent fires, tank roof ruptures and even the prospect of tanks themselves being blown from their positions. The combination of efficient monitor hydraulics coupled with the application of advanced unaspirated film forming foams enables this safety margin whilst ensuring that the correct application rate of foam hits the intended target.
Water infrastructure is vital
However, it’s not just about the monitors. Adequacy and mobility of site water supplies are all vital links in the chain and careful consideration has been given to this by the site. The high pressure and high volume Patterson pumps are driven by 800 hp (588kw) water cooled V12 diesel engines mounted on a road legal chassis capable of being towed by an industrial tractor or a draw bar prime mover. The convoy is completed by the additional hose trailer allowing the easy laying out of the 5 inch (125mm) Hi-Vol hose.
The Fire Hawk foam/water monitor trailer is equipped with 5 inch stortz inlets feeding a manifold and 8 inch waterway supplying the tiller bar controlled monitor.
