The State of North Rhine-Westphalia stations Hytrans Fire System in Emmerich
27th November 2015
The State Government of North Rhine-Westphalia is procuring 6 special fire trucks equipped with Hytrans High Volume Water Supply System units. Each district government in the state and the National Firefighting Training Institute in Munster will get one, 6 in total. The modules consist of a hook lift truck on which a Hytrans Mobile High Volume Water Supply System is mounted with a hose layer and a hose pick up system. The total truck when loaded weighs approximately 24 tonnes and can travel through high water to be used for flood mitigation also. The trucks are 420 HP, have 8 tyres each and extra high frames. The Emmerich volunteer fire service will deploy the new truck for the Duesseldorf district. Four people from the Emmerich service and a representative from the Kleve district fire service went to Lemmer in the Netherlands for training and instruction with the new unit.
Very large diameter hoses for delivery of enormous volumes of water
There are many storage compartments in the Hytrans units including one containing the pump unit with a super high delivery volume of up to 8,000 litres per minute. There is a 2,000 metre long hose with a huge diameter of 152mm / 6”. Normal B fire hoses generally used for water delivery have a diameter of 75mms. The Hytrans is transported on the truck and brought to the deployment site where it can be used to deliver water from open water sources such as the Rhine River.
In Emmerich the system has already been deployed before in a fire at an old freight train station in 2007. The B hoses first used there were not satisfactory for that fire but when the Hytrans was deployed the fire was stopped within 20 minutes. The specialist systems were called in from Duisburg and the Netherlands back then.
Hytrans system will be used in practical exercises on the Rhine
The Hytrans system will now be used in big fires on the lower Niederrhein and in Bocholt. It will also be good for flood situations. The system can pump water away again over long distances – eg up and over a dike. The trained fire personnel will show other staff in the spring how the system works if they wish to practise with the system on the Rhine.
Hytrans Fire System used by FDNY
The Fire Department of New York (FDNY) currently also uses the same HFS high performance water delivery module for fires.