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The big friendly giant
Fire train restores schedule for all shunting activities at Waalhaven South
The Rotterdam port and industrial area knows many different modes of transport connecting the port to the European mainland. The railway is one of those. Resources and goods brought in by ships or produced by factories are transported away by freight trains into Europe.
Shunting yards are an essential chain in that railway transport stream: one or more wagons per departure address are there combined into longer trains per destination address. The port area has six shunting yards, five of which are allowed to shunt train cars with hazardous substances. Waalhaven South is one of those five.
Speedy solution
In November of 2020, railway manager ProRail was looking for additional (fire) safety measures for the Waalhaven South shunting yard. Kappetijn Safety Specialists worked out the new deployment concept on behalf of ProRail in the form of a fire train. Together with partners H2K and Kenbri Fire Fighting, a speedy and mobile solution was thought up, developed, constructed, tested and delivered.
After consideration of various alternatives, the choice was made for a remote controlled fire train. In policy terms, the train is a temporary control measure providing a solution for a non-100% covered fire water main and insufficient accessibility.
So, a fire train, which can be on sight of an incident within 20 minutes of an alarm to start repression. To this end, it has 150.000 liters of water divided over 5 tanks and 8.000 liters of foaming agent on board. Locomotive and fifi-container with motor/pump, FireDos proportioner and fuel form the heart of the train, in order to be able to keep a distance from the fire during deployment. The train has monitors positioned at both ends, which can cross a distance of roughly 80 meters with a power of 4.000 liters per minute.
Gigantic fire tanker
This vehicle is essentially a gigantic fire train: 67 meters long and 330 tons heavy. The operational base for the train is a railway on site of railway manager Shunter, on the south side of the shunting yard. Shunter facilitates the train’s operational readiness on a 24/7 basis, and provides a train driver. Operation of the train is done by a dedicated team of 2 firefighters, who are also available 24/7, led by the first shift on site of an incident from the Unified Industrial Fire and Rescue Service Rotterdam Rijnmond, who fulfil the private fire services for ProRail.
Mini-documentary on the realization of this unique mobile firefighting device.
Fire trains have existed for some time in other places in the world. For example, in the Alps, there are fire trains designed for incidents in (long) train tunnels. The functionality of those trains is more aimed at technical service provision, partially at firefighting and mainly at the transportation of people in airtight cabins. During industrial calamities however, the need lies more in large amounts of water, great pump capacity and long distances for applying water and foam. The fire train designed for Waalhaven South can be deployed in open spaces and can realize a fast knock-down of larger (pool) fire incidents with hazardous substances.
Photography: © Rob Jastrzebski
Nederlandse versieFocal points
Existing deployment procedure is leading
Deployment of the train withing the existing framework for Alarm, Turnout and Deployment for industrial locations in the port, as decided by the Safety Authority and the UIFRS
High level operational safety for service providers
Use of the train should guarantee a high safety level for working conditions. Those involved with the train (train driver and firefighters) should be able to perform their job at a relatively large distance from the calamity.
Connection to existing training and education for firefighters and train drivers
Train driver, firefighter and commander work within the existing frameworks of knowledge and skills, based on normal programs for (re-)education and training.
Proven techniques & modular build
The train should exist from component with proven techniques and is built up in a modular way, without the need for explicit railway or firefighting licenses and certifications for either parts of the train or the whole.
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