26 May 2006 - New Specialised Fire Appliance
May 31, 2006 – Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service (LBFRS) is set to receive a High Volume Pumping (HVP) vehicle, valued at approximately £250K, as part of the Scottish Executive/Chief Fire Officer’s Association’s New Dimensions initiative.
This vehicle will be available to attend large-scale flooding incidents, together with wildfire and industrial fire situations. Similar appliances held elsewhere in the UK have been deployed at high-profile incidents including the widespread flooding in the Carlisle area in early 2005 and the major oil depot fire at Buncefield, Hertfordshire in December 2005.
Cllr Ken Harrold, Convenor of the Lothian and Borders Fire Board said: “ This vehicle will be a major asset to LBFRS and will enable us to respond effectively to a range of incidents, including large-scale emergency incidents. ”
The New Dimensions initiative was started to deal with a wide range of large-scale emergency incidents. To date, LBFRS has received resources from the initiative to enhance both local and national emergency response capability, including mass decontamination and urban search and rescue equipment and training.
Brian Allaway, Chief Fire Officer for Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service said: “This is a significant development and represents a major advancement in the resilience of the fire and rescue service locally, across Scotland and indeed, throughout the whole UK . Additionally, I am pleased that LBFRS has once again been identified to play a significant role in this major advancement in service provision.”
This vehicle is one of four allocated in Scotland and will be located at Hawick Fire Station. This location has been identified as the optimum strategic position to provide for a ready response both locally and nationally.
Notes to Editors:
- A HVP has a built in generator to pump 8000 litres of water per minute. The module weighs 10 tonnes, so there is a need to position it on a hard level surface
- The submersible pump is used to pump out water to a minimum depth of 15 cms or pump from open water to supply an incident ground with water. The pump can be lowered up to 60 metres below the generator, for example, down a cliff into open water and still operate
- A HVP has a hose box module which is made up of two boxes each containing 1 kilometre of 150mm hose. It also has a mechanical hose retrieval unit
- Some photos are available upon request by calling Communications Officer, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service on 0131 228 2401
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