Fire Appliances / Engines

Monday, 31 May 2010 15:05 |

Last Updated on Friday, 31 December 2010 16:25 |

	Fire Appliances / Engines Overview Ireland has the following types of fire engine.It is not a complete list as there are some other one off vehicles. For more information about the equipment carried visit the equipment locker pages. If you have photos of your appliance in Ireland be it a special or not why not send them in with a description and expand the page. All persons will be duly credited (with thanks not money sorry!).

	Standard Class B Water Tender. This is the standard frontline fire appliance in Ireland. Crewed by a driver, officer and 3 or 4 firefighters.Each fire engine consists of a fully enclosed cab (for the rainy Irish weather!). The main equipment section has a standard layout of 3 lockers either side with a rear locker containing the main pump and other equipment. On the roof we carry 4 aluminum ladders 13.5M (45') 10.5M (35') a short extension ladder and a roof ladder. The internal tank has a 1800 litre water capacity with many appliances also having an integrated foam tank and the newer version having an optional C.A.F.S. (compressed air foam system) ability. The older models stored equipment on the roof such as hose ramps and drags but with the removal of the rear roof access ladders and the installation of slide mounted ladder retrieval gantrys this practice is dying out

	Turntable Ladder 30 Metre or 100' Turntable ladder. l am not sure if any county in the south apart from Dublin has a turntable ladder as most opt for hydraulic platforms.The 2 in Dublin are stationed in the headquarters in the city centre and crewed by a driver, officer and 2 firefighters. The ladder can be used as a water tower via a large monitor at the head of the ladder, a rescue ladder either climbing it, a sling rescue (like a crane)and rescue using an attachable 2 person cage. The only equipment carried on the ladder is to facilitate these operations.

	Hydraulic Platforms Of varying heights this one is the Bronto stationed in Cork City HQ. In Dublin the HP is crewed by a driver, cage operator and Sub Officer.

	Emergency Tender For heavy and specialized rescue. Carries a large variety of equipment from thermal imaging cameras to floating platforms for swiftwater rescue. The model shown here actually replaced a purpose built one as the crews found this one much easier to use and retrieve equipment from. Every county has some sort of rescue tender with the likes of Cork City having a large crane mounted on the rear.

	Foam tender Usually covers a petrochemical risk such as the docks in Dublin. This one stationed in North Strand Dublin carries nearly 3200 litres of foam and can produce low medium and high expansion foam. In addition a foam support vehicle is also dispatched when large amount of foam are required.

	Tunnel Response Vehicle (TRV) A new vehicle for Ireland purpose built to repsond to fires in the new Dublin Port Tunnel whcih is 4.5 km long and is designed to take away most of the heavy goods vehicle from the city centre in particular those which arrive in huge batches off the ferry ships in the docks. The vehicle is fitted with compressed air foam systems and long duration twin cylinder breathing apparatus sets. The appliance is to be stationed in North Strand and is the only one of it's kind in the country

	Pod carrier Or prime mover which in Dublin has a number of different containers e.g. Major incident, breathing apparatus, control room etc. which can be dropped and left at a protracted incident.

	Decontamination unit Contains equipment for setting up a decontamination area and showers for firefighters and casualties. A Chemical incident support unit carries an inflatable tent and extra equipment such as radiation detectors and gas tight chemical incident suits.

	District Officers Car ( Dublin Fire Brigade) In Dublin the car shown is for a district officer of which there are six. There are in charge of several stations each and respond to all 2 pump incidents.