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The truck has been in flames

Preparations with fire simulation in the court of the power plant

The smoke is overwhelming everything, the heat is parching, the flames are reaching the ceiling, in one of the rooms the stairs have caught fire, in another the deep fryer on the cupboard… All these are inside of a fire-simulating truck in the court of the nuclear power plant.

According to the fire-fighting and technical rescuing head of the fire service of the nuclear power plant the best of the existing psychical courses is that fire simulation truck, which is available for their staff for two days now. Previously this equipment turned up in Hungary once (in Százhalombatta). István Schnreiner tried it here, and with his colleagues he concluded that this equipment was the most useful for the firemen’s preparation. The person entering the truck is received by fire of the stairs, farther on a gas cylinder is burning, in one of the corners a kitchen has been furnished, in the other one the fireman meets the phenomenon of jet flame. The situation resembles to the reality as a deception. The fireman can “play out” the handling of emergencies in adequate protective equipment from the first step until the last one. The system is controlled by a computer, not only the flames can be directed, but the intervening firemen are evaluated as well. The equipment records if the water-jet has arrived at the right place and its strength has been adequate. Inside the truck there are several hundred degrees, huge smoke, time after time the firemen cannot see even up to their noses. According to István Schreiner everybody feels some anxiety, cold sweat before entering the truck, especially the newcomers.
An advantage of the equipment is that those being inside are looked after from the outside, if somebody incurs burnings, takes bad, the system can be stopped. The fire-simulating truck spends two days at the fire service of the nuclear power plant, its operator is the German Kidde Fire Trainers, which has taken this mobile fire-simulating technique from the United States to Europe, where it becomes more and more wide-spread. As there is an opportunity to use it in Hungary rarely, the fire service of the nuclear power plant has allowed the fire services of Tolna County and the surrounding counties, the directorates of catastrophe prevention, as well as the representatives of the firemen from the capital city and airports to try it.

You can watch the documentary of TelePaks Town Television here if you click on the small picture. The file is of *.wmv format, and large bandwidth is recommended for its downloading. Size of the file: 4.4 MB, and length of the documentary: 1:44 minutes.

Tünde Vida
Tolnai Népújság
11th August 2004