Written about us

Adjusting to the requirements of time
An exemplary Fire Service from Paks

The Fire Service and Damage Prevention Division of the Nuclear Power Plant Facility Fire Service, ATOMIX Ltd, is one of the most up-to-date and qualified fire services in Hungary, first obtaining the ISO certification in Hungary. In the background of the outstanding standard, high professional preparedness and technical equipment you can find such serious, special training strategy which is a good example to all professional and facility fire services in Hungary. Recognising the expectations of our quickly developing, changing world in time the management of the Nuclear Power Plant Fire Service formed their training strategy, gradually and purposefully in accordance with the claims of time. Besides providing the technical conditions the Fire Service management considers their primary task to train, their personnel and to broaden and maintain their knowledge. Permanent high-standard trainings enable the Nuclear Power Plant Fire Service' fire-fighters to carry out the most important tasks fast and professionally.
- Why do you consider permanent, high-standard training of the personnel so important?-we asked Péter Bőhm, the chief of the Fire Service.
- Considering the fact that the Nuclear Power Plant Fire Service fulfils special assignments as well, we think that the personnel have to be trained to meet the expectations all the time. Those who want to be fire-fighters have to accomplish very strict requirements. Our personnel is selected according to defined points of view even at the job interview, later on we put great emphasis on their training and maintaining their acquired professional knowledge and physical fitness. Our aim is to enable them to remain suitable for the job both mentally and physically in the long run.
- The Nuclear Power Plant Fire Service created an exemplary training strategy, which was taken over by several fire services in the country. What does the training strategy include?
- Our training plan includes basic, keep-up and special courses, sessions and training. We have training every day all over the year. Seven hours of a daily shift go on education and practice including psychical, theoretical and physical contents. In addition to the educational and practical training, examinations of performance level and physical condition under load are also carried out. The fire-fighters have to take exams in malfunction incidents, nuclear technology, radiation protection, workers' protection legislation, pump and low-powered vehicle operation, and in healthcare. Amongst the special courses we can find courses for instance in driving vehicle SIMON with lifting basket, in heavy vehicle operation, in load-tying, in training signalman, in industrial alpine techniques. The exams are taken repetitively with different frequency. Fire service competitions are also part of the training. The exercises continue even in summer except for the theoretical education, which is not held for a month. Since the establishment of the Fire Service we have had regular sports, first aid trainings, and we were the first to introduce Alpine Techniques training and the compulsory repeated renewal of highway Codex exam. Our 'Co-operational' and 'Imaginational' trainings are considered to be new ones. Only our Fire Service has the qualification in high and deep rescue, recognised by OMMF.
- Do you have alarms from outside the Nuclear Power Plant, and how can you make use of your knowledge in practice?
- Besides the special power plant tasks we often assist in public life, for instance with technical rescue, accidents, catastrophes. We have regular practice trainings but cannot practise everything in real life that's why we purchase wreckages and the fire-fighters fulfil technical jobs on them. Apart from the trainings the fire-fighters have a lot of different tasks, besides working in shift they have to take part in co-operational operational management tasks; they have to prepare for sports and professional competitions and to do maintenance work on different machines and equipment.
- What's the highest level of your professional training?
- Many fire-fighters go on with their studies on a higher level than required. At present besides the 12-member management we have 54 subordinate fire-fighters, 3 of them have a degree, 11 people study in higher education. A degree is required but not sufficient to be a manager. It's a great achievement that we can solve the problem of supplying new managers by assigning experts from our personnel. As far as we can, we support the studies of our personnel; we even take it into consideration when we define the shifts.
- The performance evaluation of the Fire Service is unique. What are the elements of the evaluation system?
- The evaluation includes the performance at the basic training, the number of years in service, the utility of the person's qualification, marking of the exams and the subjective opinion of the superior. We have been applying our evaluation system for five years; it was developed and introduced by our Fire Service earlier than the Nuclear Power Plant did, where also great emphasis is put on performance evaluation. This method is outstanding, good results are achieved, and there are more and more followers of our system.

Kecskeméti Lapok, Lánglovagok (Fire-fighters) 04 May, 2003