Hong Kong Fire Services Department - Equipment

Equipment

The Fire Services Department of Hong Kong is a force of 8000-plus firefighters serving one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world. They served under the British before 1997 and are equipped much like their counterparts in the United Kingdom. While most cities' high-rise buildings are concentrated in their commercial areas in the central business districts, they are ubiquitous in Hong Kong. Most residential buildings in this very crowded Asian metropolis are more than twenty storeys tall, with some reaching forty or fifty storeys and the tallest over seventy. Thanks to strict fire code and the use of non-flammable materials, severe structural fires are rare. The Fire Services Department is nonetheless equipped with a significant quantity of hydraulic platforms and possesses some of the tallest ladder platforms in the world. Common fire engines in Hong Kong include:

  • Hydraulic Platforms: Carry out firefighting and rescue at elevated levels - similar of snorkel, aerial tower or cherry pickers used in North America
  • Major Pumpers: Basically Type B Water Tenders that provide water supply - called pumpers in North America
  • Turntable Ladder: Similar to Hydraulic Platforms but they use telescopic ladders instead of hydraulic platforms and are better suited for high level rescue - called aerial in North America
  • Light Rescue Units: First strike fire appliances, equipped with varieties of rescue equipments
  • Major Rescue Units: Also serve as light rescue units but are capable of special missions when teamed up with the rescue tenders
  • Mobile Command Units: Field command center
  • Rescue Tenders: Perform rescue missions in major disasters
  • Hazmat Tenders: Hazardous materials handling
  • Hazmat Pods: Equipped with radioactivity detectors, protective aprons and decontaminating tools, Hazmat Pods are used in nuclear/biohazardous incidents.
  • Lighting Tenders: Provide lighting
  • Hose Tenders: Carry hoses for water relay
  • Light Pumping Appliances: Perform pumping or rescue operations when area is inaccessible to major appliances
  • Reserve Heavy Pumps: Conduct water relay and pumping in remote areas or major fires
  • Snorkels: Perform rescue operations at high level
  • Aerial Ladder Platforms (ALP): Carry a telescopic ladder and capable of reaching 53 m

The following appliances are mainly deployed to the airport and stations close to fuel depots:

  • First Intervention Vehicle: Carries foam and water and capable of discharging 6000 litres per minute
  • Foam Tenders: Carry out oil fuel fire fighting with foam and foam concentrate transportation
  • Bulk Foam Tender: Supply foam concentrate, pre-mixed foam solution for First Intervention Vehicle for prolonged fuel oil fire fighting
  • Jackless Snorkel: Equipped with a piercing nozzle that can pierce through the fuselage of airplanes and discharge foam in cabin. The FSD introduced this to prepare for the commencement of the Airbus A380.

A list of vehicles used in the past and present:

  • Austin LD3 ambulance
  • Ford Transit ambulance
  • Scania Hydraulic platform
  • Dennis pumper
  • ERF Turntable ladder
  • Scania Turntable ladder 52m
  • Magirus-Deutz Turntable ladder 50m
  • Iveco Turntable ladder
  • MAN Hazmat tender
  • MAN Angloco foam tender
  • MAN Command unit
  • Scania P94GB-300 Rescue tender
  • Scania P124GB-360 First intervention vehicle
  • Scania P124GB-360 Heavy Pump
  • Scania Jackless Snorkel – with Snozzle (Model S2000-CA)
  • Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 414 416CDI ambulance - European Class C / American Type III
  • Mercedes-Benz E-310 ambulances - European Class B
  • Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 316CDI light ambulance - European Class C / American Type I
  • Suzuki EDE51V village ambulance - European Class C / American Type I
  • Mercedes-Benz 1828L (F581) Mobile Casualty Treatment Centre
  • Dennis DFS237R4B Mobile Casualty Treatment Centre
  • Mercedes-Benz 1517L Mobile Casualty Treatment Centre
  • BMW R 850 RT bike
  • Scania Snorkel (SS263)
  • Landrover 130 Defender ambulance
  • Dennis Sabre pumper/engine
  • Dennis Rapier

Read more about this topic:  Hong Kong Fire Services Department

Famous quotes containing the word equipment:

    “Why not draft executive and management brains to prepare and produce the equipment the $21-a-month draftee must use and forget this dollar-a-year tommyrot? Would we send an army into the field under a dollar-a-year General who had to be home Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?”
    —Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)

    “At the heart of the educational process lies the child. No advances in policy, no acquisition of new equipment have their desired effect unless they are in harmony with the child, unless they are fundamentally acceptable to him.”
    —Central Advisory Council for Education. Children and Their Primary Schools (Plowden Report)

    “Biological possibility and desire are not the same as biological need. Women have childbearing equipment. For them to choose not to use the equipment is no more blocking what is instinctive than it is for a man who, muscles or no, chooses not to be a weightlifter.”
    —Betty Rollin (b. 1936)