Scientific Support Unit
Scientific support units (SSU) are specialised vehicles carrying a vast amount of chemical monitoring equipment.
Purchased in late 2005 following the 7/7 bombings, an SSU can attend a wide range of incidents, including chemical spills and fires, where early on-site scientific analysis and monitoring will speed up the detection process and allow the Brigade and other emergency services to provide the correct response for the particular incident.
Until their arrival, the brigade had not been able to adequately undertake enhanced scientific analysis for chemical, biological and radiological testing at the scene. These durable and future-proof vehicles are fully upgraded to respond to a range of incidents including those where forensic fire investigators request the use of a mobile facility to enhance both public and firefighter safety.
The only two of these vehicles in the Brigade are stationed at Poplar and Hammersmith.
Read more about this topic: London Fire Brigade Appliances
Famous quotes containing the words scientific, support and/or unit:
“The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions.”
—Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908)
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination.”
—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)
“During the Suffragette revolt of 1913 I ... [urged] that what was needed was not the vote, but a constitutional amendment enacting that all representative bodies shall consist of women and men in equal numbers, whether elected or nominated or coopted or registered or picked up in the street like a coroner’s jury. In the case of elected bodies the only way of effecting this is by the Coupled Vote. The representative unit must not be a man or a woman but a man and a woman.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)