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ICI's 'Yellow Peril' Super-Tender goes into Service
One of the most powerful and advances fire tenders in the world has gone into service with ICI at its Runcorn site - home of the company's Chlor-Chemicals business.Dubbed the 'Yellow Peril', the 27 tonne, 34 ft vehicle is purpose-built to respond instantly to small incidents - in order to prevent them from escalating. It is packed with special equipment which complements the capabilities of the Cheshire Fire Service and provides a strong first line of defence in the event of larger fires. It has been built in Florida by emergency vehicle specialists E-One, and sits on a cab chassis supplied to ICI from Volvo's plant in Deeside, North Wales. The super-tender carried 2000 gallons of foam, 1000 lbs of powder and 200 gallons of water and is designed so that fires on the ground and on elevated structures can be tackled from a safe distance. Its Hydro Chem system can throw powder extinguishant five times further than previously possible; and it can pump water at 2000 gallons per minute - approximately four times the capacity of a standard county fire engine. Other equipment carried by the vehicle includes a spillage containment kit and a Hifex system, which atomises water at very high pressure to extinguish fires, whilst minimising water consumption and reducing environmental damage. "We chose the Volvo chassis to maximise the amount of local input, but went to E-One because they have the most experience with this type of equipment," said Frank Douthwaite, ICI's emergency services and security manager at Runcorn. "This is a major part of our long-term investment in the safe operation of our Runcorn plants". "It greatly adds to the resources available to our Site Emergency Services operation." The machine is manned by members of ICI Runcorn's permanently-available emergency services team.
For enquiries contact the Press Office: Craig Welsh
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