One-of-a-kind PLC application gives Fire Raiders the upper hand in hazmat, EMA and disaster management 26 October 2011 When Fire Raiders decided to refine the design and manufacture of a unique solution for hazmat, EMS (Emergency Management Services), fire fighting, rescue, incident command and disaster management monitoring, the company turned to Elquip Solutions for the answers. Elquip Solutions, well known as a specialist industry supplier of capital equipment, electrical, automation, mechanical and consumable products, was the perfect supplier for this inventive PLC application. Fire Raiders provides quality hazmat, EMS, fire fighting, rescue, incident command and disaster management solutions to its diverse customer base comprising fire, rescue, and disaster management departments throughout South Africa, Africa and the Middle East. Based in Boksburg, with additional manufacturing facilities in Cape Town, workshops in Pretoria and Roodepoort, a workshop/ manufacturing plant in Botswana and with distributors in Ghana and Nigeria, Fire Raiders has built an extensive footprint and reputation since the amalgamation of a number of separate companies in 2003. “Fire Raiders has developed the Eagle II incident command vehicle (ICV) that allows emergency personnel to safely acquire important visual feedback at the site of fires and disasters, without the risks normally associated with such scenes,” says Fire Raiders’ Training and Marketing Manager, Jubilee Jones. Fire Raiders uses a Mercedes Benz, Iveco or Scania chassis as the base for its fire trucks and ICV’s. A body is then added and the components are either manufactured in-house or sourced externally. “In the case of the ICV, we installed a PLC (programmable logic controller) and HMI (human machine interface) solution but the previous products were not reliable so we sourced a Hitachi PLC and HMI from Elquip Solutions to replace these products,” says Jones. The success of the ICV is based on a number of factors. A tower mast allows both the occupants and a remote control room to acquire visual images of the fire or disaster scene, from a safe distance. “A 25x zoom lens camera mounted on the 9-metre pneumatic telescoping tower mast, allows the occupants of the vehicle to survey unstable environments and provide fire fighting and disaster management personnel with crucial feedback that will allow them to approach the scene in a sensible and controlled manner with minimal risk to person,” Jones explains. In addition, a remote camera with 100-metre line of sight capabilities, allows the team to gain closer access to the scene. The Hitachi PLC performs switching of all the controls within the ICV. “The source code was written by Elquip Solutions and this provided one of the differentiators for us as they did not charge for this service,” says Gustav Verster, Technical Manager at Elquip Solutions, who was closely involved from Elquip’s side in this project. “The ICV also contains a backup generator when power supply is a problem; three laptops which monitor the weather to see what effects it will have on a fire or disaster area, for example high winds; and a satellite dish in the event that there is a total communications failure,” Verster adds. All elements of the ICV are specific to critical fire and emergency needs. “We require a constant voltage and monitoring of the AC supply for our power supply requirements, so the source code was very specifically written around these needs,” says Jones. A tactical screen in the ICV and a further one in the offsite control room are linked and allow the two locations to write up a plan of action and send the data via IP or satellite for feedback. The entire system is geared around interoperability, allowing the operators to patch into the various disciplines such as water services, fire department etc. and communicate on conference call via radio. “To date we have installed the new units in two ICVs which belong to the Disaster Management Unit at Ekurhuleni Municipality and one which is based at Capricorn in Polokwane. As soon as we are in a position to, we will also be upgrading an ICV for Rand Water and a further one based in Botswana. In addition to being used for fire and disaster management, the ICVs are seconded on standby to big sports games to monitor spectator and vehicle movement and relay footage back to the control centres,” Jones adds. Jones is adamant that a product is only as good as the people who supply it. “Gustav from Elquip Solutions has provided us with exemplary customer service. We have a ‘one phone call’ agreement whereby we make one phone call with a request or query and he solves it within one return phone call. In addition to the superb customer service and free software development, the company also provides free training on the system to our employees for as long as we need it.” Jones says that, as far as he can establish, Fire Raiders is the only company worldwide to have developed a mobile command centre that operates on a PLC. “Traditionally, PLCs are used in the industrial arena so this is truly a unique application. We have had feedback from companies overseas who are very impressed with this,” he enthuses. “This has been a very exciting project for Elquip Solutions due to the uniqueness of the application in which our products are being used and we look forward to working with Fire Raiders on the manufacture of future ICVs,” Mike Cronin, Managing Director of Elquip Solutions, concludes.