The Fire Brigades Union have announced a further strike on November 13 The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have announced a further strike on Wednesday, November 13 between 10am and 2pm. As in previous strikes, the Brigade will have 27 fire engines based at strategic locations and contingency crews will deal with emergencies across London during the four hour strike. The FBU has also announced that they will ballot their members on industrial action short of a strike. The ballot for the action short of a strike will start on Wednesday, November 13 and close on Wednesday, December 4. The strike will be the fourth in a dispute between the FBU and Government over the Government’s reforms to the Fire-fighters’ Pension Scheme. During the strike and if needed fire engines will attend emergencies including fires in people’s homes, vehicle fires, road accidents and collapsed buildings. The contingency plans are not intended to match the Brigade’s day-to-day cover so while strike action is taking place a fire engine may not be sent to less urgent and non-life-threatening incidents. During the strike fire-fighters will attend: • Serious fires – like those in Londoners’ homes – confirmed by a 999 call • Fires that involve gas cylinders or hazardous substances. • Explosions • Vehicle fires or boat fires • Fires at railway stations and rail and road tunnels or fires involving people in underground tunnels. • Aircraft or train crashes • Road traffic collisions • Collapsed structures During the strike fire-fighters may not be able to attend: • Grass fires and other outdoor fires such as trees, hedges or undergrowth alight. • Rubbish fires (including fires in bins and skips) and fires on open ground. • Animal rescues (these will be referred to the RSPCA). • People shut in lifts (owners of buildings are responsible for ensuring arrangements are in place to release people from faulty lifts). • Flooding • Automatic fire alarms – a fire engine will only be sent when the fire has been confirmed by a 999 call. www.london-fire.gov.uk

Market will reach $65 billion by 2018 The global fire protection systems market—products and services—will climb from $34.7 billion currently to $66.56 billion by 2018, according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets. That’s an increase of more than 90 percent and represents a compound annual growth rate of 13.9 percent during that five-year period, says the research and consulting company, based here. The North America market is expected to have the largest share of the total market—between 40-50 percent—by the end of this year, Rahul Pandey, a MarketsandMarkets research associate, told Security Systems News in telephone and email interviews. However, over the next five years, the “North America market is expected to grow at a lesser rate as compared to the growth rate of the overall fire protection systems market,” Pandey said. That’s because there will be a greater growth rate in the Asia Pacific region and “other developing economies in the next five years,” he said. The new report is titled “Fire Protection Systems Market: Fire Alarm, Sensor, RFID, Control Panel, Interface, Modeling and Simulation Software, Public Alerts and Warning, Emergency Lighting, Secure Communication, Managed Service – Worldwide Forecasts & Analysis (2013 – 2018).” The global market “has gained traction in the recent years owing to the recent rise in accidents and the loss of assets, due to fire hazards. Alongside, demand for a comprehensive solution in fire protection is rising, leading to an increase in the global spending for fire protection systems. Technologies, such as human machine interface solutions, smart building, and wireless sensory networks, are making their launch in the fire protection systems market.” Service and maintenance is the category in the service segment that is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the global market over the five-year period, Pandey said. When it comes to components, “fire mapping and analysis software” are predicted to have the highest CAGR in the world market. Fire mapping helps “provide a spatial representation of data, presenting grouping and associations, which are not clear in a standard data view.” In the North America market, Pandey said the main drivers for growth are adoption of newer technologies and “increasing demand for advanced fire protection components,” such as intelligent sensors that have networking capabilities. Also, he said, a push for regulations “amidst the ever-increasing complexity of the end-user environments” will help drive growth.

Fire industry pension row continues Fire-fighters in England and Wales are set to stage another strike in their continuing row with the UK Government over pension ages. Members of the Fire Brigades Union plan to walk out between 18:30 and 23:00 GMT on Friday November 1 and for two hours on Monday. The FBU said it had timed the strike to avoid Bonfire Night and the Saturdays either side. Peter Dartford, the vice president of the Chief Fire Officers Association, said that resources would be "significantly depleted" across the country on Friday night. Fire chiefs are urging people to put back any domestic firework displays to Saturday or go to an organised event. Ministers described the union action as completely unnecessary but the union wants assurances about terms of employment. This comes in response to Government plans to raise the retirement age for fire-fighters from 55 to 60 years. Fire Minister, Brandon Lewis, said: "We offered fire-fighters similar fitness principles to those the FBU accepted in Scotland. The FBU should reconsider their decision to strike, announced just four days into discussions, and work for a resolution to this dispute.” FBU General Secretary, Matt Wrack, said: "It is ludicrous that after two years of negotiations the government has still not sorted out this mess. Fire-fighters are keen for these issues to be resolved through discussion, but the Government won’t even listen to its own evidence, which highlights that the schemes are unworkable and unaffordable.” In Scotland, Industrial action has been successfully avoided through talks with the Scottish Government. However, there is no final agreement in place as yet.    

Following a fire at a sugar warehouse A thick river of treacle is threatening to swamp a town in Sao Paulo state in southern Brazil, after a fire in a warehouse melted more than 30,000 tons of sugar. The blaze comes just days after a large fire in the port of Santos, also in the state, destroyed six warehouses leased by Copersucar, the largest exporter of sugar and ethanol in Brazil. The fire, which erupted on Friday, began after a spark from machinery powering a loading belt ignited sugar stored in the depot owned by Agrovia Sugar Company. Firefighters tackling the blaze on the industrial site in Santa Adelia, struggled for more than 75 hours to bring the flames under control. As the fire swept through the building, melted molasses poured out onto the streets and towards people’s homes. Nearly 20 residents were moved out into hotels as four were reported to have been injured. “The fire consumed the entire warehouse, and firefighting teams worked to isolate a second depot by cooling the walls,” said Guilherme Raposo, chief executive of Agrovia. Recent reports indicate the blaze is now under control but there are still fears the strength of the melted sugar and high temperatures could bring down the warehouse. Barriers of earth were piled in front of houses to try to prevent the syrupy liquid from engulfing them. Emergency services are still battling against a steady tide of heavy caramel after four days and large suctioning machinery is being used to siphon up the thick liquid. Tractors and JCB diggers are scooping up the sugary substance, a ditch has been dug around the affected area to channel the flow and barriers have been installed in an attempt to reduce contamination to the local river. “I am really worried about my home being invaded with this mess,” said Augusto Costa, a local builder. “The liquid is already around my house and I don’t know how bad it’s going to get.” According to Jose Ferreira de Andrade, an engineer from the Environmental, Sanitation and Technology Company for Sao Paulo (CETESB) the flood of treacle has already polluted the nearby river Sao Domingos killing fish. “Yesterday, oxygen levels in the water were zero,” said Mr Andrade. “The product is not toxic, but because of its density it depletes the oxygen. So far we have already collected over 15kg of dead fish,” he added. “The sugar did not belong to Agrovia, but it is still our responsibility,” Mr Raposa admitted. The loss of this volume of sugar represents approximately $130 million, according to market analysts. The Agrovia plant, located 450km from the port of Santos, supplies 20 per cent of sugar to the state of Sao Paulo and exports 1.7 million tons worldwide. The blaze is likely to push up sugar prices again. Following the fire in Santos that destroyed 180,000 tons of sugar on 18 October, sugar prices rose by 2.63 per cent. Brazil is the largest producer in the world. This year through to September, Brazil exported 13 million tons of sugar, earning $5.9billion.

Partnership with Dutch, Belgian and French Fire Departments Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) has joined a unique partnership with Dutch, Belgian and French Fire Departments by signing up to a single protocol for dealing with maritime incidents. Fire-fighting teams from Kent, alongside colleagues from Zeeland, Antwerp, Beveren, Ghent and Calais, have established international, specialist teams called Maritime Incident Response Groups that can respond to incidents on board ships. The fast and effective intervention of these teams in the case of fire or incidents involving hazardous substances, prevents casualties and evacuations at sea and helps to combat environmental pollution. Once the incident is under control, the ship can be taken to a safe port. This limits the inconvenience to other shipping traffic as much as possible. KFRS Director of Operations, Steve Demetriou, explained how the partnership works: "Each country supplies its own MIRG team and together, all the country teams form a single MIRG-EU team. Each partner country normally follows its own national firefighting protocols, uses its own equipment and complies with its own training requirements but in this international context, it is essential that the teams are coordinated so they can deal with incidents using the same methods, use interchangeable equipment, have undertaken the same training and use the same terminology." The teams can support and interchange with each other in the case of protracted incidents and are regulated by the jointly formulated Standard Operational Procedures which describe the exact policy and procedures the MIRG EU teams should comply with in the event of an incident. Steve Demetriou and Nick Chard, Chairman of the Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority – which oversees the way KFRS is run – joined representatives from all the partners on Thursday September 26 to officially sign the Standard Operational Procedures at Antwerp Fire Station. Steve added: "This is an important collaboration as it recognises the risk of fires and emergencies at sea, as seen in high profile incidents such as the Costa Concordia disaster. Each Fire and Rescue Service brings valuable skills to the partnership about how we all deal with different incidents, from fire and chemical incidents to search and rescue. This signing is a major step in how we can share vital life-saving practises and learn from each other." www.mirg.eu

New high-performance glass products offer protection  The international technology group SCHOTT invited representatives of the German Federal Police Office, State Criminal Police, the Central Council of Jews and safety engineers from the industry to present its bulletproof fire resistant glass products at an expert summit held yesterday. Thanks to its expertise in the area of fire resistant and bulletproof glass, SCHOTT ranks as one of the world’s leading companies. The site in Jena that SCHOTT was founded at has been manufacturing fire resistant glass for 35 years – a business that helps to secure the future of the site. “Safety glass is one of our core businesses in Jena,” Dr. Lutz Wehmeier, Managing Director of SCHOTT Technical Glass Solutions GmbH in Jena, explained in welcoming his guests. “We constantly introduce new, higher performance protective glass products to the market in this rather traditional business. Thanks to our development and manufacturing center here at the site that includes a large fire test furnace and a firing range, we are able to meet our customers’ growing safety requirements,” he added. The innovative safety glasses PYRANOVA® secure and NOVOLAY® secure that were presented at the expert summit are considered to be the world’s first specialty glass products that successfully withstand simultaneous fire and ballistic attacks. SCHOTT became the first company to arrange for its materials to be officially tested by performing a combination of sophisticated tests. In this case, these glass products were subjected to a fire test and bullet attack immediately after one another. The test results were monitored and confirmed by two independent institutes, the Beschussamt Ulm (Bombardment Office in Ulm) and the Institute for Building Materials, Solid Construction and Fire Protection at the Technical University of Braunschweig: The glasses met both of the test standards DIN EN 1363-1 (Fire Protection) and DIN EN 1063 (Bullet Resistance). The European legislator only requires that protective glasses meet various EN safety standards individually basis. “We wanted to go one step further, however, and demonstrate that our glass products can do more than what the existing standard requires,” Wehmeier said. “We thus became the first company in the world to voluntarily have its safety glass laminates subjected to a combination of tests.” Existing safety glasses offer protection against various types of attack, but in the case of an emergency, always against only one form of attack. SCHOTT not only presented its new products and encouraged its guests to engage in a round of discussions at the expert summit, but also performed a live demonstration of a large-scale fire test and a firing trial. “I’m impressed,” said Christoph Öxle, who is responsible for global crisis & safety management for the Result Group in Munich. “We are always on the lookout for genuine innovations that enable us to protect our demanding customers effectively and inconspicuously. These products from SCHOTT offer us additional safety reserves. In addition, they are transparent, lightweight and thin and yet offer a high degree of protection against break-ins, gunshot, explosives, Molotov cocktails and fire.” The development of the new safety glass range has received support from the Thuringian State Government and the European Regional Development Fund EFRE as part of the research project “2nd Generation Multifunctional Safety Glazing” (2011 FE 0156) since October 2011

Magirus, formerly Iveco Magirus, is continuing its evolution with a change in the brand’s name and an innovative new factory The company furthers its fire-fighting division in Ulm with the opening of the new Magirus Brandschutz World, a £25.5 million investment Iveco Magirus has disclosed a major rebranding this September, with the company changing its name to Magirus. Founded in Ulm, Germany in 1864, Magirus manufactures and outfits fire-fighting equipment and trucks. A trusted manufacturer and leader in innovation, Magirus invented and patented the first turntable ladder. For most of the 20th century, the brand has been owned by parent companies—first by Deutz, a German engine manufacturer, and since 1975, by Iveco, an Italian truck manufacturer. In 2012, with the permission of its holding company, Magirus decided to relaunch as an independent brand to solidify its market position as one of the finest quality fire-fighting equipment manufacturers in the world. For the future the company announced that it will sell its fire-fighting vehicles and fire protection technology under the brand Magirus. The new identity, a capital M, suggests the ladders for which the company is known. It recalls elements of the historic Magirus-Deutz logo, which combined a stylised M with the sharp spire of the cathedral in Ulm, the German city where the company has been located for some 150 years. Both strong and elegant, this new mark can hold its own next to the chassis manufacturer logos and can be used everywhere to identify the independent Magirus brand and carry it into another century. Thus, the company underlines its competency as manufacturer that responds in the most flexible way to satisfy its customer’s needs. At the same time the name Magirus is connected to an identity that goes back to the year 1864 and its founding father Conrad Dietrich Magirus. The Magirus logo was designed by the renowned design and identity agency Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv in New York, USA. Impressing with its clear and simple design the logo associates the name Magirus with the company’s original values. It represents what the company have already stood for since almost 150 years and what it still stands for: Tradition, innovation, engineering and the will to let visions come true. Innovation continues as Magirus furthers its fire-fighting division in Ulm with the opening of the new Magirus Brandschutz World. Around £25.5 million is being invested in the development of the new Competence Centre for the benefit of the company’s customers. The new Competence Centre for fire-fighting technology is being developed to further strengthen Magirus Brandschutztechnik’s leading global position. Magirus is, investing in state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities to ensure more efficient production and faster response time to customer-specific requests. The research and development centre is also being expanded with the aim of integrating company operations. The conversion of the former truck assembly plant into an innovative fire-fighting production facility is moving ahead at full speed. By the end of 2012, the halls were stripped to prepare the plant’s transformation into a high-tech fire-fighting manufacturing plant. The complete truck assembly lines were removed and new flooring was installed for the most part. Currently, work is being carried out fitting the electrics, lighting, ventilation and heating installations. Furthermore, pump test benches are being installed along with new crane systems and assembly equipment. Workshop pits are being added to the TÜV (Technical Inspection Association) inspection and approval section and the shipping department carpentry workshop is being fitted, along with new paint shops. The new facility consists of four assembly lines and has an area of 12,000 m². The plant features an assembly line for large quantities of vehicles as well as customised configurations for bespoke vehicles. For more technically demanding vehicles, over 15 additional individual assembly stations are provided. Furthermore, a 4,000 m² ancillary area is also available, for the pre-assembly of superstructure framework, pump pre-assembly, roller shutter and component manufacturing. Designated storage areas for aluminium profiles, superstructure components, pump parts and all other required materials amount to a total of around 4,000 m². A painting, film coating and finish line facilitate customised and modern paintwork operations and a wide range of vehicle design options through to the finishing and polishing phase prior to delivery. Quality inspection centre ensures highest quality A quality centre with over 10,000 m² of space allows the installation of up to date testing stands, acceptance and audit areas. The calibration and software programming of the vehicle pumps is now carried out in modern pump test benches which work with vacuum-pressure tanks. For heavy tank pumpers, testing equipment for handling a flow capacity of up to 15,000 litres per minute is available. Additional facilities include tilting test beds, a cable winch test installation and a rain simulation facility. After a quality check on a rolling test bed, followed by a final cleaning and polishing station, the vehicles are handed over to the final quality inspectors for acceptance and approval by the customers or authorities. For this complete final control and acceptance procedure, bright and spacious working areas are available. They include testing facilities and inspection pits, as well as dedicated office space for the authority representatives. Modern working conditions Modern working conditions in the production halls improve upon conditions at the previous fire-fighting vehicle manufacturing facility. The large amount of space, including the impressive height of the production area means even more light and working space for employees. As a result, the workplaces are friendly and spacious – positive energy efficiency is provided via additional non-combustible insulation in the walls and ceilings Training for assembly workers Whilst conversion work at the plant has been taking place, training for former truck production workers has already begun. Since December 2012, around 200 employees have been preparing for their new jobs. Thanks to their solid professional experience and a special training programme, the move to the production of fire-fighting vehicles has been quickly mastered. For the manufacture of pumpers, the expert craftsmanship of the skilled workforce is of far greater benefit than it

Label: Ferrara Title: Ferrara Fire Apparatus Teaser: An unparalleled American success story Label: DFW Interview Label: Offshore Fire Label: Tyco Title: FireClass is a new fire detection solution Teaser: A case study in environmentally responsive development Teaser: Designed for small to medium-sized applications

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A case study in environmentally responsive development FyreWrap is used extensively in the marine and offshore fire protection environment 

 Unifrax has been manufacturing energy-saving high temperature fibrous insulation since the invention of the revolutionary Fiberfrax® alumina-silicate fibre in the 1940’s. Initially used as lightweight and highly efficient furnace linings, this type of technology was transferred to the marine and offshore passive fire protection market in the 1970’s. In recent years the IMO has been actively involved with reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from commercial shipping and from 2013 new regulations come into force. In addition to the GHG issue, since 2009 the cost of bunker fuel has risen by around 56%. These two issues taken together make weight savings for marine operators of increasing interest. In light of these regulatory developments Unifrax undertook a development programme to reduce the weight of the FyreWrap marine and offshore fire protection systems with the goal being a typical weight reduction of approximately 25% versus the conventional systems. FyreWrap Blankets are part of a group of materials known as Low Bio-Persistence Wools (LBPW) and are of a chemistry family known as alkali earth silicates (AES). The FyreWrap composition is SiO2 (61- 67%), CaO (27- 33%) and MgO (2.5 – 6.5%). Figure 1 shows the composition rage of AES fibre compared with typical mineral and glass wools. The fibres are needled to give strength and structure to the blanket and no binder is used. AES fibres shave the benefit that they do not melt until around 1330°C. AES Wool Composition High purity oxides are melted in an electric arc furnace at a temperature close to 2000°C and then fiberised by means a series of spinning wheels. Fiberisation is never 100% efficient and there is always a portion of material which is unfiberised and this is known as shot. Standard AES Wool The insulation performance of fibre products is influenced by a number of factors including shot content, fibre diameter, bulk density and product thickness. As the aim of the development was to reduce the system weight increases in density were discounted and the development efforts were focused on engineering the fibre diameter and shot content to give the required performance improvement. It was also believed to be important that system thickness should be maintained as close as possible to the traditional systems and the handling strength optimised. Following an exhaustive engineering and development exercise which looked at different designs of spinning wheels, number of spinning wheels, wheel sizes and speed of rotation, a new spinning system emerged and FyreWrap LT Blanket was the result. Low Thermal Conductivity The new LT grade blanket can typically contain around 30% more fibre than a conventional AES blanket product and 15% less large shot. This gives an improvement in thermal conductivity of at least 20%. Thermal conductivity is the measure of the ability to transfer heat so the 20% improvement in FyreWrap LT Blanket thermal conductivity means a significant improvement in insulating performance. Figure 4 shows the thermal conductivity curves for 128kg/m³ FyreWrap LT and conventional AES blanket. Thermal Conductivity What does this mean in the real world? If we take a standard restricted use H 120 steel bulkhead as an example the FyreWrap LT Blanket as shown in Figure 5 gives a weight saving of 27% vs. the conventional AES wool system and an impressive 33% versus a mineral wool mat system. In fact the saving is even more as the outer layer of the mineral wool system is a wired product and the weight of the chicken mesh also needs to be taken into account. H120 Weight Saving The weight saving per square metre versus the mineral wool is at least 3.5kg/m² so for each 1000m² of this system installed the saving is 3.5 tonnes. Improved Installation The new LT manufacturing technology also imparts benefits in the handling and installation characteristics. The higher fibre content gives the LT Blanket improved tensile strength as seen in Figure 6. Stronger blankets are more difficult to pull apart and are better able to withstand the rigours of installation such as bending around corners and stiffeners. Tensile Strength Improvement The nature of the fibre and the low shot content give FyreWrap LT Blanket a high level of resilience making it very forgiving to install and resist over compression. Less large shot and 30% more fibre per unit mass allows the remaining smaller shot to be ‘locked away’ from the surface resulting in minimal free particles within the fibre matrix. This, along with the increased tensile strength results in higher vibration resistance. The new LT version is softer and smoother to handle and during installation releases significantly less dust. Applications Unifrax now has over 20 tested systems for marine and offshore structural bulkhead & decks. Approved systems are available for steel structures with ratings from A30 to H120 and for aluminium structures with ratings of A30, A60 and both 30 minute and 60 minutes to the HSC code. FyreWrap LT Blanket is now being used in new designs of jet fire pipe insulation where an air gap is utilised between the insulation and the pipe. The increased insulation performance of the blanket allows the overall diameter of the system to be kept low even with the presence of the air gap. FyreWrap LT Blanket can be used to replace standard AES blanket in insulation on hot process pipework. As an example, on a pipe of 250mm operating at 400°C the replacement of 100mm of 128kg/m³ ‘old’ FyreWrap Blanket by 75mm of 128kg/m³ of FyreWrap LT Blanket gives essentially the same level of heat loss and cold face temperature. However the overall diameter and circumference of the system is lower, the circumference is reduced from 1413mm to 1256mm, 157mm. This becomes significant when stainless steel cladding is used. For every liner meter of pipe run this reduced insulation thickness gives a saving of 0.157m² of cladding or 157m² per 1000 linear metres of pipe run. On a large project the savings