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Get to know your tunnel - on foot is best

«Know your tunnel» is one of the most important teachings of the International Fire Academy. In this article, we provide suggestions on how firefighters can organise and design inspections of railway and road tunnels and what needs to be considered.

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Train for tunnel operations with the simplest means on-site

Firefighting operations in tunnels are personnel-intensive, and the procedure must be trained. Many fire services have part of their personnel trained at our facility. However, that is not enough. The routines for these deployments must be practised with the entire team. It is why many participants asked for tips and examples for training at their location. This resulted in a new offer for fire services: the «Training Methodology» advanced modules.

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TunnelTrainingKnowledge

Tunnel fires from 2012 to 2023: Statistics from media reports

There are no official statistics on fire incidents in underground transport systems. For this reason, the International Fire Academy has been analysing media reports on fire incidents in tunnels since the beginning of 2012. According to the report, there are at least three fires a month in railway or road tunnels in Switzerland, Austria and Germany alone.

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TunnelTrainingConsultation

Markus Vogt hands over training consulting to Clemens Pessel

Clemens Pessel is the new central contact for fire services outside Switzerland at the International Fire Academy. Since summer 2023, he has been working closely with his predecessor, Markus Vogt, to prepare to take over the role of training consultant for German and English-speaking fire services. Since 1 January 2024, he now bears the main responsibility. In the interview, both explain how the preparations for this handover occurred.

© Nagold Fire Service
TunnelTrainingKnowledge

Challenging conditions at the underground car park fire

It was the first time the Nagold volunteer fire service was alerted to a major fire in an underground car park beneath an apartment building at 3:01 a.m. on 8 July 2023. The residents of the house with 16 residential units had already left the building. At the end of the operation, fire chief Thomas Reiff was glad that no one was injured, including firefighters, which would not be unusual in such an operation. Since then, the issue of underground car park operations has received increased…

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TunnelTrainingKnowledge

Systematically reduce hazards in the event of hydrogen leaks

At 0:55 a.m. on 21 June 2023, the alarm was raised at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich: Hydrogen leakage in the compressor room on the 2nd basement floor. The initial measures were immediately apparent for Daniel Münzenmayer, a member of the Zurich professional fire service for 37 years. He summarises how he experienced the deployment in his report.

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TunnelTrainingKnowledgeFire serviceCourses

Intensive underground car park course for firefighters

Underground car park fires are particularly dangerous - especially for the firefighters. That is why the International Fire Academy has developed a special intensive course. It has now been offered as a «mixed course» for the first time in which individual members of different fire services could participate. The aim is to allow as many fire services as possible to deal with the particular challenges of fires in underground car parks. The 2024 dates have already been advertised.

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TunnelTrainingKnowledge

Digital tables for tactical tabletop simulations in the new Tactics Centre

The International Fire Academy has put its new Tactics Centre into operation. Larger rooms and modern tabletop exercise technology offer significantly better training conditions for tabletop exercises as an essential element of tactical training. The new Tactics Centre is also increasingly being used for valuable tactics workshops.

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TunnelTrainingKnowledge

Airport railway station entirely smoke-filled during train fire

Shortly after being alerted to the fire of an ICE train in the underground Cologne/Bonn airport station on 10 November 2022, the Cologne fire service in charge received an initial all-clear: «ICE already evacuated». Nevertheless, four people suffered smoke inhalation injuries from the fire - three of them outside the station area. Daniel Richmann from the Cologne Fire Service and Luca Battista from the supporting Airport Fire Service at Cologne/Bonn Airport describe the course of the operation.