“The Bronto firefighting platform on a Scania chassis will be replacing the thirty-year-old machine that has served us well. We have been renewing our fleet to upgrade Spolana Fire Rescue Service’s equipment for two years now. Last year, we expanded it with two large-capacity Scania fire trucks. Investments in upgrading our firefighting equipment totalled CZK 18.5 million in 2020 and an additional CZK 17 million this year,” Spolana executive Piotr Kearney said at the ceremonial handover of the vehicle. The Bronto F42RPX aerial platform is equipped with a three-piece telescopic and articulated arm that is highly flexible and enables to intervene at 42 vertical metres; its horizontal range exceeds 23 metres.

On deployments outside the chemical plant, Spolana firefighters help extinguish fires and rescue people in the district of Mělník. Still, due to the inclusion of the unit in the integrated rescue system, they and their equipment can also be deployed anywhere in the Czech Republic. “I believe that our firefighters will maximise their possibilities of responding to hard-to-access fires at elevation with their new equipment, not only at Spolana but also in the region and in the entire Czech Republic. I will be delighted if this new platform works as reliably as our Fire Rescue Service at Spolana,” added Piotr Kearney.

“Our current Tatra T815 platform is already below today’s equipment standards for professional fire and rescue units. Therefore, we decided to purchase a new one. Now we have 11 fire trucks and a Bronto platform. By acquiring the equipment, we have improved our flexibility, especially when we need to ensure the safety of individual operations during hazardous work, as well as in the case of fire-and-rescue operations at elevation,” says Martin Tomi, commander of Spolana’s Fire Rescue Service. Last year alone, the firefighters responded to 17 fires, 30 hazardous-material leaks, and 15 rescues of both humans and animals. They provided technical assistance in 299 cases and assisted 436 times during hazardous work. They also answered 17 false alarms.