Page 30 - Port of Hamburg Magazine - 02.18

■ GREEN PORT
Technology and environmental specialists man fire station
The Port of Hamburg annually handles about 25 million tons of hazardous cargoes. Strict safety regulations apply to transporting and storing these. Should an incident nevertheless arise that involves dangerous substances, then Hamburg Fire Brigade’s Station 32 is called out. Manned by technical and environmental specialists, the post ensures that risks for human lives and environmental damage are averted.
To modernize its
fleet and cater for
the rising number of mega-ships in the Port of Hamburg, this year the Hamburg Fire Brigade will receive a new, state-of-the-art fire-fighting boat
Hamburg Fire Brigade’s Station 32 – Technology & the Environment – and its staffing & equipment are unique in Germany. The post on Neuhöfer Brücken- strasse lies in the middle of the Port of Hamburg and specializes in environmental protection, a profession- al approach to hazardous substances and rendering technical assistance. The area covered embraces not simply the port, but also the entire urban expanse of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. “We assist all 17 fire and rescue stations plus the 86 voluntary fire brigades in Hamburg,” explains Ullrich Scholz, the station’s Measurement Coordinator. “Whenever in- definable smells are noticed, or liquids start leaking, then our specialists in technology and environmental protection from Station 32 rally round,” adds Werner Nölken, press spokesman for Hamburg Fire Brigade. The specialized station in the Port of Hamburg was set up almost three decades ago. The location was well chosen, at the time calls about dangerous car- goes in the port occurred almost daily. The challeng- es became more and more complex and one-off, no longer being such as to be covered by the range of training of a ‘normal’ fireman. Analysis and measure- ment technology, environmental service, remote sensing, radiation protection, fire-fighting and coun-
ter-measures are just a few of the main tasks now un- dertaken by the specialists of Station 32. “With re- quirements changing all the time, we undergo further education and training throughout our working lives,” says Scholz, himself a graduate environmental tech- nologist and laboratory chemist. When the LNG barge entered service in the Port of Hamburg, for example, fire brigade members from Station 32 received com- prehensive relevant training.
Meanwhile, however, the main deployment area for members of the station has shifted from the port to the city generally. Every year, the 90 staff of Station 32 here respond to about 1500 calls, yet only a tiny proportion of their sorties are in the port. “Strict rules apply to handling dangerous goods in the port and these are very effectively implemented by companies there. And packing of materials has improved greatly in recent decades,” confirms Nölken. So barely any assignments come up in the port. “And even if some- thing is dripping out of a container, the box is usually in a hazardous goods tank by the time we arrive.” Where needed, fire-fighting tenders of the Hamburg Fire Brigade can support Station 32 from the water- side. The fleet anticipates growth plus renewal in the next few years. A new, state-of-the-art fire-fighting
boat is due to be de- livered by Fassmer shipyard in Berne in August and is ex- pected to enter ser- vice before the end of the year, this in re- sponse to ever larger ships. Since this 43-metre newbuild can no longer be de- ployed in narrow ca- nals, in 2019/2020 two smaller, 16-me- tre craft will replace the fire tenders still in use. Then Ham- burg will have one of the world’s most modern fleet of fire-fighting craft. ■
30 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | June 2018
© Hamburg Port Authority
© HHM/Dietmar Hasenpusch