Fire service historian and author

Roger Mardon

 

 

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Eighty incident response units (IRUs) have been provided at a cost of £54m and they achieved full operational status from 30 April 2004. They are strategically located with fire and rescue services across England and Wales but remain the property of the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) and are seen as a national resource that can be deployed anywhere in country as required. Scotland and Northern Ireland have procured their own IRU equipment which does not form part of the New Dimension stock.

 

The vehicles are required to provide a mass decontamination facility at the scene of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incident, whether as a result of terrorist action or industrial accident. Each vehicle carries two MD1 mass decontamination units, each capable of treating 200 persons an hour. Supporting equipment includes disrobe and re-robe packs, pumps, water heaters, lights, hoses, gas-tight suits and detection and monitoring equipment such as radiation dosimeters and survey meters. Consumable materials such as detergents, disrobe packs and re-robe packs will be replenished by disrobe and re-robe modules.

The decontamination units are tent-like structures supported by an articulating frame and require no maintenance once erected. Each unit is 14 metres long and comprises three sections for disrobing, showering and re-robing. Fifty integral showers and four overhead hand showers spray warm water, with detergents, on a three minute cycle for decontamination. Waste water containment and disposal facilities are provided.

 

People requiring decontamination can preserve their modesty by undressing beneath lined and hooded cloaks before moving into the heated shower units. They are then provided with re-robe packs containing jump suits, sanitary products and shoes.

 

Stretcher-borne casualties can be decontaminated using a specially designed trolley system that can be set up to convey stretchers through the centre of the tent at the rate of 25 casualties per hour.

 

One inflatable MD4 firefighter decontamination unit is carried on the IRUs to enable the decontamination of fire and rescue service personnel in gas tight suits at the scene.

Equipment is stowed in twelve container pallets, stacked two high on the floor of the vehicle, and unloaded two at a time by a Moffett Mounty M2003E forklift truck, with 2-tonne capacity, carried on the back of the vehicle.

Marshall SV of Cambridge was the prime contractor with overall responsibility for management of the project to design, develop and manufacture the vehicles themselves.

 

Four key vehicle elements made up the whole package -

 

 

The vehicles are built on the 5.5m wheelbase MAN TG-A 26.363 6x2 chassis with rear-steer and tag axle and a full air suspension system.

 

A specially-designed curtainside restraining method secures the equipment on board and allows forklift access along the whole length of the vehicle bed.  

 

It was a design requirement that the overall height of the vehicle did not exceed 3.3m due to the headroom restrictions in some fire station appliance bays. Handling of double-stacked pallets by forklift truck called for a greater height so a powered mechanism to raise the roof by 300mm was devised, enabling loading and unloading of the vehicle whilst keeping the road height within operational limits.

 

Auto Electrical Services (AES) were responsible for managing the provision of fully integrated electrical and communications systems. The IRU’s radio communications and electrical control systems are housed in a single cabinet at the back of the cab, a feature made possible because there is no rear cab window. A mobile data terminal, printer and touch-screen, from Tempus Computers Ltd, are provided on a central plinth in the cab. The radio system, from Cleartone Ltd, offers Tetra, low-band VHF AM/FM and high-band VHF packs controlled by a single radio head. Cellular phone facilities are provided by a Motorola 8989 GSM using the Orange network, with provision for an alternative call bearer. A global positioning system (GPS) is able to transmit positional information to either fixed or remote locations.

 

The 80 IRUs were delivered to the Government in January and February 2004 and, as already noted, became operational by the end of April 2004. They are deployed as follows

Region

Fire & Rescue Service

Number of IRUs

London

London

10

South-East

Berkshire

1

Buckinghamshire

1

East Sussex

1

Hampshire

1

Isle of Wight

0

Kent

2

Oxfordshire

1

Surrey

1

West Sussex

1

South West

Avon

1

Cornwall

2

Devon & Somerset

3

Dorset

1

Gloucestershire

1

Wiltshire

1

East of England

Bedfordshire & Luton

1

Cambridgeshire

1

Essex

1

Hertfordshire

1

Norfolk

1

Suffolk

1

East Midlands

Derbyshire

2

Leicestershire

1

Lincolnshire

1

Northamptonshire

1

Nottinghamshire

1

West Midlands

Hereford & Worcester

2

Shropshire

1

Staffordshire

2

Warwickshire

1

West Midlands

3

Yorkshire & Humberside

Humberside

1

North Yorkshire

1

South Yorkshire

1

West Yorkshire

1

North East

Cleveland

1

Durham & Darlington

1

Northumberland

1

Tyne & Wear

1

North West

Cheshire

2

Cumbria

1

Greater Manchester

2

Lancashire

2

Merseyside

1

Wales

Mid & West Wales

2

North Wales

2

South Wales

3

Strategic reserves

 

8

An IRU was transferred from Lincolnshire to Derbyshire in 2007.

 

The Isle of Wight does not have an IRU but it has been provided with a mass decontamination special module (MDS) which has an additional detection, identification and monitoring (DIM) capability.

New Dimension

Incident response units

Prime movers

High volume pumping units

Urban search & rescue units

Disrobe and re-robe modules

DIM units

Enhanced command support vehicles

IRUsTop.

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