On the night of September 8th to 9th, a truck catches fire at the end of the Leidsche Rijntunnel. The tunnel is filled with thick smoke and fifty vehicles with onlookers. In co-creation with Rijkswaterstaat, Police, Fire Department, and the Safety Region Utrecht, FireWare simulated this large-scale tunnel incident.
Multiple Stratus and Cumules smoke generators, Phoenix Silkflames, and FireSpots are controlled to simulate smoke and flames. Smoke Fluid Fire Training Extreme is used to create large and thick amounts of smoke. This time, the focus is not on firefighting by the crews, but on the command level. The exercise mainly focuses on communication, perception, and planning for the CoPI, Command Post Incident, which is the name for the operational command at the scene of an incident.
Setting up tunnel exercises is very complex. The tunnel must be closed to traffic for as short a time as possible. In other words, build up as quickly as possible, blow a realistic amount of smoke into the tunnel in a short time, and then dismantle everything in record time. Fortunately, at FireWare, we are very experienced in this, and this is not our first tunnel simulation. Nevertheless, it is always unique to be in such a tunnel without traffic!
