Catamaran Fireboat Delivered to Maritime Safety Agency
NKK-built fireboat "Hiryu" during sea trials
A 280-gross-ton fireboat was completed at NKK's Tsurumi Works and was recently delivered to its owner, the Japan Maritime Safety Agency. The new "Hiryu"was built to replace an earlier 190-ton fireboat built by NKK in 1969 and retired in December 1997. The new fireboat, 35 meters long, 12.2 meters wide and 5.5 meters deep, is a catamaran with a wide working deck. The ship will fight fires as well as conduct disaster prevention operations at sea, such as combating oil spills, in its assignment to the Agency's Yokohama district authority. To maximize its capabilities against increasingly large and complex fires at sea, the Hiryu incorporates a number of advanced fire control technologies and equipment. These include rotating, controllable-pitch propellers with medium-speed engines for great maneuverability, telescopic water cannons to fight fires on large tankers, and two large-capacity fire pumps (1,500m3/h ×1.5Mpa) driven by the main engine, as well as foam and powder extinguishers to cope with chemical fires. Firefighting operations can be monitored and remotely controlled by a computer system in the wheelhouse. The ship also has xenon searchlights with stabilizing and lighting-angle control systems mounted on both sides of the spray deck, gas detectors to detect and measure flammable and hazardous gases disc harged by burning ships, and, for self-defense, atomizing nozzles to ward off radiant heat. |
