New fire-extinguishing pontoon for Port of Amsterdam
The Port of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam-Amstelland Fire Brigade are taking the new fire-extinguishing pontoon ‘Cerberus’ officially into operation yesterday. The pontoon will give Amsterdam additional fire extinguishing capacity.
The Harbour Master’s Division of the Port of Amsterdam can now deliver additional waterborne fire extinguishing capacity in the event of a long-lasting fire. The floating pontoon features a large pump unit to which seven hoses can be attached, and can deliver a total extinguishing capacity of 38,000 litres per minute. The Amsterdam-Amstelland Fire Brigade will operate it.
Marleen van de Kerkhof, State Harbour Master: “The Harbour Master’s Division of the Port of Amsterdam is responsible for the safe, smooth and environmentally responsible handling of the shipping traffic in the North Sea Canal Area. The introduction of this fire-extinguishing pontoon is part of this responsibility. Cerberus is a good example of chain cooperation between our organisation and the Amsterdam-Amstelland Fire Brigade.”
IJle Stelstra, acting Chief Officer of the Amsterdam-Amstelland Fire Brigade: “Good cooperation with the Port of Amsterdam is hugely important in case of incidents in the port area. Amsterdam for instance has the world’s largest petrol port and this involves certain risks. The fire-extinguishing pontoon is an important addition to our repressive capacity. However repression is not the only point: preventing incidents from occurring is at least as important. The Fire Brigade has accordingly designated two operational managers to the port area whose primary concern is safety.”