"Combat volcanoes" and "titans" in PGE Narodowy

Author |Date: 26 lipca 2019

For one day PGE Narodowy turned into a place where you knew everything about fire and fires. FIRE | SECURITY EXPO 2019, i.e. the 16th Firefighting Congress, was held here on 25 July, presenting the latest systems and solutions from the firefighting and security industry. It has already become a tradition that July is a month of fire safety in PGE Narodowy, because the event is held here for the sixth time in a row.

The fire-fighting market in Poland is developing more and more dynamically. Not only is the awareness of hazards growing, but also the advancement level of technology that helps to deal with the most difficult and most important problems of fire protection. With events such as FIRE | SECURITY EXPO 2019, the safety level of Poles is constantly increasing.

‘On 25 July, PGE Narodowy was visited by representatives of State and Voluntary Fire Service from all over the country, experts, designers, architects, contractors and leaders of the fire protection market. The whole project is based on presentations of new developments and lectures. It is also addressed to all those who care about their safety and the safety of their loved ones’, said senior captain Grzegorz Jędrzejczyk M.Sc., officer in the State Fire Service.

The congress is held annually under technical auspices of and co-created by the highest class scientific and research centres in the country, and the main goal is to popularise and raise awareness in the fire safety of buildings and their occupants. ‘Such a fair is highly needed. The Fire Service is very active in Poland. The last few years have seen a lot of acceleration and equalisation to what works in the West. The level of training in Poland is very high. It is important that Polish society begins to understand the dangers of fires and this is also possible due to economic development. Smoke detectors or fire extinguishers are no longer a fad nowadays. We are progressing in this direction’, concluded Przemysław Wasyluk, Member of the Board of Voluntary Fire Service in Warsaw Ursus.

The congress is attended every year by nearly 200 representatives of 70 to 100 suppliers of industry systems and solutions. Everything could be found here: from roof coverings applied to the walls that separate individual fire zones, through smoke ventilation, alarm, smoke extraction and detection systems, through control and access solutions, fire damper actuators, emergency lighting, to protective clothing and uniforms for firefighters. The congress is also an arena of novelties, interesting and modern technologies, tests, calculators and technical advice for executive teams, as well as consultations for designers and investors.

‘This year we presented new devices for controlling fixed technical equipment and in the workshop part, we discussed the creation of scenarios for control during a fire’, said Marcin Radoszewski, manager of technical support engineers at Polon Alfa. Kaliskie Zakłady Przemysłu Terenowego for a change prepared a stand where the latest clothing for firefighters was presented. ‘We dress heroes’, emphasised Jerzy Kulicki representing the company. ‘Today we present the combat clothing, which has been in use in all units of the State Fire Service this year. It differs from the old models in that it is a three-piece clothing with a very light jacket. We also have helmets called “combat volcanoes” and “titans” for technical operations, light height events and for water groups’.

BFormer firefighter Ryszard Stępkowski, now an expert on fire protection from Kielce who has over twenty years of experience and over 4,000 agreed projects, has consulted difficult issues, shared experience and provided guidance and information to trade fair visitors who were looking for but could not find them in literature or the Internet, for example.

‘We are committed to ensuring that the level of fire safety of both public buildings and residential buildings in Poland is the highest. We have regulations, but most of all, we have educated fire protection personnel and a large group of experts, who have to verify their knowledge every five years during rigorous examinations. Work of these environments and of architects makes the safety conditions systematically improve and we can feel safe’, emphasised Stępkowski.

In addition to the speeches of experts, which were the main point of FIRE | SECURITY EXPO 2019, the organiser, being DND Project, took care of a number of demonstrations and panel discussions in the area of design, installation and operation of fire protection systems and equipment. High attendance of visitors means that fire protection is becoming more and more important and the next editions of the congress will be held in PGE Narodowy regularly in the following years.