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.