A successful example of cooperation between Bertin Environics and a renowned shipyard.

CBRN Monitoring Capabilities Implemented to Catamaran Fire Boat Built by Lungteh Shipyard in Taiwan

A successful example of cooperation between Bertin Environics and a renown shipyard.

Big city harbours and other coastal areas experience an ever increasing amount of sea traffic. In addition to human transportation by ferries, the amount of transportation of goods and bulk material is constantly growing. The risk of accidents, or even intentional incidents, in these busy areas is higher than in open seas.

When this happens, fire and rescue services are the first actors on scene, and they are responsible for handling the dangerous situations. The risk of and incident involving hazardous chemicals, biological agents or radioactive materials is normally low, but if anything related to these so called CBRN materials is involved, the seriousness of the situation grows drastically.

Fire Boat 7 from Hong Kong Fire Services

Bertin Environics supplied to the Hong Kong Fire Services a CBRN detection system to Fireboat 7 built by Lungteh Shipyard in Taiwan. The comprehensive CBRN system complies with the Classification Society requirements and covers chemical, biological and radiation detection. In addition to standard CBRN monitoring, the system also covers flammable gas detection and air quality monitoring in the protected areas inside the vessel. The project was established in good cooperation with Lungteh shipyard despite some challenges during the process.
The first big obstacle was the bridge collapse near the shipyard delaying the vessel testing and consequent delivery, since it prevented the ship from leaving the shipyard area.
After the vessel was delivered to Hong Kong, the next challenge was the Covid -19 epidemic outbreak, which caused a long lockdown period in Hong Kong area, preventing the travelling of our staff and thus delaying the final testing of the system and the crew training. 

However, despite all hindrances during the project, the CBRN monitoring system is currently finalized and in active use to protect Hong Kong area marine traffic and Hong Kong citizens.