On June 17, 2021, major demonstration tactical drills were performed at Arkhangelsk PPM, 16 pieces of equipment and about 60 personnel of the territorial fire and rescue brigade took part; 10 pieces of auxiliary equipment and 25 workers of the mill. Aleksey Alsufiev, First Deputy Governor of the Arkhangelsk Region, Shakhobiddin Vakkosov, Head of Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Arkhangelsk Region, Alexander Uvarov, Head of the State Fire-Fighting Service and Civil Protection Agency of the Arkhangelsk Region, and Dmitry Zyliov, CEO of Arkhangelsk PPM watched the drills.
According to the scenario, the fire occurred on the territory of the Wood-Yard No. 3 of the Wood Stock Shop of the mill. The purpose of the workshop is to receive and store wood, its unloading, sawing and feeding to the chip cutting site. The total area of the yard is 24.5 hectares. More than 1500 thousand m2 of dense timber are processed here per year. Due to the high fire load, a fire that has arisen here can rapidly develop to a significant scale. The open burning of two piles of wood was noticed by the logger’s driver and immediately reported to the fire brigade. The members of a non-staff fire brigade immediately arrive to the place of a simulated fire, they take the first actions to extinguish the fire, and also meet the arriving fire and rescue divisions. The area of the fire is already 200 m2; there is a threat of spreading through the piles, to the neighboring site and buildings.
The fire ground commander announces the third grade of the fire, which is the maximum for the Arkhangelsk local fire and rescue division. Тhe fire teams of FFD-53, 5 FSU, SFSU named after V.M. Petrov, 2 FSU and FFD-94 are coming from Arkhangelsk and Novodvinsk to help the fire and gas rescue service of APPM. A fire train departs from Isakogorka station. An ambulance arrives to help the injured.
A strong wind promotes the projection of burning sticks and sparks, the burning area continues to increase. In order to stop the spread of the fire, the breaks are created in the piles of wood, this is done by use of auxiliary equipment and the wood is loaded into the arrived wagons. The firefighters extinguish the burning stacks of wood and supply sprayed water to cool and protect equipment from high temperatures.
Thanks to the coordinated and prompt actions of all divisions, the fire can be localized on an area of 565.6 m2.
Sergey Sheremetyev, Head of the Department for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations and Industrial Safety of APPM, said that safety is the priority of the mill's management, therefore, the company created its own fire and gas rescue division in 2006. Moreover, it is responsible not only for the rescue operations in emergencies on the territory of the mill, but also for the safety of the city of Novodvinsk.
Evaluating the drills, Sergey Sheremetyev said that a whole range of measures had been performed today, including:
- arrangement of work on the initial actions of the facility personnel to extinguish (participate in extinguishing) a fire before the arrival of the main forces of fire departments and emergency rescue teams;
- arrangement of interaction between fire departments (various departments), emergency rescue teams and the administration of the facility;
- arrangement of work to reduce the area of combustible material (creation of fire breaks in conditionally burning piles of wood using special equipment of the facility);
- checking the provision of the facility with fire extinguishers for localizing and extinguishing a fire (external fire-fighting water supply, fire reservoirs, foam former).
“These skills will further help to minimize damage in the event of such emergencies,” - he summed up.
According to Shakhobiddin Vakkosov, Head of Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for the Arkhangelsk Region, when performing such drills, the main task is study the interaction of all forces and means. “It was important for us to see how the interaction of the federal and regional forces, as well as the subdivisions of the facility, will be arranged,” he said. - We also involved the departmental fire protection service - a fire train with duty fire fighters. Based on the results, I can say, that we have succeeded, somewhere we have to develop joint actions. Therefore, we will continue to perform such drills so that the personnel receive good practice, which will be useful later for extinguishing. Today I see that the personnel of APPM is trained and knows how to work; there are some issues that can be solved by constant training and further education. "
