25+ years of experience
Real heat, unexpectedly blazing fires and not being able to see anything through the smoke – it’s all possible in the fire brigade training centre. DOTES is a specialist in developing and building training centres for rescue workers. We are getting an exclusive peak at how Tyro Remotes’ remote controls have been used in this centre since 2015. Gijsbert, Marketeer at Tyro Remotes, went to see for himself how our remotes are used at Dotes.
From the outside they are mainly containers stacked on top of each other. Around the containers are old cars, gastanks and a shed with an old bus. When you walk inside the containers you can see that they have thick walls and large and smaller installations hang on the walls and ceilings.
You can feel the heat
The door closes behind us, it gets dark and we are asked to bend down. Suddenly a light from a remote control lights up and not long afterwards smoke escapes between the frame and the door. The instructor opens the door and immediately the flames fly over our heads. The heat can also be felt. Soon I learn that something like this is called a rollover, and that the blue flames indicate that there is not enough oxygen for the fire to expand. This is due to the doors being closed on both sides of the container.
Based on the behaviour of the students, the instructor can switch specific effects on or off using the remote control. Just like in a real fire, different behaviour causes different reactions. If you do A, B happens, but if you do something else, a completely different reaction is caused. The details have been carefully thought through. Smoke behaves like real smoke by using a special kind of liquid. Propane is used to simulate a solid fuel fire, and when one starts to quench it, just like in practice, a renewed ignition will occur as soon as there is enough oxygen again.
Multiple sections with own remote control
A separate remote control is used for each section. For example, there is a section that has been developed as a mobile unit and can be taken to another location. For the mobile unit a 4-way Musca control is used in combination with an Aquarius receiver. For the other sections different Pyxis handheld transmitters are used in combination with Auriga and Aquarius receivers.
Our remote controls are used in many different places, but this was an extraordinary experience not to be easily forgotten.