Damen builds new fireboat for Amsterdam
Damen Shipyards has built a new fire-fighting vessel for the Amsterdam Fire Department. The vessel is designed to operate in the narrow and shallow city canals, which put restrictions on vessel design.
The city of Amsterdam is characterised by its maze of canals. A Dutch version of Venice, which every year attracts a large number of tourists. But despite their beauty the canals also form a hazard. They create lots of places fire trucks aren’t able to get to. That’s why the Amsterdam Fire Department, next to its fire trucks, also operates a fleet of fire-fighting vessels.
The new vessel, which will be called the Jan van der Heyden IV, has been tendered with pre-set measurements: a length of 17.65 meters and a width of 4 metres. What makes the boat special are its small draught and height, which both will be 1.4 metres. These restrictions are a direct result of the depth of the canals and the air draught of the many bridges that cross them.
Damen Shipyards Group won the contract in early September. The boat will be built at the yard in Hardinxveld-Giessendam in the Netherlands, which is typically the yard that builds one-offs like this vessel. “The challenge with this fireboat is to fit everything properly inside the measurements of the vessel”, Jos van Woerkum, managing director of Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld, said. “Other challenges are the weight and the stern wave. The boat will be made of steel and not aluminum, because it will have to work close to extreme heat sources. The vessel also needs to be fast, but at the same time have as little sternwave as possible. We do not want to disturb the many house boats in the canals. We are currently investigating which plate thickness and propulsion setup will work best.”
The Jan van der Heyden IV will be equipped with two water cannon, each with a capacity of 840 cubic meters per hour at pressures of 10 bar. “That will enable the fire fighters to reach fires at a distance of 92 metres”, Van Woerkum said. Both pumps will have a suction line on either side of the vessel so that the pumps will work which ever way the vessel is moored. “The boat will also be equipped with hose connections to serve as a pumpstation for fire trucks.”
The vessel is named after a fireman who lived in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Jan van der Heyden was especially known as an inventor. He improved the firepump used at that time and developed a special fire hose nozzle. He also did a great number of other things for the city. The vessel will replace an older vessel of the Amsterdam Fire Department and will be delivered in October next year.
By Tobias Pieffers
