RelyOn Fire Academy - Industrial and public firefighting

We offer advisory programmes and safety training based on national and international industry standards and best practices.

At our unique and realistic Rotterdam training centre, you ‘train as you fight’. Our instructors have practical experience in their own specialist field, and are thus able to transfer their in-depth knowledge to the delegates on the training courses. We ensure that our customers have all the necessary competences in house and are as prepared as possible for emergences. Thanks to our extensive knowledge and experience, we can go well beyond the scope of the law and regulations.

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Background and history

RelyOn Fire Academy was first established in 1985 under the name of Rotterdam International Safety Center (RISC). Together with Nutec, it became part of the Falck organisation in 2004, and RISC was later renamed Falck Fire Academy. In 2019, the academy’s name was changed to RelyOn Fire Academy.

International training standards

All our education and training programmes are based on national and/or international standards (for example IFV [Dutch Institute for safety], NIBHV [Dutch Institute for Company Emergency Response], NFPA [American National Fire Protection Association], JOIFF [Joint Oil and Industry Fire Forum]) and comply with the legislation and regulations of the country in question. We know that, with our help, your workforce will be well-prepared and will have the confidence to take appropriate action in emergencies.

Incident scenarios

At our specialised Rotterdam training centre, we are able to offer unique and realistic training facilities and incident scenarios. We use and have:

• Various types of fuel: solid carbonaceous substances, hydrocarbon liquids, liquid propane, gas vapour and alcohol.
• Various extinguishing agents: large quantities of water, powder, foam, and CO2.
• Industrial petroleum spirit for realistic liquid incident scenarios.
• Carbonaceous wood fires (e.g. incl. sheet material and hardboard) in interior burners.
• Training facilities featuring realistic industrial process installations, both in open and enclosed structures.
• Logical process flow for the industrial installations, the scenarios can include both firefighting and process control tactics.
• Pipe bridges between the process units to simulate leaks at height.
• Various realistic leaks from pipework such as flanges and seals.
• Atmospheric storage tank with a tank bund for realistic tank-related scenarios and large hydrocarbon liquid fires (up to 120m2).
• Spacious layout (remove set-up) of the main access roads around the industrial facilities and challenging narrow access between various training units.
• Foam and cryogenic laboratories, miniaturised tank farm table.

Facilities

At our Rotterdam training centre, which covers six hectares, we have a variety of training facilities to train both the industrial and public fire brigades at all levels. Below you will find a summary of our facilities.

Basic skills:

• A-Cell
• H-Cell
• Flashover units
• Industrial base unit
• Foam laboratory
• Cryogenic laboratory
• Tank table (scale model for tank firefighting)
• Training facilities for fire brigade safety awareness training
• Unique cooling and gas behaviour simulations

Scenario training courses:

• Hot interior firefighting
• Semi-detached houses
• Training ship
• Industrial process units
• Escape unit
• Loading station
• Atmospheric storage tank and tank bund
• Virtual training environment

Specific training courses:

• HAZMAT
• Technical rescue
• Climbing tower and covered hall for working and rescue at height
• Confined space work and rescue
• Helideck operations

Crisis management training courses:

• Crisis management room
• Control room incl. scenario items

We have experience in Government Fire Brigade training at all levels, from fire brigade firefighters through to junior and senior officer training, taking best practices from around the world.

We specialise not only in basic firefighting but also hazardous materials response, rescue, ship firefighting and industrial firefighting.

Rescue training includes situations from enclosed spaces, urban search and rescue, vehicles, rope rescue operator or technician levels and working and rescue at heights.

Read more (links to the Fire Academy's website)

Within an organisation, we recognise four levels. These levels cover the operational, tactical and strategic responses to an incident in which the key roles need to be trained and assessed.

At each level, the people are taught to act effectively and bring the incident under control as soon as possible.

Read more (links to the Fire Academy's website)

The emergency response team (ERT) at RelyOn in the Netherlands is on hand to assist with all of the following 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year:

• Fires on board ships
• Industrial fires
• Incidents involving hazardous substances
• Damping down fires or spontaneous combustion
• Assistance of fire service operations
• Aftercare following initial firefighting activities
• Fire safety during and after a fire
• Providing firefighters
• Providing firefighting specialists

Our team consists of a number of (firefighting) specialists. It is always available to assist with emergencies, wherever they might happen in the world. It has its own personal protective equipment and the relevant specialist materials. The ERT is available to assist with fires on board ships, industrial fires and incidents involving hazardous substances: 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world.

Read more (links to the Fire Academy's website)