Integrated Pump Rental’s quick response time made the company a valuable sponsor of the fire fighting efforts against the recent Eastern Cape fires, after it received an urgent call for assistance.
Business development manager Andre Strydom – himself a seasoned fire-fighter with over 20 years’ experience – clearly understood the dire situation and sprang into action. Soon after a call for help from Hazrisk Solution’s managing director, Duane Pretorius, a diesel driven Sykes CP150 self-priming pump was dispatched early on Sunday 11 June together with other fire fighting equipment and voluntary personnel, reaching the joint operations centre in Tsitsikamma around 15h00 on the Monday morning.
“In circumstances such as this, with fires in remote areas, it is essential to be able to constantly fill fire trucks and water bowsers from local rivers and similar ground water sources,” says Strydom. “This high performance pump was able to help speed up this refilling process, as it is capable of filling a bowser at a rate of 100 litres per second.”
More than that, the pump was able to extract water straight from rivers as it is capable of handling solids up to 90 mm; being trailer-mounted also facilitated its rapid movement by road to site, where it was put to work simply and reliably.
“Essentially, the Sykes pump is a plug-and-play solution and operates in ‘snore’ conditions,” he says. “The pump’s fully automatic priming allowed for quick and easy application and the unit can run dry for extended period of time; high energy efficiency also means lower fuel usage.”
For the beneficiaries – the MTO Group – the sponsored unit was a god-send, playing a “major role” in the filling of tankers and reducing the turnaround time of these tankers at the filling point.
“The decreased time contributed significantly to the control of the spread of the fires in our Witelsbos Plantation, mitigating the fire risk to three communities and businesses neighbouring the plantation, especially during the adverse weather conditions experienced,” says MTO Group CEO Lawrence Polkinghorne. “Our foresters and fire fighters were highly impressed with the capability of the Sykes pump and the advantages of such equipment during fire fighting operations.”
Lee Vine, managing director of Integrated Pump Rentals says the company’s pumping solutions are engineered to deal with the harsh operating conditions on the continent and options include both medium and long term turnkey rental solutions.