Hiab grapple used to create fire fighting innovation

Hiab stories | 2 december 2020 13:00 PM

SakuTauriainen.jpg

Fire station master Mr Saku Tauriainen has won Finland’s Fire Protection Fund Innovation Award for developing an extinguishing and clearing grapple, which is a modified LOGLIFT Grapple RX 31. It allows firefighters to work safely on the ground and not on the roof of a burning building.

A quenching and clearing grapple (SaRa grapple) developed by Saku Tauriainen is attached to a HIAB loader crane. Water nozzles are built into the grapple, which produce water mist with a low flow. Water mists target the burning cavity directly and effectively extinguishes the fire and reduces water damage. The grapple can also create a smoke outlet on the roof of the burning building.

See video in Finnish that shows how efficient the grapple is at creating an opening in a roof. 

The fire and clearing grapple improves the work and personal safety of rescuers in building fires, as rescuers do not have to go to work on the roof of a burning building. Traditional methods for extinguishing a building fire is that firefighters either work on the roof of a burning building or from a hoist, or a combination.

- The best thing about innovation, I think, is that it works in practice. A real life example is that the SaRa grapple efficiently can create an opening in the roof to let the smoke out. After an opening has been created, water can target the fire directly from the top of the building, says Tauriainen.

SaRa-koura.jpg