Chicago O’Hare International USA

The companies existing Control System from another supplier was over 20 years old and “unreliable”, faulty, difficult to use and unsafe.

The original fire ground consisted of a large 100ft 96 zone burn pit and a Small Airplane Fire Trainer (SAFT). The project also added a new Large Airplane Fire Trainer (LAFT) based on a Boeing 747, with many internal fire scenarios over three floors.

The fire simulator mechanically was in good condition and only needed superficial repairs.

We needed to retrofit the training ground with a safe modern control system; which was easy to use and reliable.

We developed SCADA System that allowed the operator to modify fire pit training scenarios offline and to change the scenario live to react to how the fire fighters were fighting the fire.

All sorts of challenges were encountered to simulate realistic fire spread, firefighting media detection to ensure the system would automatically extinguish the fire if the firefighters tackled the blaze correctly.

All these fire scenarios were designed with safety at the forefront, Deadman switches on the fire ground, Gas detection and emergency stops from the control room ensured immediate cut off of the LPG Fire.