Kesla HydraX turns commonly used agricultural tractors into a fleet of rapid wildland fire fighting forces off-road, in-built areas and beyond. Source: Timberbiz
The unit is quick to deploy on public roads to wildland fire sites and beyond; off-road the unit uses its own hydraulic unit for assisted drive for increased mobility. HydraX can quickly fill itself from closest natural water source, or the water tank can also be fed from a pressure line.
A fog cloud or a powerful water jet spray can be easily targeted using one of the three water spraying systems at a time; one mounted on the boom, another manually operated at rear and the most powerful one on top of the water tank.
At best, water stream can reach horizontally over 50m and vertically almost 45 m high. Grapple on the boom can effectively open fire nests while ForExt admixture is shot on the grapple simultaneously.
The HydraX uses natural water sources, and no time is wasted in water logistics. The unit can operate in water supply logistics feeding the fire brigade’s tank trucks or in a small forest fire the unit can be driven to the middle of the forest and be used as effective front-line firefighting unit carrying over 10 000l of water to a difficult off-road location.
In large scale logging sites or plantations, the HydraX can operate as a first-hand fire extinguishing unit, and it allows also the daily machinery washing works on-site to minimize fire risks.
Outside the forest in built surroundings the HydraX is an efficient solution for any mobile wet works such as infrastructure washing, dust control, wetting works and fire security. Applications can range from washing road signs, bridge railings, tunnels, industrial yards to washing large storage halls inside out. In forest industry the unit can be used to wet the round wood piles or woodchip stockpiles during hot summer season, or it can act as mobile fire security unit securing industrial hot works.
In built surroundings the water filling can be done for example at a port, from a rain water reservoir or from a pressurized fire post.
Traditionally the forest fires have been extinguished using water but due to climate change fires are getting extreme and plain water is not always enough to stop the fire.
Furthermore, in wildland fires the rural conditions complicate the firefighting as the fires are typically located off-road. Creating a firestop is a new method for fighting wildland fires; the burning hot fire is not fought with water, but instead a fire-extinguishing agent is used to create a so-called firestop to a pre-designed location where fire is stopped from spreading.
Finnish companies PPO-Elektroniikka and Kiilto Oy have combined their expertise and developed a forest fire-extiguishing agent ForExt for which KESLA HydraX is specially designed.
Powerful jet stream can wet the ground in over 50m reach or trees even 30-40m high. In addition, a grapple can be used to open fire nests and simultaneously shoot fire-extinguishing agent to a minor fire. An environmentally friendly 1:100 water-ForExt admixture forms a kind of a film on top of the biomass which then prevents ignition and re-ignition.
ForExt storage and dosing are integrated to the HydraX systems which automatically forms the correct mix-ratio.
