The Aqua-Sac team passed their ISO9001:2000 audit.The scope of certification covers the procurement, marketing and sales of flood defence products.
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Analox Environmental Technology has been shortlisted for the Innovation Award in the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards 2007 for our self-inflating sandbag. Sandbags have been in the news a great deal this summer and the Aqua-sac has made a big impression as a flood protection product.
The winner will be announced on October 19th at a celebratory dinner at the Queen's Hotel in Leeds.
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Photo by Copyright Andy Jackson
Aqua-sac came to the aid of the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association on Sunday as we trialled our self-inflating sandbags in a cave rescue training excersise organised by UWFRA and the local Fire and Rescue Service. Aqua-sac sandbags could easily be carried to the rescue scene in the remote Yorkshire Dales. Fifty self-inflating sandbags were used in two scenarios. Firstly, to divert a stream on the surface away from the flooded cave. Secondly, 25 Aqua-Sac sandbags were easily deployed in the cramped semi flooded cave in order to create a bund.Once deployed, in minutes the fire service were able to set up a pump from the resevoir created using the Aqua-Sac S.O.S bags.
A BAG FOR ALL SEASONS (REPORT)
The Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association is one of many rescue teams that answers calls to provide help to people and animals in difficulties on the hills; in this case the Yorkshire Dales. It is unusual, though, in that it is one of the few teams that also provide aid to people in trouble in caves and potholes in its area.
Since its inception in 1948 the team has answered hundreds of calls and has always prided itself on being at the forefront of using innovative technology that may help bring about successful conclusions to the incidents it attends. Down the years this has seen it design and manufacture equipment especially for use in the trying conditions found underground. Also, it has kept an eye on what is available elsewhere.
Many of the cave rescues that occur are the result of flooding. Inevitably, this involves the damming and diversion of torrents of water rushing off the steep upland slopes into the caves and potholes before it is safe for a rescue party to enter. Usually this takes place at night, and can involve dozens of people digging diversion channels and filling and placing sand bags. It may also need the Fire and Rescue Service to attend with their pumps.
When the team heard about Aqua-Sacs they seemed too good to be true. Here, apparently, were bags that didn’t require an army of people to fill them. Also, they were capable of being carried in quantity into a cave packed in a waterproof sack by one person. They had to be seen. Were they up to the hype?
Luckily, the team had been organising a joint exercise with the Fire Service to pump dry a length of cave passage that has a series of places normally full of water to the roof (sumps in cavers’ language). The venue was to be Langstroth Cave and it would require building a dam within the cave to provide a suitable pool to accommodate the pump suction hose, as well as diversion of a stream on the surface. Older members of the team had carried out this operation several times in the past, including one sad occasion when three people had died trying to dive through the sumps without using diving equipment. This time it was to be a familiarisation exercise for new team members and Fire Service personnel.
The day dawned dry and bright and conditions were ideal - would the Aqua-Sac be up to the job? Well, the answer to that is an unqualified yes. It did everything claimed for it. We were, perhaps, helped by having Simon Minto from Analox Environmental Technology Ltd. with us to provide expert advice, but we are confident that left on our own we would still have been able to provide a good, watertight dam. See the photos for proof of what was done. The pumping operation was a great success and members of the Fire and Rescue Service who went into the cave to see for themselves what was happening down below were also very impressed with the Aqua-Sacs.
Will we be buying Aqua-Sacs to put on our shelves alongside our other equipment? Of course we will. The next time my phone rings at any time of the day or night, at any time of the year, and the police tell me that there is a flooding incident at a cave somewhere I shall have the knowledge that life may just have got bit easier through having them.
Harry Long
Team Controller
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Flash flooding caused Ian’s children’s sports day to be cancelled as flash flooding affected Melsonby and surrounding villages.
25 Fire crews attended and army trucks had to be called in to help with the evacuation.
“The speed at which the flooding happened meant the council had no time to deploy sandbags.” Luckily, Ian had Aqua-Sac S.O.S bags ready for this type of eventuality and his flood defence prevented a disaster in his household.
A North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: "It has just been the volume of water. We had a cloudburst earlier this evening and it has just sent two feet of water flowing through Gilling West."
"In some cases the water was too deep for fire engines to pass so we have had help from the Army who have helped carry out rescues on their wagons."
The flash floods followed a similar incident in Filey on Wednesday afternoon when firefighters received more than 80 call outs in the space of an hour.
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( 3 / 630 )BBC LOOK NORTH
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/chec ... mp;nbram=1 Read More...
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