Elora’s Marine Division of Troy Life & Fire Safety Ltd. was recently awarded $5.7 million subcontract with Irving Shipbuilding Inc. to supply fixed firefighting systems under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
“When ships are up in the Arctic they can’t call the fire department," says Marine division vice-president Thomas Bosch.
On July 21, Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong, Member of Parliament for Wellington-Halton Hills, announced the $5.7 million subcontract with Irving Shipbuilding Inc. to supply the fixed firefighting systems that will be used to build the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.
“The federal government’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy is creating and supporting jobs throughout Canada and right here in our community,” Chong said. “This strategy is creating local jobs and creating economic growth.”
As of April 2015, Irving Shipbuilding has awarded over $720 million in contracts to 128 suppliers from across Canada through the modernisation of its shipyard and the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ship (AOPS) project.
“Canada monitors and protects more coastline than any other country in the world. Through the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, the government will provide Canada’s Navy fleet and coast guard with the best ships to fill their mandate,” said Chong.
“I am proud that Elora based Marine Division of Troy Life & Fire Safety Ltd. will be a part of this important strategy.”
The AOPS project will deliver six ice-capable offshore patrol ships that will conduct sovereignty and surveillance operations in Canada’s Exclusive Economic Zone, including in the Arctic.
The Royal Canadian Navy will also use the AOPS to support other units of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in the conduct of maritime-related operations.
Marine division vice-president Thomas Bosch explained the subcontract involved the supply of fire suppression/extinguishing systems aboard the AOPS vessels.
Those ships are being built at the Irving shipyards in Halifax.
“It’s all the fixed fire suppression systems. They have water and mist suppression systems, gas suppression systems, suppression systems for their galley, and foam suppression systems for their hanger and flight deck.”
This is the specialty of the company
“Basically this is to protect the vessel in case of a fire in certain spaces.”
Bosch explained the systems are used “in what we call machinery spaces – either where they store helicopters or where they are cooking.”
He said if a fire did occur, the suppression system is activated and it would put out the fire in that particular space.
Bosch said the ships need to be totally self-sufficient.
He added these fire suppression systems are not the first line of defense.
“Generally, there are firefighting teams aboard who are capable of manually fighting a fire.”
The fixed-installation systems would come into play if the fire got out of control, Bosch said.
“We were involved right from the very beginning with this whole project. We worked with the engineering company to do the design of the systems and will be working with them right until the systems get delivered – meaning we’ll be doing the final testing of these systems.
