Safety first!
The everyday working life of the Vetropack Straža fire brigade
Glass production involves high temperatures – so fire brigades play an important part in keeping our plants safe. Vetropack Straža even has its own works fire brigade.
The fire brigade team
Thanks to its own team of firefighters, the plant can respond quickly and efficiently to emergencies – which is all the more important because the nearest professional fire brigade is 25 minutes away. When a fire broke out in the electricity substation, the Vetropack Straža team had already extinguished it within ten minutes – by when the professional brigade would only have been halfway there.
The Vetropack Straža fire brigade consists of five professional firefighters, the professional brigade chief and 30 volunteers who receive regular training. At least one professional and three volunteer firefighters are present on the factory site at all times. The team is always ready to respond not only to fires, but also to other emergencies and a variety of incidents. Last year alone, they were called out 143 times and had 83 deployments that ranged from extinguishing fires on pallets, forklift trucks or glass production machines to dealing with flooding in the plant caused by storms. They also handle repairs to leaks, and are trained as medical first aiders and defibrillator operators.
As well as dealing with emergencies, the Vetropack Straža fire brigade’s responsibilities also include prevention – which means avoiding fires and other dangerous incidents. They carry out regular inspection tours of the plant to identify potential risks, and they also maintain the plant’s fire-fighting equipment and safety infrastructure.
The fire brigade is present whenever work undertaken in the plant involves the slightest risk of fire or a similar disaster. To make sure that production can continue to run as smoothly as possible without risks or interruptions, firefighters are on hand during article changeovers, plant shutdowns and furnace work.
Yet another important aspect of their work is training Vetropack employees on how to react in emergencies: that includes showing them how to extinguish a small fire with a fire extinguisher as well as demonstrating correct behaviour in riskier situations. Every colleague who joins the workforce at Vetropack Straža completes this training.
New building
Thanks to the newly-constructed fire station near the main entrance, the fire brigade team can now respond even faster in case of emergencies. Last winter, the team and their equipment were still spread across three widely separated locations on the factory site. But now, the new premises offer adequate space for the firefighters themselves and their emergency equipment, as well as two workshops for servicing fire extinguishers, a garage for the fire engine, and a small storage room. Every centimetre of the space is put to efficient use.
Incidentally, the Vetropack Straža fire brigade was founded back in 1925, so our firefighters have been standing by to ensure the plant’s safety for almost 100 years!
