Firemen without borders



Fire knows no borders and neither should the tools for fighting it. It was with this aim in mind that delegates from 14 different countries came to CERN at the beginning of April to take part in the twentieth of a series of twice-yearly international conferences organised by the Federation of European Union Fire Officer Associations (FEU).

This latest conference allowed participants to keep abreast of new developments with a view to improving the safety techniques used in their own countries. The first in the series was held in Tampere, Finland, in 1994.

The FEU network's objective is to harmonise safety policies and modernise the fire-fighting programme. In particular, it aims to develop an international system for testing hotels' fire alarm systems and to improve language learning in all countries' fire-fighting services. "We want authorities throughout Europe to be aware of the importance of a good joint fire-prevention policy in order to avoid catastrophes such as the fire that destroyed Madrid's Windsor Building", underlined Ernst-Peter Döbbeling, Leader of the CERN's Fire Brigade Group.

During the weekend, conference delegates had the opportunity to visit the Globe and some of CERN's technical installations. The organisers have planned another conference in Dublin (Ireland) in September.