Since last summer the TU/e fire service and the regional fire service have been sharing occupancy of the TU/e fire station in the MMP. The benefits are twofold: for TU/e it is increasingly important that a fire service is available after office hours as well as during the day. Just consider the growing number of evening activities, and the two residential towers. As for the regional fire service, since it became a regional organization in 2014 it has been looking for extra sites so it can serve the entire region. The university site has proven very suitable.

The TU/e fire station is not yet ideal for the joint occupancy. The corporate fire department at TU/e consists of fourteen volunteers, all of whom work elsewhere on campus, and three people who are present at the fire station during office hours. The regional fire service is staffed by four people, 24 hours a day.

To date, the employees of the regional fire service have been spending their time after office hours at their base in the street named Deken van Somerenstraat in the center of Eindhoven. They take their fire tanker with them. The vehicle must be housed indoors because it is kept unlocked so that a team can board it quickly. Above all, all exterior equipment must be protected by a closed garage door.

Four beds

The garage door in the MMP is currently not high enough to allow the regional tanker through. This will change next week. In February the MMP will be involved in more extensive renovation works. At this time a residential unit will be place at the side of the building facing the car park. This will contain a lounge and sleeping quarters for four persons. “It is a mobile unit that we can hire for a period of time,” says the fire chief Van der Heijden. “We intend to use it until the end of 2019, after that we plan to provide permanent accommodation."

Van der Heijden says that the joint occupancy and joint training on Monday evening is going well. “For our fire corps it's an opportunity to expand their knowledge and experience, because we are dealing with new situations. Most of our callouts used to involve automatic smoke alarms and accidents with hazardous substances. Now our firefighters have the chance to accompany the Eindhoven firefighters to callouts off campus. For example, we recently assisted where a person was trapped by a motorized scooter." What's more, the TU/e fire service is also getting the chance to practice with equipment such as a cherry picker and other specialist equipment owned by the regional fire service.