An example of a multi-purpose hookloader in operation: H67 at a oil leak scene (H = town or city: Helsinki, 6 = station number: Mellunmäki, 7 = unit type: technical/support unit). The H67 is one of few hookloader units in the Helsinki Rescue Department^[1].

In this event, oil was leaked from a vehicle making roads extremely slippery. Unit H67 spreads sand on the road to increase friction and to absorb the oil. The oily sand can be later brushed with a municipal street brushing machine and treated at an appropriate waste treatment facility. In smaller events, more efficient absorbents are typically used, and they are collected manually with brushes and shovels. However, if the street area to be cleaned is wide (with length of hundreds of yards or even miles), it is very laborious and time-consuming to clean it manually.

The black hydraulic hook system can be seen in the very front-up end of the red sand container. This container has few cubic meters of sand in it. Behind the container there is an adjustable spreader. It is possible to adjust the amount of sand and basically the width to which the sand is spread. Basically the unit can be used to increase friction on icy roads, but the municipalities and road management in Finland are well equipped for road maintenance during wintertime.

This hookloader unit is a heavy one with a quite excellent carrying capacity. The truck is originally designed for military purposes and very able to operate on rough terrains. The unit in the picture is capable to operate, for example, in forest fires, airplane crashes on rough terrain, heavy snow, and seashore. A hookloader can load a container with a hydraulic hook system in just 1 - 2 minutes. The Helsinki Rescue Department has several hookloaders and dozens of various kinds of containers. It would be expensive to built an own truck for each special operation possible. Containers are cheaper. They typically do not carry materials needed in daily operations.

Containers may carry, for example: water (and pump, hoses etc.), oil destruction material, hoses, high power pump, material for international rescue operations, foam, material for forest fires, material for damage prevention in fires, ABC-protection equipment, catastrophe material, maintenance space, command post, field hospital, heavy rescue equipment, high-power generator, material for flood control (sandbags, shovels, plastic liners...) etc. The containers may contain their own in-built power systems to produce electricity. The pump in a water container can be connected to hookloader's power system, and the hookloader/water container -combination works as an ordinary water tender. Hookloader can even unload the container, and leave it alone at the scene. Since the containers and hookloading systems are standardized, practically any hookloader is able to load, carry and unload the containers.

For example, a hookloader unit at station 4 in Käpylä, Helsinki typically carries a hose container with an operational number H47 (H = town or city: Helsinki, 4 = Station number: station located in Käpylä, 7 = technical/support unit. The operational number is used when alarming units and later in radio calls. In 1 – 2 minutes the hose container can be changed to a damage prevention container with an operational number H48 (8 = damage prevention unit).

The damage prevention container has a large set of materials to prevent additional damages caused by water leaked or used in extinguishing, smoke, soot, broken windows and weather, lack of electricity, or lack of warming. This kind of damages are typically met in burned or still burning buildings, when water is used for extinguishing, a pressurized waterline has broken in a building, cases of flood etc. For example, water can be collected, vacuum cleaned and/or pumped, broken windows, valuable machinery and furniture can be covered with plastic liner etc. Very expensive additional damages can be formed, for example, while extinguishing a fire in a large attic of a hundred-year-old house. In old houses structural isolations do not necessarily prevent the draining of extinguishing water to apartments below very well, and extinguishing water can damage structures, furniture, wall and floor materials. Moisture may also lead to growing of mold and decomposing of structures. Use of additional damages in fires is typically prevented by smaller amounts of water used, by controlled use of water and even with tactics called as "controlled burning", if the compartment in fire is already considered to be destroyed by fire, it is well isolated and the fire cannot spread to any other compartments. A fire engine has stuff for damage prevention, too, but the space in a fire engine is typically limited due to the amount of other rescue equipment.

Ich, der Urheberrechtsinhaber dieses Werkes, veröffentliche es als gemeinfrei. Dies gilt weltweit. In manchen Staaten könnte dies rechtlich nicht möglich sein. Sofern dies der Fall ist: Ich gewähre jedem das bedingungslose Recht, dieses Werk für jedweden Zweck zu nutzen, es sei denn, Bedingungen sind gesetzlich erforderlich.