Bern professional fire service: a happy customer in Switzerland

The professional fire service in the Swiss capital of Bern is influential among fire services across the country's cantons. The first watchman was hired in 1908. That was the beginning of Bern fire service. Since then, a lot has changed. To start with, you would hear someone shouting, ‘Fire!’ in the local dialect and that was how the alarm was raised. These days, people simple call ‘118’ and powerful machinery is set in motion. Part of that is invisible, but all the more important for it – the latest technology in the respiratory protective equipment workshop. ‘We discovered the MEIKO TopClean M on a web search,’ says Markus Kummer. He is one of six respiratory protective equipment technicians here cleaning around 400 masks. That is carried out using mask cleaning equipment from MEIKO, which was specially designed for use in respiratory protective equipment workshops.

‘The TopClean M fitted perfectly into our workshop with our equipment and it is also ideal in terms of performance and how it fulfils our needs,

Before the machine started running at the start of 2019, BA masks and regulators were cleaned by hand in Bern. The change makes work easier for the respiratory protective equipment technicians and the firefighters benefit from guaranteed improved safety.

‘We give the masks a quick clean beforehand out in the area where we wash the fire engines,'

explains Markus Kummer. The respiratory protective equipment is then taken to the dirty area of the workshop. Here, like in many other respiratory protective equipment workshops, the TopClean M cleaning and disinfection machine for respiratory protective equipment divides the dirty and clean areas of the workshop. Once all the masks and regulators are hygienically clean, they are placed in plastic bags until they are needed again.