Yap Island Hospital, in the Western Pacific Ocean, Installs a New Medical Waste Incinerator

Yap is one of four island states in the Federated States of Micronesia. Yap itself is a small cluster of islands. These beautiful tropical islands are home to roughly 11,000 people and at least as many coconut and papaya trees. This compact island is just 10 miles long by 2- 4 miles wide and is covered in lush, rolling hills surrounded by pristine beaches.

Getting anything to this island paradise is not quick or easy. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, prepare for a leisurely 19-hour flight from Seattle to this cluster of tiny islands. The incinerator traveled by cargo ship but Howard, of Northwest Industrial Equipment, and Todd, from Firelake, flew to Yap to be on-site for the incinerator installation. With layovers in Honolulu and Guam (there are no direct flights to Yap) it was more than full two days of travel.

Reliability, durability, and ease of maintenance are naturally at the top of the priority list when you buy mission-critical equipment to use on a remote island. The hospital administrators knew they could count on a Firelake incinerator. Their new Firelake P-16 incinerator replaced a Firelake P-16 incinerator that had faithfully incinerated all of the hospital’s medical waste for over two decades.

The installation itself was more challenging than most – and it didn’t go according to plan. Firelake incinerators are robust enough to be located in the open air. Many facilities build a small shed for the incinerator. At the Yap hospital, the best location for the incinerator was in the basement of the main three-story building. The crane that was supposed to hoist the 300 lb. sections of the 50-foot stainless steel stack into place never showed up. It was out of commission until repair parts could arrive. Undeterred, ten mighty men, including the hospital maintenance team and a few others, were a perfect demonstration of the Yap motto, “We make do.” Using a block and tackle plus seasoned ingenuity, these men installed the stack through all three floors and out the roof. There were some nail-biting moments – and these men over-came every single one. Their teamwork and ingenuity were truly impressive.

Their new Firelake P-16 incinerator is just as durable and easy to use as their retiring P-16 incinerator, with several modern improvements. The two new features they are most excited about are the new state-of-the-art digital control panel and the stainless steel stack. The new stack will weather the salt air better than the original. The maintenance team breezed through their training on how to operate and maintain their new Firelake P-16 incinerator.

Firelake designed the P16 incinerator for safe, easy operation at small facilities. It includes many features of high-priced incineration systems but is free of needless bells and whistles, so it’s affordable for small facilities.

• Capacity: 400 lbs; volume: 16.5 cu feet
• Efficient: the incinerator transforms 400 lbs of medical waste into less than 10 pounds of sterile, inert ash in under four hours – reducing it by 98%. They can dispose of the ash in their regular waste stream
• Simple: state-of-the-art digital control panel; one click to start the incineration cycle; the incinerator shuts off automatically when it completes the incineration cycle
• Reliable: built-to-last and proven to run reliably every day for over a decade
• Worry-free: easy to maintain by their own maintenance staff with the same tools they use for other hospital maintenance tasks
• Saves money: Firelake incinerators have the lowest cost of operation in the industry
• Clean-running: the incinerator meets or exceeds all applicable air-quality regulations; it emits no visible smell or smoke, so passers-by will never notice it
• Compact: a small 4 ft by 6.5 ft base makes it easy to locate at any facility
• Fuel options: select from diesel (like the Yap hospital), LP, or natural gas

Contact us today to talk with a medical waste incineration specialist about your requirements.