Flames, smoke make airport firefighting drills ‘invaluable’

After more than 30 years in firefighter service, Al Fine holds firm to the motto: “You just never know. You have to train for everything.”

After being fire marshal with the Franklin-Bingham Fire Department outside of Detroit, he is now an emergency response trainer. With colleague Gerald “Sarge” Stein, an Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) training coordinator with the Industry Emergency Council (IEC), Fine took local first responders through their paces on Oct. 8 at Buchanan Field as part of several days of required classes and training.

Essential annual training with the IEC mobile unit for local ARFF personnel and their fellow area first responders took place at the Concord airport for the second consecutive year. The mobile trainer, not a real airplane, is designed to simulate an aircraft and fire/rescue scenarios.

Personnel must go through an eight-hour live fire training recertification every year. ARFF personnel at Contra Costa County airports usually do this training offsite.

“This was invaluable,” said Russell Milburn, assistant director of airports/operations at Buchanan. “It is well worth the money.”

Milburn explained that doing the training onsite allows his crew to work with their peers from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, which provides mutual aid. They also get to use their own trucks and equipment, as opposed to packing up their gear and going elsewhere in California or out of state.

“There are new personnel with Contra Costa Fire District who have not trained at the airport,” he added.
Cost of annual training for ARFF is about $25,000. Fine said this first-hand experience allows firefighters to figure out ways to approach different situations and learn what works and what doesn’t.

In addition to fighting a fire around the exterior of the aircraft, firefighters faced hazards inside the mobile unit – where theatrical smoke simulated the confusion they might experience in a real situation.
During the training, Stein adjusted the intensity and variation of fire around the exterior of the aircraft to reflect what firefighters may encounter at any given moment as they work to knock down the flames and quell hot spots.

“You never turn your back on the fire,” he said.

Along with 10 ARFF personnel, members of the county Fire Protection District, county Public Works-Airports Division, county Office of Emergency Services, the Sheriff’s Department and other area agencies brought the number of participants for the classroom and in-field training to about 100 for the week.

The mobile trainer was the first such unit approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1996. Now owned by Belmont-based IEC, it travels to airport locations throughout the United States for training purposes.

A King Air, a small private plane previously donated to the county for such exercises, also was on hand at the airport for personnel to practice extricating trapped and injured occupants.

For more information on the CCFPD visit cccfpd.org