Firefighters Train At London Luton Airport

Firefighters from Bedford Community fire Station’s Blue Watch and On-call firefighters from the station visited London Luton Airport (LLA) on Saturday 25 November for a training session using the foam gear to assess the environmental impact of the AR-FFP foam.

Watch Commander John Wilmans explains what they did: “We wanted to gain further experience in using foam to combat diesel fires.

“The Airport Fire Service did a fantastic job in helping us out and we used the foam branch and the inline inductor, along with some expired foam solution and got a chance to practice putting out live diesel fuel fires. We also used the gas rig to practice using the foam to create a safe area and keep the flames away from the aircraft. We got a lot of input from their crew manager on using foam and will be returning in the future to do more training there.

“We also had the opportunity, following the foam exercise, to practice a search and rescue exercise inside their training fuselage. In case of a large aircraft incident, London Luton Airport firefighters would be working almost exclusively outside the fuselage and we would be responsible for search and rescue from the aircraft itself. It is therefore very important for us to practice this. It was a unique challenge for us due to the limited space inside the training plane with all the seats making manoeuvring ourselves in our breathing apparatus sets quite challenging.

“All in all it was a challenging and stimulating training session, something out of the ordinary for us but something we need to be prepared for. I’d like to thank London Luton Airport for all their assistance.”

Paul Allen LLA’s Head of Fire Service, says: “We enjoy a strong relationship with our colleagues at Bedfordshire Fire & Rescue Service. Together we need to ensure that we can respond to any eventuality and training such as this is a vital part of that. More and more local fire services are taking advantage of our expertise”.