Preparing for the worst

The new facility was officially launched on April 16 by Anthony Albanese, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. “The role of Airservices’ Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting service is absolutely vital in protecting the travelling public by offering a critical first-response capability to airport emergencies,” Minister Albanese said in a speech at the opening ceremony.

Margaret Staib, chief executive officer of Airservices Australia, stated in her address: “The $22 million state-of-the-art facility is the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and will support Aviation Rescue and Fire Fighting training capabilities and equip our firefighters with the ability required to deal with large, complex airframes.”

With the formalities over, ARFF personnel assembled with their equipment to demonstrate how crews tackle ground fires, which instructors simulate by igniting gas lines under the aircraft mock-up.

A pair of fire trucks responded, sirens wailing. The crews of the Panther Mk8 and Mk7 deployed the vehicles’ monitors, or water cannon, aiming to achieve 90 per cent knockdown of the fire within the first minute of arrival on the scene. The 30-tonne Panther Mk8 carries nearly 9,000 litres of water, which it can deliver in a matter of minutes.

Following initial knockdown, the firefighters disembarked from their trucks to show how they mop up remaining flames using hoses. Having donned their breathing apparatus, they steadily moved in and finally contained the undercarriage fire.

While the ground fire demonstration provided plentiful photo opportunities out in the sunshine, a tour of the aircraft simulator itself offered a sobering glimpse of the nightmare scenarios the firefighters are being trained to deal with. When the thermometer hit 40 degrees earlier in the year, the temperature in the enclosed metallic cabin soared to 80 degrees, and that was before any fires had been lit.

The training aircraft is equipped with three synthetic smoke generators, allowing instructors to create highly realistic conditions for search-and-rescue exercises. The A380 section has three representative decks so that firefighters can roam from the cargo hold up to the first-class cabin and into the eerie, windowless cockpit. Rescue dummies trapped on the upper deck even get reclining metal seats and more legroom than their unfortunate counterparts stuck in economy.

Thankfully real-life aviation catastrophes are extremely rare. But ARFF personnel are kept busy responding to a wide variety of incidents at airports, ranging from structural fires to medical emergencies. They also have boats that can provide a waterborne rescue response if needed.

The ARFF service responds to an average of 150 calls a week across the country. The firefighters based at Melbourne Airport have responded to more than 1,400 call-outs over the past 12 months.

“The ARFF service respond to an average 150 calls a week.”

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Peter Smith, who heads up the ARFF training facility, pointed out that the Australian aviation industry has an excellent safety record.

“We are a low-profile service,” he said. “However, there are a lot of activities that go on behind the scenes to have that fantastic record and we are part of that…the profile is deliberately low because we do not want to unnecessarily alarm anyone.”

The Hot Fire Training Ground will not only be used to train new recruits but also to provide enhanced refresher training for all of Airservices’ 740 or so operational firefighters that are stationed at 21 airports around Australia. The plan is for about 250 firefighters to rotate through the training facility every year.

“The range of recruits is very, very diverse,” Smith said. “We used to have ex-military, ex-fire service…but in recent times that has changed. We have a lot of interest coming from females at the moment. [With] the training that we put them through, you do not require a particular background.”

He added that of the current intake of 24 recruits only a handful came from more traditional military or firefighting backgrounds.

Aviation firefighting recruit Matt Tucker has worked as a carpenter and a tour guide on ships visiting Antarctica. The 28-year-old said that when he applied to join the ARFF service last year he was looking for excitement and a new challenge.

Tucker was in Melbourne for an 11-week course. Having completed seven weeks of theory, he was keen to start his practical training on the aircraft simulator the next day. Once their training at the Hot Fire Training Ground is completed, the recruits will disperse and Tucker will return to his base at Hobart Airport.

“We get all our basic training here and then we go back and we do location-specific training and get all the rest of the skills that we need,” he said. “Some of us will be doing marine rescue for the airports that are on the coast…so the next two years is going to be fairly full-on training.”

The training ground at Melbourne Airport is part of a $140 million, five-year scheme to modernise ARFF facilities that also includes the acquisition of shiny new vehicles and refurbishment of Airservices’ fire stations nationwide. But as one onlooker wryly commented, it is typical of trendy Melbourne to install a brand-new A380 with a rusty steel facade.