Airport Rescue and Firefighting Services in the United Kingdom
Encyclopedia
The provision of Rescue and Firefighting Services at all airports and aerodromes in the United Kingdom
is a requirement under British Law and International agreements set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization
.
In the UK Airport Fire Services are usually referred to as "Rescue and Firefighting Services" in contrast to the term "Fire and Rescue Service" (FRS) used by Local Authority Fire Service
's.
This also applies to any other incident where life and property can be saved.
Airports in the UK are categorised from 1 to 10 dependent on the type and size of aircraft they handle.
A category 10 airport caters for the biggest aircraft, namely the Airbus A380
, and therefore requires extensive rescue and firefighting cover as determined by the Civil Aviation Authority.
Often the RFFS will also be responsible for providing medical cover at the airport. The majority of UK Airport Firefighters are trained to Emergency Medical Technician status.
All incidents that occur outside of the airport boundary are the responsibility of the local authority fire and rescue service serving that location.
Whilst local authority FRS firefighters are trained to deal with aircraft accidents they do not receive the same level of training as Airport Firefighters whose expertise are more specialist.
Airport Crews do not respond to non aircraft incidents off site, this would leave the airport without fire cover. By law if an airport has no fire cover it has to close its runways to passenger paying aircraft unless in an emergency, when it is at the discreation of the Captain of the Aircraft. This clearly would cause major disruption for air travel and scheduled flights.
or the Senior Airport Fire Officer (SAFO).
Some incidents however wherever possible are passed onto the local authority fire service so that the airport crews can return to give fire cover to the runway.
Large airport fire services such as that based at Heathrow Airport have sufficient personnel and vehicles to deal with most emergencies on site, although the LAFRS are called to most incidents as support and/or lead agency.
When an airport is located near a body of water such as a river, the airport fire service will be required to operate a water rescue service. London City Airport FRS, for example, are capable of performing advanced water rescue and is equipped with several rescue craft for dealing with aircraft incidents in the surrounding docklands area.
The fire appliances used by Airport Fire and Rescue Services normally consist of a fleet of large high volume pumping vehicles capable of carrying an enormous amount of foam, or other fire extinguishing media and equipment on bulk, and then applying it under massive pressure and volume at the fire scene.
Most airport fire appliances are equipped with a roof-mounted high volume 'monitor' or 'nozzle' which can shoot fire extinguishing media huge distances. This means that an approaching fire appliance can begin tackling flames before it has arrived close to the scene of the fire.
A new type of roof-mounted monitor has been introduced in the UK; commonly known as a 'snozzle', it consists of an extentable boom cabable of reaching the upper decks of the A380 to extinguish fires and is equipped with an infra-red camera, a variable output 'nozzle' and a device resembling a spike that can pierce the fuselage of an aircraft and deliver large amounts of water and foam inside the aircraft. This makes airport firefighting safer as firefighters do not need to set foot inside the aircraft to extinguish fires, as they can do it from the safety of their fire appliance using the snozzle.
Because of their sheer size, airport fire appliances require powerful engines to propel them. In fact by law the airport fire appliances should be capable of reaching any incident within the airport (including the predetermined boundaries outside of the airport) within a set time of three minutes (as set by the CAA).
Augmenting the capability of the huge fire appliances are vehicles known as either first attack/first strike or Rapid Intervention vehicles.
They are capable of arriving at the scene of an incident much quicker to begin rescue or firefighting operations. Such appliances vary from small Range Rover-based fire appliances, to much larger truck-based pumps.
In larger airports the rapid intervention vehicles and high volume pumping appliance (volumes up to 5000 litre/minute) are supported by "domestic" type fire appliances similar to those used by the local authority FRS.
They are mainly used to respond to emergencies within the buildings around the airport, but also assist at aircraft incidents.
A typical category 10 airport, in this case London Heathrow, operates out of two fire stations (located in the east and west of the airport) in order to achieve the three minute response time to any location within the airport boundary. Each station operates a Scania domestic pump, two six-wheel-drive major foam tenders and a similar but smaller four-wheel-drive light foam tender. The heathrow FRS also operates two Mitsubishi Shogun command vehicles out of the main fire station, a Scania hose-layer, several auxiliary vehicles (such as a personnel carrier) along with a couple of reserve foam tenders and, to suit category 10 requirements, a Scania 42m aerial ladder platform to reach the upper deck of the A380.
Airport fire fighters specialise in dealing with complex fires and rescues from aircraft . A great deal of their daily routine is spent training and drilling for such eventualities.
Unlike their local authority counterparts Airport Firefighters have to re-qualify every four years to be deemed a competent.
There are many reasons for this.
Firstly Airport firefighters, due to the geographical size of the area they cover, do not respond to as many incidents as Local Authority Firefighters.
The four yearly requalfication policy acts to ensure continued competency in certain areas of the role in which they perform.
Conversely Local Authority firefighter can demonstrate continued competency generally by the amount of calls they deal with each year.
Most airport firefighters are also trained Emergency Medical Technicians to render medical care and first aid within the airport.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
is a requirement under British Law and International agreements set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization , pronounced , , is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth...
.
In the UK Airport Fire Services are usually referred to as "Rescue and Firefighting Services" in contrast to the term "Fire and Rescue Service" (FRS) used by Local Authority Fire Service
Local Authority Fire Service
In the United Kingdom the terms Local Authority Fire and Rescue Service, County Fire & Rescue Service or Public Fire and Rescue Service refer to a fire and rescue service provided and operated by a county or metropolitan council to serve the public in an emergency...
's.
Role of Airport Fire Services
The principle objective of an airport fire and rescue service is "to save lives in the event of an aircraft accident or incident".This also applies to any other incident where life and property can be saved.
Levels of fire cover
The number and type of firefighting appliances based at an airport will be determined by the airport's category and task and resource analysis (TRA).Airports in the UK are categorised from 1 to 10 dependent on the type and size of aircraft they handle.
A category 10 airport caters for the biggest aircraft, namely the Airbus A380
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Due to its size, many airports had to modify and improve facilities to accommodate it...
, and therefore requires extensive rescue and firefighting cover as determined by the Civil Aviation Authority.
Often the RFFS will also be responsible for providing medical cover at the airport. The majority of UK Airport Firefighters are trained to Emergency Medical Technician status.
Levels of response
The Airport RFFS will respond to all Aircraft Emergencies within the airport's boundaries and will also respond to 'off airport' incidents that fall within a 6 degree cone from the end of each runway. If though a special request has been made by the local authority, then dependent on circumstances, major foam tender/s may be dipatched.All incidents that occur outside of the airport boundary are the responsibility of the local authority fire and rescue service serving that location.
Whilst local authority FRS firefighters are trained to deal with aircraft accidents they do not receive the same level of training as Airport Firefighters whose expertise are more specialist.
Airport Crews do not respond to non aircraft incidents off site, this would leave the airport without fire cover. By law if an airport has no fire cover it has to close its runways to passenger paying aircraft unless in an emergency, when it is at the discreation of the Captain of the Aircraft. This clearly would cause major disruption for air travel and scheduled flights.
Rank structure
For the most part the RFFS follows the same rank structure of the local authority FRS. Senior Officers however are given slightly different titles. The highest ranking Airport Fire Officer is known as a "AFM" (Airport Fire Manager). Depending on the service the senior officer may also be referred to as the Chief Fire OfficerChief Fire Officer
A Chief Fire Officer or CFO is the highest ranking Officer in the UK Fire & Rescue Service. There are currently 59 Chief Fire Officers serving in the United Kingdom in charge of County Fire Services....
or the Senior Airport Fire Officer (SAFO).
Other incidents
Like any modern FRS, airport crews will deal with road traffic collisions on airport property, as well as chemical spillages, fires/rescues in airport buildings and special service calls on site if resourced with a form of domestic vehicle/facilities.Some incidents however wherever possible are passed onto the local authority fire service so that the airport crews can return to give fire cover to the runway.
Large airport fire services such as that based at Heathrow Airport have sufficient personnel and vehicles to deal with most emergencies on site, although the LAFRS are called to most incidents as support and/or lead agency.
When an airport is located near a body of water such as a river, the airport fire service will be required to operate a water rescue service. London City Airport FRS, for example, are capable of performing advanced water rescue and is equipped with several rescue craft for dealing with aircraft incidents in the surrounding docklands area.
Fire appliances
The number and type of firefighting appliances based at an airport will be determined by the airport's category.[53] Airports in the UK are categorised from 1 to 10 dependant on the type and size of aircraft they handle, so a category 10 airport caters for the biggest aircraft and therefore requires extensive rescue and firefighting cover as determined by the TRA.The fire appliances used by Airport Fire and Rescue Services normally consist of a fleet of large high volume pumping vehicles capable of carrying an enormous amount of foam, or other fire extinguishing media and equipment on bulk, and then applying it under massive pressure and volume at the fire scene.
Most airport fire appliances are equipped with a roof-mounted high volume 'monitor' or 'nozzle' which can shoot fire extinguishing media huge distances. This means that an approaching fire appliance can begin tackling flames before it has arrived close to the scene of the fire.
A new type of roof-mounted monitor has been introduced in the UK; commonly known as a 'snozzle', it consists of an extentable boom cabable of reaching the upper decks of the A380 to extinguish fires and is equipped with an infra-red camera, a variable output 'nozzle' and a device resembling a spike that can pierce the fuselage of an aircraft and deliver large amounts of water and foam inside the aircraft. This makes airport firefighting safer as firefighters do not need to set foot inside the aircraft to extinguish fires, as they can do it from the safety of their fire appliance using the snozzle.
Because of their sheer size, airport fire appliances require powerful engines to propel them. In fact by law the airport fire appliances should be capable of reaching any incident within the airport (including the predetermined boundaries outside of the airport) within a set time of three minutes (as set by the CAA).
Augmenting the capability of the huge fire appliances are vehicles known as either first attack/first strike or Rapid Intervention vehicles.
They are capable of arriving at the scene of an incident much quicker to begin rescue or firefighting operations. Such appliances vary from small Range Rover-based fire appliances, to much larger truck-based pumps.
In larger airports the rapid intervention vehicles and high volume pumping appliance (volumes up to 5000 litre/minute) are supported by "domestic" type fire appliances similar to those used by the local authority FRS.
They are mainly used to respond to emergencies within the buildings around the airport, but also assist at aircraft incidents.
A typical category 10 airport, in this case London Heathrow, operates out of two fire stations (located in the east and west of the airport) in order to achieve the three minute response time to any location within the airport boundary. Each station operates a Scania domestic pump, two six-wheel-drive major foam tenders and a similar but smaller four-wheel-drive light foam tender. The heathrow FRS also operates two Mitsubishi Shogun command vehicles out of the main fire station, a Scania hose-layer, several auxiliary vehicles (such as a personnel carrier) along with a couple of reserve foam tenders and, to suit category 10 requirements, a Scania 42m aerial ladder platform to reach the upper deck of the A380.
Training
ICAO Annex 14, § 9.2.34 directs that: All rescue and fire fighting personnel shall be properly trained to perform their duties in an efficient manner and shall participate in live fire drills commensurate with the types of aircraft and type of rescue and fire fighting equipment in use at the aerodrome, including pressure-fed fuel fires.Airport fire fighters specialise in dealing with complex fires and rescues from aircraft . A great deal of their daily routine is spent training and drilling for such eventualities.
Unlike their local authority counterparts Airport Firefighters have to re-qualify every four years to be deemed a competent.
There are many reasons for this.
Firstly Airport firefighters, due to the geographical size of the area they cover, do not respond to as many incidents as Local Authority Firefighters.
The four yearly requalfication policy acts to ensure continued competency in certain areas of the role in which they perform.
Conversely Local Authority firefighter can demonstrate continued competency generally by the amount of calls they deal with each year.
Most airport firefighters are also trained Emergency Medical Technicians to render medical care and first aid within the airport.
List of Airports that have fire services
- Aberdeen AirportAberdeen AirportAberdeen Airport is an international airport, located at Dyce, a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, approximately northwest of Aberdeen city centre. 2.76 million passengers used Aberdeen Airport in 2010, a reduction of 7.4% compared with 2009, making it the 15th busiest airport in the UK...
- Belfast International AirportBelfast International AirportBelfast International Airport is a major airport located northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was formerly known and is still referred to as Aldergrove Airport, after the village of the same name lying immediately to the west of the airport. Belfast International shares its runways with...
- Birmingham Airport
- Blackpool AirportBlackpool AirportBlackpool International Airport is an international airport on the Fylde coast of Lancashire, England, in the Borough of Fylde, just outside the Borough of Blackpool. It was formerly known as Squires Gate Airport....
- Bournemouth AirportBournemouth AirportBournemouth Airport is an airport located north-northeast of Bournemouth, in southern England...
- Bristol AirportBristol AirportBristol Airport may refer to:* Bristol Airport, serving Bristol, England, United Kingdom ** Bristol Airport , a docu-soap based on events at Bristol Airport...
- Cardiff Airport
- Carlisle Lake District Airport
- Coventry AirportCoventry AirportCoventry Airport is located south southeast of Coventry city centre, in the village of Baginton, Warwickshire, England, and about outside Coventry boundaries...
- Doncaster Airport
- Durham Tees Valley AirportDurham Tees Valley AirportDurham Tees Valley Airport is an international airport in north east England, located southeast of Darlington, about southwest of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. The airport serves County Durham and parts of North Yorkshire, and is in Middleton St George in the borough of Darlington...
- East Midlands Airport
- Edinburgh AirportEdinburgh AirportEdinburgh Airport is located at Turnhouse in the City of Edinburgh, Scotland, and was the busiest airport in Scotland in 2010, handling just under 8.6 million passengers in that year. It was also the sixth busiest airport in the UK by passengers and the fifth busiest by aircraft movements...
- Exeter International Airport Fire and Rescue ServiceExeter International Airport Fire and Rescue ServiceExeter International Airport Fire and Rescue Service is the Fire service for Exeter International Airport, it has three fire engines and two 4x4s. it is backed up by Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. The airport fire service provides a service to Category 7 with Category 9 available on...
- George Best Belfast City AirportGeorge Best Belfast City AirportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport is a single-runway airport in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Situated adjacent to the Port of Belfast it is from Belfast City Centre. It shares the site with the Short Brothers/Bombardier aircraft manufacturing facility...
- Glasgow International AirportGlasgow International AirportGlasgow International Airport is an international airport in Scotland, located west of Glasgow city centre, near the towns of Paisley and Renfrew in Renfrewshire...
- Glasgow Prestwick Airport
- Humberside AirportHumberside Airport-Cargo flights:Icelandair Cargo operate a weekly Sunday flight from Keflavík which then departs to Liege-Passenger statistics:-Bus service:An hourly daytime bus service runs from Grimsby and Hull to the airport from Monday to Saturday.-External links:**...
- Inverness AirportInverness AirportInverness Airport is an international airport situated at Dalcross, north east of the city of Inverness in Highland, Scotland. The airport is the main gateway for travellers to the north of Scotland with a wide range of scheduled services throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, and limited...
- Isle of Man AirportIsle of Man AirportIsle of Man Airport , also known as Ronaldsway Airport and, in Manx, Purt Aer Vannin, is the main civilian airport on the Isle of Man. It is located in the south of the island at Ronaldsway near Castletown, southwest of Douglas, the island's capital. Along with the Isle of Man Sea Terminal, it is...
- Leeds Airport
- Liverpool Airport
- London City AirportLondon City AirportLondon City Airport is a single-runway airport. It principally serves the financial district of London and is located on a former Docklands site, east of the City of London, opposite the London Regatta Centre, in the London Borough of Newham in east London. It was developed by the engineering...
- London Gatwick AirportLondon Gatwick AirportGatwick Airport is located 3.1 miles north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, and south of Central London. Previously known as London Gatwick,In 2010, the name changed from London Gatwick Airport to Gatwick Airport...
- London Heathrow AirportLondon Heathrow AirportLondon Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
- London Luton AirportLondon Luton AirportLondon Luton Airport is an international airport located east of the town centre in the Borough of Luton in Bedfordshire, England and is north of Central London. The airport is from Junction 10a of the M1 motorway...
- London Southend AirportLondon Southend AirportLondon Southend Airport or Southend Airport is a regional airport in the district of Rochford within Essex, England.During the 1960s, Southend was the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom. It remained London's third-busiest airport in terms of passengers handled until the end of the 1970s,...
- London Stansted AirportLondon Stansted Airport-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
- Manchester Airport
- Newcastle AirportNewcastle AirportNewcastle International Airport is located in Woolsington in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, north-west of the city centre. In 2010 it was the 11th busiest airport in the United Kingdom....
- Newquay Cornwall Airport Fire and Rescue ServiceNewquay Cornwall Airport Fire and Rescue ServiceNewquay Cornwall Airport Fire and Rescue Service is the fire service for Newquay Airport, it has three fire engines and a 4x4. It is backed up by Cornwall County Fire Brigade.-Mutual assistance:...
- Norwich International AirportNorwich International AirportNorwich International Airport , also known as Norwich Airport, is an airport in the City of Norwich within Norfolk, England north of the city centre and on the edge of the city's suburbs....
- Oban Airport Fire Service
- Perth Airport
- Southampton AirportSouthampton AirportSouthampton Airport is the 20th largest airport in the UK, located north north-east of Southampton, in the Borough of Eastleigh within Hampshire, England....
- Stornoway AirportStornoway Airport-Other Tenants:* Maritime and Coastguard Agency - 2 Sikorsky S-92 helicopters operated by CHC Helicopter-Accident and incidents:...