Gavin Daniel spends most of his days fighting fires, but early morning on Jan. 31, he stood in a control room, pushed a few buttons and watched an airplane go up in flames.
“We simulate different fires and conditions for training purposes,” Daniel, the Lubbock Fire Department airport shift captain, said. “Our fire rescue crews usually put each fire out in around 30 seconds.”
Daniel said airports must provide aircraft rescue and firefighting services twice each year during air carrier operations in order to meet federal regulations. The Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport is one of only four locations in the nation that has top-of-the-line training equipment, he said.
“We consider ourselves very lucky,” Daniel said. “I am very proud of the facility we have out here.”
The shift captain sets several areas of the prop aircraft on fire to train rescue crews how to respond to rare, but high-risk, situations.
“Fuel fires are the hardest to control,” Daniel said, “so that was our primary focus with Friday’s training.”
Daniel said fire rescue crews from Station 11, the station in charge of aircraft fire control, trained for nearly four hours while wearing 50 extra pounds of protective gear and equipment.
Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Rob Keinast said federal law requires rescue crews to wear special protective gear when dealing with fuel fires.
Keinast said the live fire training produces flames and smoke that are visible from the communities surrounding the airport.
“The last time we did a live burn,” Keinast said, “we received calls about flames all the way from Slide and The Loop.”
Keinast said Station 11 fire rescue crews do live fire training every couple of months even though aircraft firefighting service laws only require two live burns a year.
“We don’t skimp on their training out here,” Keinast said. “Our facility is specialized to help them learn.”
Keinast, who received his aircraft training in the military, said the basic, structural firefighting certification does not cover airport fire control.
“When they come out here for the first time,” Keinast said, “aircraft fire rescue is totally foreign to most of them.”
The battalion chief said Station 11 rescue crews had to put their training skills to use last month when two small air carriers crashed back to back at the Lubbock airport.
“Of course you hope nothing tragic ever happens,” Keinast said. “But we do our best to train our men properly just in case a crisis does occur.”
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