BBCC air rescue facility designed to test firefighters

MOSES LAKE — By their very nature emergencies don’t follow the routine script.

Duane Kling, Moses Lake, an instructor for the Air Rescue Firefighter program at Big Bend Community College, used the example of the door on a large commercial aircraft. Those things are meticulously engineered, to the point where a 120-pound flight attendant can open an 800-pound door, he said. But if that plane happens to be involved in an accident, the challenge of opening the door changes completely, not just for crew and passengers inside but also for emergency workers trying to open the door from the outside.

What do fire crews do when an airplane fuel tank ruptures? If the plane is big enough the tank is under pressure, and the fuel sprays from the tank rather than leaking. Different materials require different responses - an aluminum fuselage will burn more quickly than one made of composite materials, but burning composites release potentially harmful smoke.

The ARFF classes are designed to test firefighters with those challenges and more. The program is a partnership between BBCC, the Port of Moses Lake and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Fire departments that need air rescue training have a lot of different options, from a five-day course covering the basics to custom classes designed specifically for that department. On Friday firefighters from Pasco and Lewiston were participating in “recurrent live fire training,” a one-day course required annually by the FAA.

Big Bend has partnered in a training program for more than 40 years, said Beth Laslo of BBCC. Big Bend officials are looking into grants for further expansion.

Instruction depends on the needs of the firefighting agencies. The five-day “initial aircraft rescue” program includes both classroom instruction and drills at the fire training facility, deep in the backyard of the Grant County International Airport. Other classes center around the fire training facility.

An airplane crash will be a pretty chaotic scene, and the facility’s training is designed to reflect that. The interior of an old two-engine jetliner looks like a crash site might look - bodies, luggage, even seats tossed around, wiring and cables torn from the walls. The mock-up can be filled with smoke.

Fuselage sections including the doors are set up in another spot, so firefighters can get some experience with opening that 800-pound door. Manufacturers have donated pieces of the exterior skin, so crews can practice cutting their way into a downed plane. “You’d be surprised what you can do with a hammer and a screwdriver,” Kling said.

The goal is to make sure fire crews can react quickly, because they don’t have much time, said Chris Clark, an ARFF instructor and firefighter with the Port of Seattle. If the plane is constructed of aluminum, “from the time that tone goes off you’ve got three minutes exactly” until the aluminum burns through, he said.

Clark said general aviation airports experience the majority of accidents. But while they’re rare, accidents do happen, and firefighters have to be ready, he said.

The Lewiston and Pasco fire crews were pouring real water on real fires, at the facility’s mock-up of a downed jetliner. The mock-up can be configured in many different ways - with a broken wing and spraying fuel, fire on one side, fire on both sides. The BBCC facility is unusual because it uses diesel fuel for the training - dirty and smelly but closer to real-world conditions than propane, which is more commonly used, said instructor Valorie Tomren, who's with the Pasco Fire Department.

There’s also an obstacle course, where firefighters practice driving the big unwieldy crash trucks in less-than-paved conditions, and training designed of fire department officers.