Arnold AFB Fire and Emergency Services Boost Readiness With Annual Live Fire Training

To help ensure readiness in the event of a fire emergency within the Arnold Air Force Base mission area or a call from a surrounding community requiring their response, Arnold AFB Fire and Emergency Services crews  participated in a pair of live fire training exercises.

Arnold FES firefighters are required to complete live fire training sessions annually in accordance with National Fire Protection Association and Air Force standards. 

This multiday training took place at Arnold AFB, headquarters of Arnold Engineering Development Complex. In early March, Arnold FES crews battled blazes on a simulated aircraft fuselage.

To make the training as realistic as possible, a Mobile Aircraft Fire Trainer, or MAFT, was brought to Arnold from the University of Missouri Fire and Rescue Training Institute. 

This simulator, approximately the size of a C-130 Hercules, is capable of replicating internal and external aircraft fuselage fires. These fires are generated via a propane system. To provide a more authentic firefighting experience, simulated smoke is released throughout the mock fuselage to create a low-visibility environment.

Ignitable pans were also set up at the rear of the MAFT to simulate running fires born from leaked aircraft fuel.

“Our guys get a realistic feel of what it’s like to fight engine fires, battery fires, wheel well fires, running fuel fires, and that’s just on the outside,” Arnold FES Assistant Fire Chief Gary Horn said of the fuselage training. 

“When they go inside, they get to manage fighting cockpit fires, passenger area fires, and they actually have simulated victims inside that they drag out of the aircraft like they’re pulling live people out.

“It’s set up for three different events – either a troop carrier or just a regular fighter jet or a cargo plane, and our guys go in there and put all the fire out using a foam application method.”

Working in teams, crews were able to sharpen skills such as handline firefighting, which is when a hose is utilized to combat fires, and communication as they worked their way through the simulator.

Crews also had the opportunity to hone their prowess with one P-23 and two P-19 “crash trucks,” otherwise known as Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting trucks, in the Arnold FES fleet. High-pressure water can be sprayed from turrets mounted on these vehicles to attack fires. 

During the training, two ARFF trucks were simultaneously deployed to extinguish exterior fires on the rescue and off-rescue side of the fuselage.