So my guess is that the mishap occurred in between scheduled commercial flights.Īs for someone grabbing a fire extinguisher and running out there to put out the fire…with no protective clothing, they risk the chance of becoming a victim themselves, especially if there’s a secondary explosion, not to mention the risk of getting in the way of firefighting vehicles (yes, I know about the trucks running over the Asiana victims, and yes, they screwed up).Īccording to the airport diagram, there is a “Fire Station” located at Z-Z2 on the south side of 08-26. The response requirement time is 3 minutes to the mid-point of the furthest air carrier runway for the first vehicle and 4 minutes for any second and subsequent vehicles. If it’s the latter (and in this case I’m guessing that it is), the firefighters know what the commercial flight schedule is, so they go from their structural station to the ARFF station and man the vehicle to be ready during the 15 minute before/after window. They’ll either 1) train airport employees (airfield maintenance, management, etc – most small airports don’t have an airfield operations staff per se) to perform ARFF duties, or 2) train local municipality structural firefighters at a nearby fire station to do ARFF. The majority of small airports that support commercial air service can’t afford to provide 24/7 on-airport ARFF services, so they can’t provide fire crews specifically designated for the airport. The airport must provide the coverage during air carrier operations, defined as “…the takeoff or landing of an air carrier aircraft and includes the period of time from 15 minutes before until 15 minutes after the takeoff or landing.” Lewiston has arrivals by Skywest (Delta connector) at 0207, 1429, and 1857, and departures at 09. Part 139 does not require 24/7 ARFF coverage. The ARFF vehicle in the video is at least Index B, so the airport exceeds the index requirement. Its ARFF index is A, so it must provide at least one vehicle carrying at least 450 or 500 pounds of dry chemical (depending on the type) and 100 gallons of an AFFF/water mix. Lewiston is an FAR 139 airport, meaning it has an airport operating certificate and can support commercial passenger airline traffic.

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