By: Elizabeth Nickerson
February 5, 2013
Tallahassee, FL.--Firefighters from the Tallahassee Fire Department risk their lives battling a blaze on an aircraft and rescuing a passenger. It is play pretend, but it is serious business.
"We practice like we play, this is the exact same thing that we would do," Lieutenant Mike Bellamy, from the Tallahassee Fire Department. "We would bring the same amount of firefighters out here and the units behind us would be the ones responding."
"Live burn drill is what we call it," said Jim Durwin, from Airport Operations. "It is part of the training required each year by the FAA and this gives the firefighters realistic training."
The simulated event is as real as it gets with real fire and real danger.
"We do engine fires," said Allen Fine, a training instructor. "It's anything as close to the real thing that we could simulate."
The goal of the training is to make their response more quicker and safer on the runway.
The exercises will be going on today through tomorrow at the Tallahasssee Regional Airport.
