Airport Rescue and Firefighting Services in the United Kingdom

The provision of Rescue and Firefighting Services (RFFS) at all airports and aerodromes in the United Kingdom is a requirement under British Law and International agreements set out by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

In the UK Airport Fire Services are usually referred to as "Rescue and Firefighting Services" in contrast to the term "Fire and Rescue Service" (FRS) used by Local Authority Fire Service's.

The principal objective of an airport fire and rescue service is "to save lives in the event of an aircraft accident or incident".

This also applies to any other incident where life and property can be saved.

The number and type of firefighting appliances based at an airport will be determined by the airport's category and task and resource analysis (TRA).

Airports in the UK are categorised from 1 to 10 dependent on the type and size of aircraft they handle.

A category 10 airport caters for the biggest aircraft, namely the Airbus A380, and therefore requires extensive rescue and firefighting cover as determined by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Often the RFFS will also be responsible for providing medical cover at the airport. The majority of UK Airport Firefighters are trained to Emergency Medical Technician status.

The Airport RFFS will respond to all Aircraft Emergencies within the airport's boundaries and will also respond to 'off airport' incidents that fall within a 6 degree cone from the end of each runway. If though a special request has been made by the local authority, then dependent on circumstances, major foam tender/s may be dispatched.

All incidents that occur outside of the airport boundary are the responsibility of the local authority fire and rescue service serving that location.

Whilst local authority FRS firefighters are trained to deal with aircraft accidents they do not receive the same level of training as Airport Firefighters whose expertise are more specialist.

Airport Crews do not respond to non aircraft incidents off site, this would leave the airport without fire cover. By law if an airport has no fire cover it has to close its runways to passenger paying aircraft unless in an emergency, when it is at the discretion of the Captain of the Aircraft. This clearly would cause major disruption for air travel and scheduled flights.

For the most part the RFFS follows the same rank structure of the local authority FRS. Senior Officers however are given slightly different titles. The highest ranking Airport Fire Officer is known as a "AFM" (Airport Fire Manager). Depending on the service the senior officer may also be referred to as the Chief Fire Officer or the Senior Airport Fire Officer (SAFO). There is mainly a five rank structure at the majority of UK airports; AFM - Airport Fire Manager (S)He assumes overall control of the Fire crews/station STM - Station/Watch Manager (S)He assumes control of the daily needs of the station CM - Crew Manager (S)He assumes control of the daily duties & training of the crews CC - Crew Commander (S)He takes the lead roles at an incident BA-ECO and/or BA team leader FF - Fire Fighter (S)He carries out duties as delegated by CM/CC

...
Wikipedia