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Kelowna International Airport practises fire protection

Fire crews put out smoking plane in a simulation as part of Airport Safety Week

Airport safety week wrapped up at the Kelowna International Airport Friday with foreign object debris safety.

Throughout the week, 29 airports across Canada participated in security, airside, hazard reporting, worker and fire safety practices.

READ MORE: Kelowna International Airport participates in Canadian Airport Safety Week

Chief of firefighting operations Daryl Belgrove says it is important to have ongoing training to get the teams hands-on experience.

“Aircraft related incidents, we don’t get many of them but you want to be ready if something does happen and you need the team ready to go at all times. Safety is really imperative to us out here and safety week really brings awareness to us and it’s really a prime optic for us in our jobs,” Belgrove said.

Fire crews executed training exercises with an out of commission plane by using a smoke simulator and firefighters extinguished the “fire” just as they would in a real-life situation.

READ MORE: Airport Safety Week wraps up at YLW

“We are fortunate to have a training exercise plane here, what this does is it allows our operators to get water control without using the foam, so they work together with radio communication and we give them different scenarios,” Belgrove said.

Airports Safety Week was first launched in 2015 by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, with 24 participating airports.


@LarynGilmour
laryn.gilmour@blackpress.ca

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Plane landing at the Kelowna Airport (Laryn Gilmour/ Black Press Media)
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Inside of airplane filling with smoke (Laryn Gilmour/ Black Press Media)