Photo By Daniel Malta | The P-19 fire trucks hold 1,000 gallons of water. Every morning Cpl. Jeff Lee, P-19...... read more read more
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YUMA, Ariz. -- In the event of an accident on the flight line, Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting is ready to respond.
In order for them to stay ready, these Marines are on watch 24-hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
During a shift at ARFF, Marines sleep, eat and work for several days at a time without returning home. The Marines live at ARFF for 2 and 5 day increments to ensure mission readiness.
Each morning, these Marines check every single piece of gear in their arsenal for any discrepancies. Everything from the fire hose pressure on the P-19 trucks to the amount of fuel in the chain saws is checked.
By 7:30 a.m., three Marines and a fire truck must be on the flight line ready for quick response. Within two minutes, these Marines can be on any part of the flight line, completely suited up.
To ensure their two minute response time, the Marines constantly practice bunker drills. The drill consists of getting into their firefighting equipment within one minute and 30 seconds, most of which is done inside the vehicle.
This kind of training is only the tip of the iceberg for ARFF Marines.
“Whether it be learning the knowledge we have in our library or training our muscle memory doing bunker drills and training done at the “pit” where we have a harrier, CH-53 and other vehicles where we practice extraction drills, we are always training on our down time,” said Cpl. Jeff Lee, P-19 crew chief. “You’ll never know everything about this job, because there is so many aircraft to learn about and different situations we can find ourselves in.”
The minimum requirements for anyone working at ARFF are firefighting, Hazardous materials awareness, aircraft rescue firefighting, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first responder.
“We need to be able to adapt to every situation, so these minimum requirements are just a starting point for us,” said Lee.
These Marines are working 365 days a year, pushing through long hours and constantly learning as much as possible to ensure the flight line and its aircraft are always safe.
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2011 11:25 |
| Story ID: | 80178 |
| Location: | YUMA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 72 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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