By Hannah Boen
The Abilene Reporter-News
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — It sounds like a disaster — more than 500 gallons of jet fuel propellant caught aflame at Dyess Air Force Base Friday morning. Luckily, it was part of a training exercise and a handful of prepared firefighters were on hand to extinguish the flames.
They were breaking in Dyess’ new fire training facility — a mock-up of a military aircraft that allows firefighters on base to get hands-on experience extinguishing flames.
The $1.2 million facility was complete earlier this summer, but Friday was the first day it was used for training.
Floyd Jones, the deputy fire chief on base, said Dyess is one of the few military bases in the nation that trains with jet fuel propellant known as JP-8, which fuels both the B-1 Bomber and C-130.
Propane is widely used in training exercises on Air Force bases across the nation, but JP-8 has many training advantages.
“If they can’t put out a propane fire, the instructor flips a switch and turns oOE the flames,” Jones said. “With JP-8, there’s no turning it oOE. You have to put it out.”
Several states don’t allow JP-8 to be burned in training for environmental reasons, Jones said, but Texas isn’t one of them.
Dyess takes advantage of that by allowing the fuel to be used in training exercises.
Allowing JP-8 to be used on base not only better prepares military firefighters for a possible emergency on base, but provides a training site for personnel from the Abilene Fire Department and the Abilene Regional Airport.
The fire department on base is made up of 77 firefighters, Jones said. About 20 of them were present at Friday’s training, in addition to six Abilene Fire Department firefighters and nine firefighters from Abilene Regional Airport.
Military firefighters use the training grounds on a quarterly basis, he said. Firefighters from the airport must use the facility once annually to meet Federal Aviation Administration regulations and the Abilene Fire Department attend training exercises as often as possible to learn to deal with JP-8.
Air Force firefighters go through extensive training before they make their way to the Dyess facility, Jones said. Each one goes through a 13-week program to receive training in general firefighting, airport firefighting and hazardous materials operations. The fire department on base is a combination of civilian and military personnel, Jones said. He is civilian, along with 14 of the 77-firefighter crew. However, the fire chief is military and currently deployed.
The Dyess firefighter team is trained not only to put out aircraft fires in Abilene, but to fight fires on deployment.
Every four months there are between six and eight Dyess firefighters deployed, Jones said.
Dyess has a mutual aid agreement with the local airport firefighters and the Abilene Fire Department, Jones said, which makes the shared training facility beneficial.
“We can respond to anything, not just aircraft fires,” he said. “It’s kind of like having an extra fire department close by should an emergency occur.”
The training started with an interior propane explosion in the cockpit, followed by an exterior JP-8 explosion that showed the stark difference in the two fuel types.
The exterior explosion training started with more than 500 gallons of fuel pumped over a pool of water underneath the simulated aircraft.
Once the pool of liquid was ignited, a team of four firefighters waded through the shallow pool to put out the flames.
Six training exercises were conducted Friday, allowing for about 30 firefighters tobetrainedforresponse to an aircraft fire.
About 1,500 gallons of fuel were used for the training, costing about $5,000, Jones said.
A small cost considering his fire department is charged with protecting about $20 billion worth of aircraft on base.
“You can’t get fire insurance for the base,” he said. “So these, guys, this is our insurance.”
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