One of the leading training facilities for airport safety personnel is in our backyard. Since 1995, the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport’s Fire Training Research Center (FTRC) has provided training toits own aircraft rescue firefighting team and countless private and governmental agencies from around the world. Their aircraft rescue and firefighting teams are renowned for their excellent training and preparedness and have been offering Aircraft Rescue Firefighting (ARFF) and Structural training services in a facility unlike any other in the world. With courses including aircraft and structural fire suppression, incident management, ARFF emergency vehicle operations, and vehicle mass application, students not only gain the necessary knowledge, but also get to practice these techniques in a state‐of‐the‐art training facility.
The facility includes mock‐ups of actual aircraft, or trainers, that are designed to replicate actual conditions firefighters and safety personnel would encounter during an emergency response. In February, DFW Airport is going to pull back the curtains on airport safety when they unveil their latest additions and renovations to the FTRC.
The most unique part of the $29.2 million renovation program, is a mockup of the Airbus A380 aircraft, the world’s largest passenger jet, for live fire training. This mockup, built by local firm FJW Construction, is a shortened version of the double‐deck, wide‐body jetliner, but is otherwise perfectly accurate in its height and access dimensions and multiple access points. It was also designed with three interior sections to provide different levels of internal firefighting: one configured like first/business class, one like economy class and one for cargo simulations. But what makes this mockup so unique is that it can be set on fire with the expanded propane burn pit or with the new 18,000‐square‐foot pit for liquid hydrocarbon fires. Liquid hydrocarbon, which is also referred to as tech fuel, simulates jet fuel in these scenarios. Having the ability to train with both types of fires is crucial because it encompasses many additional scenarios, including those of emergencies due to the presence of fuel oil and other chemicals present in airports.
