Timaru airport fire service “inadequate”

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32461, 23 November 1970, Page 3

Timaru airport fire service “inadequate”

j (From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, Nov. 22. In spite of the “magnificent” response by units from the Timaru Fire Brigade and Pleasant Point Volunteer Fire Brigade, the emergency landing of a Mount Cook Airlines DC3 passenger aircraft at Timaru Airport on Thursday is said to have shown the inadequacy of fire-fight-ing services maintained by the Civil Aviation Administration at the airport, and the urgent need for a firetender. This view, expressed by the chairman of the Timaru Fire Board (Mr D. S. Field), was endorsed by the Chief Fire Officer of the Pleasant Point brigade (Mr G. C. Howey) and the Deputy-Mayor of Timaru (Cr S. R. Bennett), who is a member of the board. Mr Field said that the board was perturbed that an aircraft in distress might land before the arrival of fire-fighting appliances. “Fortunately, in yesterday’s case, the unit from Timaru reached the airfield before the DC3 landed, but this

supports the feelings of the board, expressed some time ago, that we were concerned at the withdrawal by the Department of Civil Aviation of the fire-tender, and the. possible lowering of fire-fighting standards at the airport,” Mr Field said. It was imperative that there should be a follow-up to the present rescue vehicle and trailer containing dry powder, maintained by the C.A.A. at the airport, asserted Mr Howey. An improvement in fire-fighting services at the airport was necessary. Policy “Unfathomable” “We were alarmed when the fire appliance at the airport was removed, and at a loss to understand Government policy in the matter,” said Mr Howey. The Pleasant Point brigade had received Thursday’s call at 10.19 a.m., he said, and was on the landing field at Levels at 10.35 a.m. Its tanker had about six miles to cover, compared with five miles completed in llmin by the unit from Timaru, which reached the airport about two minutes before the aircraft 1 landed. •