Blue lights and orange flames lit up the night sky at RAF Coningsby last week as the Lincolnshire airbase’s Fire Section practised their firefighting skills.
Flight Sergeant ‘Kenny’ Dalgliesh leads the Fire Section at RAF Coningsby, which is part of the Station’s Operations Support Wing. Flight Sergeant Dalgliesh said: “Coningsby is a 24/7 Quick Reaction Alert Station, which means that we have to be a 24/7 Fire Section. That’s our main role, to provide round the clock fire cover for the airfield.”
Setting a disused Typhoon airframe alight wouldn’t be cost effective or practical, so the Station has a mock-up aircraft which is built to repeatedly withstand the intense heat of fire training exercise. The mock-up is designed to help fire crews train for emergencies on different aircraft types, from fighters to airliners.
Like any other training exercise, the firefighters are confronted with a series of different situations (electrical fire, fuel fire, weapons malfunction) each one calling for a specific response – and each response must be practiced until it’s perfect.
AS1 Ed Butcher has been an RAF Firefighter for four years and took part in the recent firefighting exercise. He said: “With any aspect of training you’ve got some adrenaline going, whether you’re wearing breathing apparatus or being the driver. You’re going to be pushing yourself to a high level because every minute counts. When you are fighting the fire and you’ve got the equipment on, you are wearing the apparatus, you are working really hard, but the payoff is massive.”
In addition to their ten weeks basic recruit training, prospective RAF Firefighters will undergo another 14 weeks specialist training. This is followed by a further four months on-the-job training during their first tour.
AS1 Jack Nairn completed his training as an RAF Firefighter in 2023. He said: “Throughout training I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it pushed you physically and mentally, that’s with the practical assessments and the theory test as well. You grow as a Firefighter each week, and you become more confident, each week you take on a new skill, and then the next week you learn something new, so you’re developing as a Firefighter all the time to prepare you for arriving at a Station.”
Military airbase fire engines don’t just look striking; they also carry an impressive payload. An ordinary fire-tender carries between 1500 and 1800 litres of water and 50 litres of foam concentrate, but the military airport vehicles carry 4550 litres of water and 650 litres of foam concentrate. In an emergency, the tanks can be emptied in a matter of minutes.
To help the civilian authorities, the fire crews from the Station could deploy to Coningsby or Tattershall in case of an emergency.
Wing Commander French is the Acting Station Commander at RAF Coningsby and said: “An effective Fire Section is as much a part of a modern military airbase as aircraft and radar; it’s impossible to run an RAF Station without them. As a quick reaction alert station, we rely on our Fire Section twenty-four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.”
It’s not just firefighting; most of an RAF Firefighter’s time is spent in fire prevention. In addition to its airfield responsibilities, the Fire Section also covers the technical buildings and accommodation blocks at RAF Coningsby. Fire training and risk assessments are also part of the section’s day-to-day business; making sure that all RAF Coningsby personnel know what to do in case of a fire, and that buildings meet fire safety regulations.
Wing Commander French concluded: “Not many people know RAF Coningsby as thoroughly as our Fire Section does. It’s their job to understand the fire risks on the Station and how they can be safely managed. And they could go from holding a training session, to tackling an aircraft fire in the next minute. Work of this kind is dangerous, and it takes a focussed mindset to achieve, and we’re extremely fortunate to have a crew like this.”
