RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) - They’re training for worst case scenarios.
That's what firefighters were doing out at the Richmond International Airport Friday morning. And they had state officials keeping a close eye on them.
Firefighters were involved in a training exercise under the watchful eye of Virginia Secretary of Public Safety Marla Graff Decker. She was here as part of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s “Virginia Growing Strong” statewide tour.
That training had firefighters simulating putting out a fuel fire on the runway and a jet crash with the jet catching fire. It also involved training to rescue passengers trapped in that plane.
Every passenger airport in Virginia gets this training at least twice a year. Secretary Graff Decker says the technology used in the training makes them ready for the real thing.
“These large scale fires that are created by these planes, they are definitely in harm’s way”, said Graff Decker”, so we, at the extent of the state level and on the community level, we support them. We need to do that. And we thank them for what they do and want to tell them we appreciate what they do.”
Safety experts at the airport tell us this same kind of training helped firefighters put out a fire caused when a cargo plane crashed at RIC on April 11, 2011.
