The air traffic guiding principle “safety first” should not only be applied in the air but also on the ground, on the airport where safety and security for the passengers, staff and the infrastructure must be guaranteed.
Safety first
The airport fire department takes over a great deal of this responsibility and their function is specified by international and national directives. The relevant standards, directives and recommendations for the fire brigade worldwide are defined by the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), Annex 14. The ZSV, the civil aviation alarm procedure, defines the realization of the international standards on national basis. On the other hand the ZFBB (civil airport – operating instructions) defines the realization of international and national standards, recommendations and directives at the Salzburg airport. The Salzburg airport fire brigade is equipped with 7 fire trucks with a total of 31.000 litres of water and 4.850 litre/kilos of foam respectively powder. This meets the fire brigade category 9 of the international ICAO requirements.
Training and Organization
The Salzburg fire brigade is staffed with 71 highly-trained fire fighters, off it 5 group leaders are present on a 12 hour shift even if the airport is not in operation. During the regular airport operation time between 6am and 11pm at least one full time fire-fighter and 8 avocational fire-fighters are on duty.
Members of the operations and apron staff and the workshops form the team of fire-fighters. New employees of the Salzburg airport, who in the course of their training will also be members of the fire brigade, need basic fire fighting skills and must be holders of a truck driving license. A well founded additional training is provided at the near fire-fighter training center, the airport related training takes place at the Salzburg Airport as well as in Frankfurt at the Lufthansa Emergency training center and at so called Hot Fire Drill's at Vienna Airport. Besides the specialized training in aircraft fuel, aircraft equipment and aircraft handling equipment, one of the top priorities is a profound knowledge in first aid.
In case of emergency three minutes to the runway threshold
Despite of the several job tasks (aircraft handling and workshop), the fire brigade staff meets the required reaction time according to the standards of the ICAO, annex 14, chapter 9, which means 3 minutes after the fire alarm an effective fire attack has to take place. In order to meet the required reaction time efficiency and readiness of the assigned emergency staff and equipment are the most important factors. Fire drills take routinely place where the efficiency of staff and equipment is tested and checked.
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