Today is the 2nd out of 3 possible consecutive shifts for myself out here at Station 2. Considering we're doing a full 24 hour shift out here versus opening the station at 1600 in the afternoon, I spent most of the day getting my crew and one of our new Lieutenants oriented to operations here at the ski field. Fire and Rescue and Crash/Rescue operations out here can prove to be pretty complex between the military's requirements of us, our staffing, our equipment (or lack there off), and what we're responsible for. To elaborate, the United States Air Force and the Air National Guard with the aircraft they have residing here at the airfield require 6 people minimum and a certain amount of foam available for use within 2 minutes which means there are 6 people at station 2 24/7 throughout the duration of the military's presence. With the tracked vehicles we have, the agent (Compressed Air Foam and thousands of pounds of Purple K dry powder), we can take care of most aircraft emergencies. As far as structural fires are concerned here out at the airfield, we have to use equipment designed for cold-weather aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) to the best of our (and the equipment's) ability. We're also responsible for emergency medical services (EMS) out here on the airfield and most of the snow and ice roads that lead out to here, Williams Ski Field, from McMurdo Station. Both responsibilities drop our staffing if not completely take it away from our primary reason for being out here which is ARFF. Luckily, our call volume out here rarely crests 20 for the entire Austral Summer season. Anyways, today was spent familiarizing the crew with our various vehicles, the runway and ramp layout, emergency hard stand locations, airfield operations and procedures, and the "ice town" layout. Now, being 2000 hrs, we sit back watch movies and enjoy each other. Stay safe out there...
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