United States Air Force in England

[CFD Adv207]

Great photos! What was the staffing like? In the video it looked like the tanker and older 4x4 KME had a driver only.

[hank]

Good photos, Andy!

tHANKs

[Guest]

Very interesting to see American rigs in service across the pond.  Got some questions, hope you can answer them.  First, do the USAF firefighters run any off base mutual aid with the local departments or visa versa, do the local companies assist the base FD?  What is the working relationship of the two if they do.  Another question is are the rigs equipped with British style hose or is it all American style?

[Guest]

Great photos! What was the staffing like? In the video it looked like the tanker and older 4x4 KME had a driver only.

 

At this base they operated 12 guys on duty but I have to confess to you - the video was a staged response for our benefit so not all the guys jumped on the rigs!

[Guest]

Very interesting to see American rigs in service across the pond.  Got some questions, hope you can answer them.  First, do the USAF firefighters run any off base mutual aid with the local departments or visa versa, do the local companies assist the base FD?  What is the working relationship of the two if they do.  Another question is are the rigs equipped with British style hose or is it all American style?

 

Thanks for your questions, Ok - the USAF will very occasionally run a mutual aid with the local departments, but this will only be for the Water Tanker and only when it has been specifically requested. The area around the bases is very rural and therefore water supplies is extremely limited, even so - the local departments can normally cope well, its just during busy periods such as hot weather that they will ask for help.

As for vice-versa, responses such as AFA's on base will not require a local department attendance, likewise an aircraft alert will be dealt with by the USAF. However any building fire response will get units from the local departments sent out automatically.

 

The working relationship is excellent, I found 80% of the crews are USAF personnel, with the rest being British Firefighters employed by the RAF, these guys often are employed as 'retained' crews (volunteers) in outside local departments. From my own viewpoint, both sets of guys are real tight.

 

Finally, all apparatus carry both sets of UK and USA couplings and fittings so no issues arise.

[madmax1964uk]

Andy

 

We use RAF Croughton which is a US Air Force base manned mainly by Brits they turn out through a Mutual Aid agreement with Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service ....

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[Image7801]

Great photos, Andy.  I noticed that the newer rigs have all blue warning lights (i.e. as the UK fire service uses), but the older ones have either red or red/blue.  Interesting that they don't match the UK standard.

[hfd556]

Great shots! My uncle was stationed at  RAF Lakenheath back in the 1980's.