Quote: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.
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