From Gabbie Costello, Cedar City Offices
CEDAR CITY, UT—The Cedar City Fire Department recently participated in an annual training for Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) at the Cedar City Regional Airport, along with firefighters from St. George, Vernal, and Moab. The annual training is required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for fire departments that oversee commercial flight landings and takeoffs at airports. Cedar City was proud to host this year’s week-long training since many of the props travel nationwide, making the training even more accessible for our local firefighters.
Cedar City Fire Department staffs all commercial flights flying in and out of Cedar City Regional Airport, and this training allows them to be knowledgeable and stand ready should they need to respond. During the training, firefighters can learn from industry professionals and become familiar with aircraft. Live fire is added in with props to provide hands-on scenarios with fire behavior.
“This training is great because we get to put our hands on aircraft we see daily,” said Cedar City Firefighter Chad Barnes. “We talk about ‘throttles, bottles, and batteries’ all the time, and it was good to see that first hand, which we don’t get to do often.
Many of the aircraft used are donated, including a CRJ200 from SkyWest and a helicopter donated by Erickson Inc. Cedar City would like to thank Southern Utah University’s Aviation program and SkyWest Airlines for all their support and participation in this training. With the third busiest commercial Airport in the state, Cedar City takes every precaution to provide guests and residents with the safest experience possible through continuing education and training for Airport staff and first responders.