Adam Hartman
27 October 2009
WALVIS Bay Airport is set to get a world-class fire station following the announcement of the builder of the facility on October 15 at the harbour town.
The Namibia Airports Company (NAC) awarded Walvis Bay builder Walcon Construction the N$8,3 million contract to construct the fire station at the airport. The agreement between the NAC and Walcon was signed by the NAC's acting CEO, Adv. Matti Asino, and Walcon's Nico Maritz.
Asino said that Walvis Bay Airport is still being upgraded to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft in order to become an international airport. He said the increased capacity of the runway had to be complemented by an adequate aircraft rescue and fire fighting component.
According to him, the airport's aircraft rescue and fire fighting services will allow Walvis Bay Airport to handle a 'Category 10 emergency' as required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the operation of wide-bodied aircraft at an airport.
To contribute to this goal, Government also bought three 'Cobra' fire engines that, according to Asino, complemented the already operational - but smaller - 'Titan E-One' fire engine.
Once completed, by August next year, the new fire station will be equipped with a facility that will cater for vehicle and staff accommodation, to the required international standard. It will also have a properly equipped emergency control centre, which will also double as a lecture room for the fire brigade.
According to Conrad Scheffer, of Bob Mould Architects, who designed the fire station, this will be the first airport fire station in Namibia that has been designed according to ICAO standards. Not even Hosea Kutako meets these standards.
"This is because this is the first fire station that includes everything expected from ICAO from the design phase," he said.
Walvis Bay Airport Manager, Dirk Booysen, told The Namibian that the fire station will be in service "24/7", and that about 30 fire officers will be stationed there in shifts.
According to Booysen, there are no records of a crash - or injuries - at the airport since its commissioning in the early 1960s.
He said that in the event of an actual emergency, civil defense, which will include the municipal fire brigade, will assist the airport fire fighters.
The municipal fire brigade is however only trained to handle building fires, and will therefore only deal with ground fires, while airport fire staff are trained in "aircraft specific fires".
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