Recently-promoted Leading Fire Fighters of the Anguilla Fire and Rescue Service, Officers Omari Bourne and Kharim Reed, have been highly successful in a Crew Commander Course in the United Kingdom.
The week-long training was followed by a period of attachment at the International Fire Training Centre (IFTC) at Durham Tees Valley Airport in north-east England. The training was for persons who would be in charge of fire-fighting activities in the event of any aircraft or aerodrome emergency.
“With the new Fire Station, and the new fire tenders, I am one of those persons who were very fortunate to benefit from the training,” Omari Bourne told The Anguillian newspaper. “We also did some attachments where we got a behind-the-scenes look at various fire-fighting activities, apart from regular aerodrome fire-fighting, including industrial and offshore fire-fighting, confined spaces and so on. We were able to work closely with the personnel at the International Fire Training Centre.”
“The initial training programme was only for one week – from October 1 to 5 – and then we were engaged in attachments during the following week when we had an opportunity to look at operations. Trust me: The IFTC is the premier fire training centre in the world when it comes to aerodrome fire-fighting. We had persons on the course from India, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Qatar, Ireland as well as two Caribbean counterparts from Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands.”
