What are the state-of-the-art fire trucks what the brand new fire stations have
As part of the modernization and upgrading program of the 14 airports, which is one of the largest investments implemented to date in Greece, the issue of the safety of passengers and airport users is always a top priority.
Launching a series of major investments in the 14 infrastructures during the period 2017 – 2021 with the upgrade program reaching 440 million euros, the cornerstone changes and interventions include, among others, the ground-up construction, extensions and renovations of terminals, runways and modern systems installations, as well as the construction and renovation of fire stations and the supply of state-of-the-art firefighting equipment.
More specifically, in order to enhance flight safety and to comply with the current international and national institutional framework, 15 new state-of-the-art Rosenbauer fire trucks were purchased and delivered, while general repairs were carried out on all pre-existing fire trucks. At the same time, high quality Personal Protective Equipment was procured for all firefighters of the fire brigades. (Helmet, fire uniform, station duty uniform, firefighting boots, firefighting gloves, fire hood).
Furthermore, in this year 2020-2021 the fleet was reinforced with 7 more new state-of-the-art Ziegler fire trucks.
All fire trucks are in accordance with national and international standards for the role of firefighting and rescue on aircraft and can also be used for fire incidents in buildings and airport vehicles as well as for rescue from buildings and vehicles.
Construction of new Fire Stations
During the same period and while the brand new, impressive and fully operational fire trucks were being received, the construction of the new Fire Stations within the airports was being completed. These are 10 new and two reconstructed fire stations that meet the requirements of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and of course the Fire Brigade Category of each airport.
Now, the airports of Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Kos have each acquired a brand new fire station with 8 parking spaces for fire-fighting and other vehicles, while new fire stations with 5 parking spaces for fire-fighting vehicles and other emergency equipment have been constructed at the airports of Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Mytilene, Samos, Mykonos airport, Santorini airport and Skiathos. At Corfu and Kavala airports, the existing fire station was reconstructed. As for the airports of Chania and Aktion, the fire stations, as well as the provision of firefighting services, are being implemented in cooperation with the Air Force.
The fire stations are equipped with all the necessary state-of-the-art systems, such as automatic alarm and direct door opening, loudspeaker systems for information transmission, power and air supply systems for vehicles and exhaust gas extractors. They have vehicle maintenance areas and a water tank area with a pump station to quickly refill vehicles with water in less than 1.5 minutes.
The living needs of firefighters performing 24 shifts are fully met by having an incident management center, training room, day room, offices, gym, locker rooms and dormitories. Finally, the stations are connected to the Control Tower alarm system so that when activated, the doors open automatically in order to require the minimum time to prepare for intervention.
The works at the airports, including the Fire Stations, were completed early next year (2021) and three months ahead of our contractual obligation, so now we can talk about 14 modern and safe airport infrastructures, ready to welcome travellers from all over the world.