Westchester County Airport ARFF

[helicopper 1,050]

I'm 95% sure its 122.95. Been a while since I was at the airport.

122.95 is the unicom frequency for HPN and many others. Listening to that will likely drive you to drink as you hear pilots all over the place asking for weather, active runways, if the restaurant is open, etc. (that's what goes over the unicom frequencies). Airport Ops has it's own frequency (not in the aviation band) and can come up on 46.26 and/or the trunked system as necessary.

In the 20 years that I've been aware of the airport, ARFF has never been run by the County and to my knowledge the County has never sought to take it over. It has always been the responsibility of the contract management company.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

Ok hudson 144, Medic5274, and JBJ 1202 have it all right but as JBJ 1202 said the airport is not our neighbor it is within our districts.

Edited July 29, 2009 by PCFD ENG58

[firecapt32 282]

Maybe hudson or some one can answer this question. Is there a different response for an aircraft emergency's and a reported fire in one of the buildings??

Edited July 29, 2009 by firecapt32

[Goose 188]

Aircraft in distress/reporting mechanical problems gets a pretty large EMS and Fire response. I think structural things are handled by whatever department said building lies in and, i would assume, would be a commercial assignment.

[aviator70 16]

The airport ARFF does not fight structural fires, or do medical calls. A structure fire would be handled by the locality the fire is in. The response in an aircraft emergency, or alert, as they are called, depends on what the airport calls in to 60 Control, which depends on the circumstances of the alert. No call to 60 Control, no outside response, happens more regularly than a call to 60 Control.

[hudson144 150]

Manning at airports- It does amaze me that at airports accross the USA there may be as little as 3 persons working, the objective yes is to apply firefighting agent to the aircraft if a crash does occur but IMO to rely on off site units to respond for rescue it will often be too late depending on the incident.In the mishap in Sioux City IA the Dc 10 that went down did call an in flight emergency well before they crash landed whick allowed the Sioux City FD to stage in safe area's waiting for it to land.The primary FD response was an air guard unit with manpower and ems from the city. In the event of a crash at Westchester the mutual aid plan is set up and hopefully will not needed.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

For a building alarm from any building with in the Port Chester/ Rye Brook responce area ( Town of Rye)which starts at the fuel farm and goes southeast/east back to Lincoln ave ( all of the main terminal area , parking deck, car rental, old tower, hanger A) gets 3 engines 2 trucks 1 heavy rescue of which one engine is career and one truck is career, drop the career truck after 1900 hrs when Rye Brook o/s for the night.

[hudson144 150]

PCFD- will there be a change when the Greenwich station opens near the airfield as far as response assignments?

[mmwolf65 1]

In looking at aerial photos, there seems to be a red tractor trailer parked in what appears to be the Ops/Maintenance area on the north side of the airport. Could this be a water supply tanker?

Edited July 30, 2009 by mmwolf65

[firedude 985]

In looking at aerial photos, there seems to be a red tractor trailer parked in what appears to be the Ops/Maintenance area on the north side of the airport. Could this be a water supply tanker?

I do not believe they own a tanker. Do you have a link to the photo? Thanks to Westchester County, some places are blurred in goolge maps, HPN being one.

[NJMedic 96]

I do not believe they own a tanker. Do you have a link to the photo? Thanks to Westchester County, some places are blurred in goolge maps, HPN being one.

SSSShhhhh! Don't tell anyone but if you go to MSN/Bing Maps you can find the tanker he mentioned.

http://www.bing.com/maps/

[firedude 985]

SSSShhhhh! Don't tell anyone but if you go to MSN/Bing Maps you can find the tanker he mentioned.

http://www.bing.com/maps/

I see it know! Thanks. I do not think it is a supply tanker because it is not registered with WCDES (Click Here)

[bigfitz2004 19]

If people do not know the airport has a staging area which has a building to be use as a command post of the county airport. On MSN and Goggle maps the Staging is not build yet. It is near the New King St. entrance.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

PCFD- will there be a change when the Greenwich station opens near the airfield as far as response assignments?

In 37 years that I have with PCFD we have never had mutal ad with Greenwich and I don't see it coming soon. There East Port station is a few blocks from our downtown and it's like its one hundred miles, plus that is still years away as they shot down the planning stage agian in this year budget.

Edited July 30, 2009 by PCFD ENG58

[TL2L31 8]

In 37 years that I have with PCFD we have never had mutal ad with Greenwich and I don't see it coming soon. There East Port station is a few blocks from our downtown and it's like its one hundred miles, plus that is still years away as they shot down the planning stage agian in this year budget.

Ang, I remember hearing sometime back that if and when the King St station ever opened that they might be included on the second alarm response. They wouldnt be on the initial response because they were not in one of the airports actual fire districts boundaries. Maybe someone else has some up to date news on this.

[PCFD ENG58 1,085]

They are allready on for greater alarms.

[dwcfireman 656]

The crash rescue trucks are staffed by airport operations personnel. The rigs are often driven around the airport as the operations staff attend to their normal responsibilities. The airport has to meet FAA standards which I believe is getting water on a fire at any point of the airfiled within 90 seconds. They are dispatched by the airport on duty operations manager and the air traffic controllers in the tower. The tower I believe has a direct line to 60-Control which is used to request additional assistance from the nighboring departments. Additionally all of the rigs have radios for communication with 60-Control as well. Minimal staffing is one person per apparatus.

This type of response operation is in place all over the country. Most regional airports like Westchester don't have full time 24/7 ARFF personnel waiting for something to happen. The FAA sets the response equirements based on the number of flights and the size of the airplanes that utilize the airport.

To clear up a few items...

Airport Ops/ARFF has 3 minutes to get the first rig to the scene of an incident, 4 minutes for the second truck. Obviously the airfield isn't as large as most commercial airports, and response times on the field are fast. The 60-Control trunk radios in the rigs are the main means of communication with 60-Control, and it is the responsibility of the Duty Supervisor/Chief to hail 60-Control to declare an alert, which activates the airport emergency response plan. The Ops department is notified of emergencies via a few routes: the air traffic control tower has a direct line to the Ops department, pilots can notify Ops via the Unicom frequency or by telephone, or NY TRACON will call Ops via telephone.

As for staffing, HPN has a minimal staffing of 4 firefighters (2 per rig) weekdays 0700-1900, and 3 firefighters during nights and weekends

[dwcfireman 656]

In looking at aerial photos, there seems to be a red tractor trailer parked in what appears to be the Ops/Maintenance area on the north side of the airport. Could this be a water supply tanker?

said tractor trailer is a private contractor for the environmental department. it hauls de-icing fluid.

[IzzyEng4 427]

In 37 years that I have with PCFD we have never had mutal ad with Greenwich and I don't see it coming soon. There East Port station is a few blocks from our downtown and it's like its one hundred miles, plus that is still years away as they shot down the planning stage agian in this year budget.

Remember when those rigs had East Port Chester on them along with Byram??? (Now I'm dating myself)

[Guest]

I worked for Pan Am / Johnson Controls at Bader Field Airport and interviewed for the Operations Manager at West Chester Airport in 1992. Airport Operations was managed by Pan Am Management Systems a division of Pan Am World Services. Pan Am World Services was bought by Johnson Controls. The operated West Chester, Teterboro NJ, Atlantic City International (Terminal Only), and Atlantic City Municipal-Bader Field.

When not responding Operations Officers basically monitored landings. The FBO collected landing fees but this was an audit of them. They performed airfield operations inspections for runway conditions, pavement conditions, and airfield lighting (aeronauticals). They performed airport security checks and responded to all emergencies. All of our officers at Bader Field were former or current fully trained firefighters. ARFF training was conducted in house in accordance with FAR Part 39 requirements.

I was training officer at Bader for about a year. We had initial new hire training, CPR/First Aid certifications (some were state certified EMTs),monthly training including apparatus operations, annual SCBA training (In house we had an empty house trailer we used) , annual pitfires, and bi-annual major exercises involving several departments.

During the end of my tenure we also took over FBO operations so everyone was cross-trained as an Exxon Line Service Technician. I was trained and certified by Exxon as an instructor. All FBO training was conducted in house.

I no longer wanted to be a firefighter who may potentially have AV-Gas all over his clothes and left for greener pastures.