Airport Firefighter Training Blackens The Skies

The big black clouds of smoke seen in the sky to the northwest of Casper this morning signaled another round of airport firefighter training exercises.

Casper-Natrona County International Airport Manager, Glen Januska says the airports firefighter training facility will be in operation again next Friday.

"All airports that have commercial service are required to have their aircraft rescue and firefighting personnel go through a live fire, basically put out a live fire, each year.

He says their facility gets a lot of use, not only by regional airports, but by airport fire fighting units from across the country.

"That's scheduled, usually about six or seven burns throughout the year, for training purposes. So we have the one going today and we'll have another one on September 16th."

The Casper facility uses diesel fuel in its training, Januska says, which closely mimics the characteristics of jet fuel making the training more realistic and therefore more desirable and worth the trip to Casper, Wyoming.