Casper and Natrona County residents may notice columns of heavy black smoke coming from the direction of Casper-Natrona County International Airport on Friday morning.

The airport will host the first of many aircraft rescue firefighting training sessions on Friday, and airport firefighters from across the region will be in attendance. During each training session, several training burns will be conducted.

Airport manager Glenn Januska says there's no immediate threat to public safety or airport operations during the ARFF training. Januska also says there's no immediate reason for the public to be concerned.

"It's actually a good thing, because, not only do our firefighters get to go through (the training), but they're also the ones that teach the classes - there the ones that conduct the burns," Januska said. "We have probably the best-trained firefighters because we have the facility and we're the ones that administer all the training."

Safety officials will conduct the first training burns between 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on Friday. Januska says additional training sessions with burns will be conducted between now and September.

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