The V.C. Bird International Airport will soon be outfitted with two additional fire engines so that it “continues to be a tier-one airport in the scheme of things,” – Chief of Staff in the office of the Prime Minister, Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst.
Earlier this week, the Cabinet announced that Ministry of Finance will be financing two used fire engines from the United Kingdom to be stationed at the V.C. Bird International Airport.
And Hurst, at the post-Cabinet press briefing on Thursday, disclosed that three new fire tenders will also be purchased for use around the country.
He said: “They will cost a little more than one million pounds, and again it’s for the purpose of ensuring that we can fight fires, not only in St. John’s, but at our international airport.”
However, Hurst explained that they will be purchased in stages.
“A lot depends on how we pay; and to pay a little more than one million pounds for all of them is quite a challenge, so we are doing it in stages; so the first two will arrive in early January, and these will be used ones. Then there’s a third used one that will arrive maybe in February, and sometime before June or July of 2020 we can expect the three new ones to be supplied,” the Cabinet spokesperson explained.
In addition, the Cabinet notes revealed that the Ministry of Finance entered into a contract with providers to re-supply quantities of foam required for fire engines at the airport.
On Sunday 8th December, firemen from the Airport Fire Brigade responded in quick order to a report that one of Rubis’ pumps had caught fire at the international airport.
Although the firemen took approximately 10 minutes, using foam to extinguish the blaze before it could spread to the main jet-fuel storage tanks, the fire left some damage to a filter vessel of the pump and also slight damage to the number-three pump which sits immediately beside it.