Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) unit of Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) organised the first of three capacity building programme sessions for stakeholder agencies on Wednesday.
ARFF is organizing these sessions in the run-up to the full-scale aerodrome emergency exercise planned together with District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on May 4.
As many as 21 personnel from Karnataka State Fire and Emergency Services (KSF&ES) led by a district fire officer and seven personnel from State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) attended the first session.
Under this initiative, KSF&ES and SDRF personnel will be familiarised with the topography and layout of the airport, to help them meet any exigency.
The ARFF unit will take the remaining personnel at KSF&ES and SDRF through the familiarisation process in the other sessions planned soon.
The district fire and emergency services and fire departments in other industrial units and SDRF act as first responders in case of any emergency at the airport.
Thus, familiarisation is an important facet for them to function as a cohesive unit.
The ARFF unit at MIA will also conduct a similar capacity building programme for fire and emergency response units of major industries in the vicinity.