WATCH: Students Praise Upgrades at PIT Firefighting Training Center

Firefighting can be intimidating.

“Coming into it I had some nerves,” said Brendan Swafford, an aviation management student who is taking a 40-hour Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) course at Pittsburgh International Airport’s newly upgraded Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Training Center.

“I have zero experience in all of this coming out, but with the Pittsburgh International ARFF team, they have been great. I feel confident in myself now,” he said. “I am surrounded by people with years of experience, great training.”

PIT’s fire training center now features a brand-new wet deck system that was installed in the summer, removing all the old gravel around the simulator that firefighters walk on while training, and all the piping underneath the gravel. Now, shallow water that firefighters can walk on surrounds the simulator.

A wet deck system “floats the propane for the fires up through a pool of water rather than up through a pool of gravel,” said Tim Llewellyn, Deputy Fire Chief.

Bruce Valari works for John Murtha Johnstown- Cambria County Airport and is a volunteer firefighter. He has trained at PIT before and is a big fan of the upgrade.

“We weren’t really able to fully train on a fuel fire or anything on the ground because you don’t want to kick up all the rocks with what you have,” he said. “So, with the wet deck, I feel that you can better simulate ground fires, you can better train on putting them out.”

An upgraded new computer system also allows instructors in the control tower to change fire settings based on what they see during training.

“So, if they need a little more practice, he can flash the fire back to an area, or he can make that fire grow,” Llewellyn said.

The computer system in the control tower also senses where water is being applied and where the extinguishing agent is being directed by the firefighter.

PIT is known globally and throughout the industry for fire training. The infrastructure upgrades allow for continued lifesaving training for firefighters across the world – as well as PIT’s own fire crews.

“I think it’s all around a great experience to learn and to become better firefighters here to better serve our airport and our communities,” said Valari.