five_alarm
06-07-2004, 08:13 AM
VANCOUVER - The smell of smoke aboard a United Airlines flight bound for Chicago didn't turn up a fire on Monday morning, but it did reveal a communication gap that could have had deadly consequences. The gap meant that fire crews from the airport weren't immediately alerted to the potential blaze and didn't arrive at the scene until after trucks from the surrounding neighbourhood were already there. Around 8:30 a.m. Monday, the odour of smoke prompted a United Airlines employee to call 911 from gate 77 at Vancouver International Airport. The plane, an Airbus 320 bound for Chicago, was evacuated. E-Comm, the regional emergency communication centre, fielded the 911 call and contacted Richmond Fire-Rescue, which sent four firehalls worth of firefighting equipment to the scene, including a crew from the nearby Burkeville firehall and Bridgeport firehall. It wasn't until the responding battalion chief radioed ahead to the airport that the airport's own "emergency response specialists" first learned about the incident.
Source: Richmond Review (http://www.firehall.com/refer.php?url=http://www.richmondreview.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=45()cat=23()id=247431()more=&linkid=663&parent=news(headlines)&)
Source: Richmond Review (http://www.firehall.com/refer.php?url=http://www.richmondreview.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=45()cat=23()id=247431()more=&linkid=663&parent=news(headlines)&)