Cardiff Airport today introduced its 3 brand new fire engines to the world today and Aviation Wales were on hand to find out all there is to know about Merlin, Y Draig Coch and Firefly.
The 3 brand new state of the art Oshkosh Striker 6×6 Fire Vehicles were on hand to put on a display at the launch event today, also on hand were pupils from Rhws Primary School who chose the names for the 3 vehicles.
Following a 12 week intensive training course, the 3 vehicles put on a show of their capabilities including the use of the “Snozzle”, a high reach extending turret which has the ability to pierce an aircrafts fuselage to provide fire suppression within the cabin. Each vehicle can carry 12,000 litres of water and 1,600 litres of foam.
The purchase of the vehicles was carried out by Cardiff Airport Fire Service with the vehicles being supplied by Terberg DTS, the official UK supplier of Oshkosh. Terberg DTS will also be carrying out support and maintenance of the vehicles.
Talking about the new vehicles, Cardiff Airport Managing Director Debra Barber said “The fire and rescue service is a critical part of our operation, and so we wanted to ensure that the new appliances would be completely future proofed and a solid investment for the Airport”.
Children at Rhws Primary School took part in a competition earlier this year to name the new vehicles with the theme being “Welsh Icons”. The 3 winning names chosen were Firefly (No1) suggested by Matthew Sims, Y Draig Coch (No2) suggested by Taryn Trickett and Merlin (No3) suggested by Elinor Minchinton .
Kelly Toshack, Deputy Headteacher of Rhws Primary School, commented: “The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the assembly the fire crew delivered which introduced the competition. It provided them with a real opportunity to learn more about fire safety and get creative by thinking and researching Welsh history, famous Welsh people and celtic icons. This helped them choose the new names for the fire vehicles. ”
Each winning child was presented with a scale model of the 6×6 Striker fire engine by Jim Johnson, Executive VP, Fire and Emergency Division, OshKosh Corporation.
Would like to say thanks to the fire crew at Cardiff Airport Easter Monday for making my granddaughters and little boys day by putting your jights and siren on. From your new engine at 19.10