A history of Duxford Airfield RFFS

2014 - Present Duxford Airfield R.F.F.S. today is far smaller in terms of manpower and vehicles than during the DAS Fire Services glory days, but in other respects it is stronger than ever, especially in terms of capability of the current vehicle fleet, training resources and specialist equipment. From April 2014 the service has been split into two separate watches, working a 5 day on, 5 off shift pattern, with 13 staff including the Senior Airfield Fire Officer Normal Complement on each watch is 1 x Watch Commander, 1 x Crew Commander and 4 x firefighters From 2015 the service started to replace its existing vehicles, these were replaced with vehicles leased from Terberg - 2 x Isuzu Dmax based ‘TACR3’ RIVs (Rapid Intervention Vehicles) a Carmichael Scania Viper 4x4 Foam tender and between the beginnning of April and end of September each year - a Carmichael Cobra 1 6x6 Major Foam tender for the main flying and air show season In 2016 Duxford gained an award from IFTC Teeside - “2015 Aerodrome of the year” We have an in-house gym and fully qualified fitness instructors in order to comply with the C.A.A.s more stringent fitness requirements. Also on the staff there are 3 Breathing Apparatus Instructor / assessors , 2 I.E.C. Trauma instructor / assessors, an R.T.C. instructor and 3 CAP 699 assessors, enabling us to offer our personnel, and visiting firms or fire services an effective and safe training environment. In 2020 the vehicle fleet underwent a further change - reducing to 1 x TACR 3 (Fire 1) - this is mainly used as a command vehicle by the Senior OFficer Retaining the Scania Viper (Fire 3) and gaining another foam tender (Fire 2) a 4x4 Carmichael Cobra 2. This will be the permanent fleet, enabling us to offer higher category cover all year round .