By Carin Smith.
Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) plans to implement several safety and security measures to prevent the outbreak and spread of grass fires at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
This comes after an incident in September last year when grass fires broke out adjacent to the airport premises during windy and dry conditions and jumped the fence.
Earlier this week, ACSA briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport on the incident.
An investigation could not establish the actual cause of the fire but did identify interventions to improve preventing and dealing with grass fires at the airport.
ACSA explained that, at some point, the wind direction changed rapidly, and the fire started spreading toward a Denel facility outside the airport’s active operational area.
A few of the non-operational aircraft stored at the facility caught fire. Ekurhuleni Emergency Services were delayed, meanwhile, as they had to attend to another emergency. Eventually, the Ekurhuleni Emergency Services and ACSA’s Fire and Rescue Unit brought the fire under control.
No serious injuries were sustained, and neither were there any flight delays or cancellations due to the fire.
Safety steps
After the probe, a number of safety steps were recommended, the committee heard.
Fire protection measures can be improved by establishing fire breaks around the airport perimeter, ACSA said.
It was further recommended a technical fire investigation unit should be established and trained, and fire detection and alert measures should be enhanced.
The emergency call-out and response process should be reviewed and enhanced to ensure swift reaction, including early warnings to other businesses in the area, ACSA added.
Additionally, maintenance of non-operational areas, such as those away from runways and taxiways, needs to be improved, including dealing with illegal dumping. Vegetation and habitat management must be improved, for example, eradicating alien trees growing in the midfield.
Last but not least, security measures such as fencing, physical security, and operational security around the airport will be improved, ACSA said.