The smoke coming from the Capitol Region International Airport on Monday was no cause for alarm.
Firefighters from Lansing joined the airport's public safety for a training exercise on how to respond to a fuel fire on the runway. Crews used a propane-fueled simulator to train in a realistic yet safe way. They say this hands-on experience is critical because you can't compare a plane fire to a house fire.
"Aircrafts are completely different than typical structures," explained Wade Boyat, who was leading the training. "The fuel themselves burn at generally around 2,000 degrees. That in and of itself makes it more difficult for us. At the end of the day if you want guys to be good at saving you, they have to understand it, they have to have a sense of what they're doing."
Monday was just a warm-up for Tuesday's training. That's when they'll be joined by firefighters from Delta township, DeWitt and DeWitt Township for a search and rescue drill.
This training is required by the FAA. It did not interfere with airport traffic since firefighters the runway where the exercises were held has not been in use.
