NORTH, S.C. — Military aircraft over Orangeburg County is a familiar site, since the Town of North is the site of an airfield used by the U.S. Air Force.
That close proximity has led to a partnership by the military and the North Fire Department to provide advanced aircraft training to firefighters, so that they can help out at the airfield in the event of an emergency.
“It’s a very unique situation for that kind of department, a volunteer department, to receive aircraft training on a large frame air craft," said North fire chief Christopher Livingston.
The department received training on C-17's, Apache, and black hawk helicopters. This kind of training is used to assist the North field fire department with structural fires.
The collaboration also comes in handy for air for air medical evacuations. These kinds of evacuations take place when a patient is injured with a traumatic medical injury and needs to be transported to a hospital via helicopter. First responders at both agencies work together to coordinate a safe landing zone near the airfield.
“This is an airfield and anything that flies near the pattern and if they have any type of emergency, they can easily utilize this as a place to come down for safety and we’re here to help whoever is here," said fire captain of the Charleston Joint Base Charleston Fire Department Chris Lilkendy.
The air force is looking to offer similar training to other departments throughout the Orangeburg County Rural Fire District in February.