Safe foam in new airport fire truck

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A new firefighting vehicle, fully compliant with regulations around the use of safe firefighting foam, will be installed at Gisborne Airport next week.

Gisborne’s airport was identified as one of several in New Zealand with a fire appliance equipped with a firefighting foam that contains a pollutant the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) last year insisted should no longer be used.

The foam in the current Gisborne Airport fire truck contains PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), which is harmful in the environment and may affect human health.

Gisborne Airport has had a permanent fire rescue truck and emergency response crew on site since April 2017.

“This service is provided by specialist contractors Task Protection Services, who deliver a similar service at several other regional airports,” said Matt Todd, chief executive of Eastland Group, the operators of Gisborne Airport.

“The fire crew at Gisborne Airport have discharged no firefighting foam at Gisborne airport. “It has only been held in stock to be used in an emergency to save lives,” Mr Todd said.

“As soon as we were made aware of the issue with the foam last year, we started working with Task Protection Services, the EPA and CAA to ensure all compliance requirements are met.”

This meant finding a viable alternative firefighting foam that was effective and able to be used with specialist equipment.

Mr Todd said the issue had now been resolved.

“On Wednesday next week Task Protection Services will deliver a new fire truck to Gisborne Airport, which contains fully compliant Solberg foam, to replace the current truck.”

Trials have taken place with alternative foams, with the New Zealand Airports Association, which Gisborne Airport was a part of, working on a national collaborative response to the issue.

The EPA allowed airports using PFOS, like Gisborne, to continue to have it available for use for emergencies, in the interests of safety, until an alternative was sourced.