Firefighters

Contingency planning had made it possible for firefighters to respond effectively to the accident. When the alarm sounded, Pope Air Force Base firefighters were at the crash within two minutes and were battling fires within three. Fort Bragg and Cumberland County firefighters arrived at Pope's fire station within six to fifteen minutes.

A new mutual aid program, devised by the military and civilian fire chiefs, helped the fire departments to respond quickly and competently. After the Pope dispatcher called the county dispatcher, requesting units from five specific fire departments and their equipment, the latter, "with the flick of a few switches, . . . sent out the five calls.

It really cut down on the time the dispatcher needs to spend on the phone with us, which makes the whole process go faster," recalled Capt. Chris Dowless of the Cumberland County Emergency Operations Center. The Fort Bragg garrison also had the same type of plan with the county fire departments.[27]

Since military and civilian firefighters used similar appliances, the firemen could hook up to each other's systems and work together. Fort Bragg's Ladder 10 linked hoses with a fire truck from Spring Lake Fire Department; together they poured foam and water on the C-141 to keep its fuselage from igniting. Within twenty minutes the aircraft was under control.

To prevent the second C-141 from catching on fire, maintenance crews rapidly towed the Starlifter about 300 yards away. Other fire engines put out spot fires on trees, the ground, rucksacks, equipment, debris, buildings, a food vendor truck, and even casualties. The combined efforts of five fire trucks succeeded in extinguishing the flames within fifty minutes of the crash.[28]

When the fires were out, the firefighters searched for the F-16's tank of hydrazine, a chemical used for emergency engine restarting "because even a whiff of it [was] fatal." A small amount of hydrazine had leaked from the fighter's emergency power unit, which later was found near the center of the disaster site.[29]

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