Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 16/00) - With the number of take offs and landings at Iqaluit's airport up by 3,000 from last year, the Nunavut government is working fast to bring back emergency response services.

"Hopefully we will be able to notify the airlines that we will have it available later this month," said the deputy minister of community government and transportation Mike Ferris.

"The airport fire department coming back is a good news story," said Neville Wheaton, Iqaluit fire chief.

"They are better equipped to deal with aircraft emergencies and if they call for back up we'll respond."

Iqaluit previously had an airport fire department, but GNWT funding cuts eliminated it in April 1997. Airport firefighters are trained specifically to deal with aircraft fires.

The territorial government has already hired a fire chief and two firefighters and there are plans to hire two more permanent staff and two trainees.

Michael O'Gorman, the new fire chief, says they are assembling all of the equipment they need.

"We're waiting for the rest of our bunker gear and breathing apparatuses to come in and more chemicals and foam," said O'Gorman, who worked for Arctic Airports for 15 years and was the airport fire chief in Cambridge Bay for a year.

Until the airport fire department is ready to go, however, the Town's fire crews will continue to respond to all airport emergencies.

Wheaton says his staff of 29 full-time and volunteer firefighters will be ready to assist the new department once they are fully operational.

In the past month, the airport fire department responded to two emergencies - a jet skidded off the runway and a smaller plane reported cabin smoke.