On Sunday, November 2nd, 17 members of the Lynbrook Junior Fire Department and their advisors visited one of the two Port Authority Police Department firehouses at JFK airport in order to tour the facility and train on the fire rescue equipment. The Juniors invited their colleagues (11 plus advisors) from the Rockville Centre Junior Fire Department to attend as well. The tour and training were arranged through and led by PAPD Officer Michael Hynes, who is an Ex-Chief of the Lynbrook Fire Department and himself a former Junior firefighter.  

Officer Hynes and his colleagues showed the Juniors around the station and described their operating procedures in protecting one of the busiest airports in the world. Several pieces of equipment were pulled onto the firehouse apron for inspection, and the Juniors were allowed to operate one of the turret deluge guns. They were also instructed on the use of a special penetrating nozzle attached to a boom arm controlled by the driver, who can operate with both video and thermal imaging cameras mounted on the boom to locate hot spots and then pierce an aircraft fuselage to extinguish deep-seated fires. The Juniors also viewed the PAPD fire training facility, which included a full scale plane mockup fed with propane-fueled live fire simulations in order to train all members of the force in fire fighting techniques.