MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College will be hosting firefighters from throughout the Pacific Northwest at the spring session of the Aircraft Rescue Firefighting Program beginning May 1. College officials said that means people will be seeing smoke, sometimes a big black plume of it, from the area west of the Grant County International Airport.  

Tiffany Fondren, BBCC communications coordinator, said the program combines classroom instruction with training exercises.  

“Firefighting agencies will contract with the program to certify and re-certify,” Fondren said.  

The facility has onsite simulators that allow firefighters to experience conditions that are as close to a genuine emergency as possible, she said. The passenger jet shell can be configured to reflect the chaos that would follow a crash and filled with smoke to make it even more challenging. 

Fuselage sections with doors can be set up to give firefighters experience getting damaged doors open. A fuselage section can be set aflame to mimic an engine fire.  

“It’s basically very realistic, even though it’s a controlled experience,” Fondren said. 

Firefighters will be training through May 29, she said, and in previous springs, people have seen the smoke and thought it was a fire at the GCIA or a wildfire in the area. During May, however, it’s likely it will actually be firefighting crews in training, she said.