By Tate Papworth
Aviation firefighter Carl Costin is the consummate team man, but last week he was recognised for his individual efforts.
Mr Costin has been named as Airservices Australia’s firefighter of the year.
He was presented with the award at Melbourne Airport (where he’s stationed) during a ceremony last week.
“I’m thrilled to receive the award,” he said.
“It’s funny to be presented with something as an individual when you’re usually working in a team in this environment and I’m proud of the fact I’ve worked with some pretty amazing people.”
As an aviation firefighter, Mr Costin and the team respond to emergencies on and around the airport.
“We run a specialised fleet of vehicles which are primarily focused on that aviation side of firefighting, but we also do the other side of firefighting which includes car crashes, fire alarms, cardiac arrest,” he said.
“Here we respond to about 1800 calls a year – about four a day. Half of those would be medical calls. And the rest are fire alarms, car crashes and things of that nature.
“When we look at an aviation full turnout, that might be once every two weeks, but the vast, vast majority of those are just to standby in case something happens, because there might have been a malfunction of a tiny part of the aircraft.
“Certainly those top-tier events don’t happen very often.”
The award comes after Mr Costin played a role in implementing major changes.
“We shouldn’t just turn up to work and do the bare minimum. It’s been a privilege to change a few things in the service,” he said.
“One of the things we changed was what you might consider a largely corporate-based logo on the vehicles to something that’s recognised a bit more as an emergency service.
“And recently I’ve been part of changes with space methodology and how we work with breathing apparatus.”
Last year Airservices attended nearly 7000 incidents and saved 18 lives.
