Fire departments step up cooperation Published July 18, 2014 By John Parker Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, OKla. -- The fire departments for Tinker Air Force Base, Midwest City and Del City recently signed a historic agreement that will allow cross-training and other opportunities to better protect lives and property in emergencies, officials said. Col. Christopher Azzano, 72nd Air Base Wing and Tinker installation commander, said the memorandum of understanding signed June 27 at Tinker Fire Station 1 will ease safety concerns because the departments are enhancing their abilities to respond jointly. "There's going to be that trust there that has to be there - that unspoken trust," the colonel said. "We have a saying in the military that you train like you fight and you fight like you train, and that applies to firefighting as much as it does to going to war." The departments already have mutual aid agreements which are common to adjoining fire services. The new agreement expands cooperation to joint training, mutual ride-alongs and even firefighters doing shifts with each other's departments. "This initially started out to be a chief/officer initiative years ago, and we've expanded that out to our whole department," said Michael Tuley, Fire and Emergency Services assistant chief of training. "In that way, we'll go train with them, respond to emergencies with them and see how they do things." Chief Terry Ford, head of Tinker's Fire and Emergency Services, said Midwest City or Del City firefighters would be the likely first responders if an Air Force plane crashed in their cities. The new agreement will help them better understand Tinker's firefighting specialties, and vice versa. "We want them to understand our aircraft," such as the E-3 AWACS, Chief Ford said. "We want them to understand, 'What is that big thing that turns of top of that? What does it do?' Because it can be a mystery to a municipal firefighter who haven't had any experience with an Air Force asset." Conversely, Del City has an ethanol terminal that Tinker firefighters can learn more about and provide better help if disaster struck, Chief Ford said. "You can never have too many friends when it comes to an event like that," the chief said. Midwest City Mayor Jack Fry and Del City Mayor Brian Linley attended the signing, along with Midwest City fire Chief Jarett Metheny and Del City Chief Jim Hock. Colonel Azzano and the mayors each noted how the agreement should save money while improving responses to disasters. Each department will pay its own costs for mutual training and other expenses. "There are many times we're stretched pretty thin, so it is a great source of security for us and confidence to know that we can always call on Midwest City and Del City for help if we need it," Colonel Azzano said.