"The most likely things to happen on an airfield are heavy landings, ground loops etc which hardly require fire cover.
I disagree. Earlier in the years, I had the misfortune to be standing next to an aircraft incident which did require the RFFS at Headcorn. A DHC-2 crashed into a parked museum aircraft and the pilot was trapped, and later died from his injuries. The airfield fire section were on scene within seconds and provided a superb service until the full time local Fire Brigade arrived and could back them up.
yes, an awful lot of time is spent hanging around, but when you need them, you
definitely need them. Dont forget that an airfield fire service doesn't just deal with a fire situation.......
It would appear that a civvy fireman's lot would involve far more frequent fire (of admittedly lower intensity).
Maybe up until the late 1980s, but when i was a fireman (until 1999), we dealt with more RTAs, floodings, lifts stuck, cats up trees etc than a decent sized fire.