Lyneham Lad - I was station fire officer for the event you describe, and as you may imagine the day is etched onto my memory. I was interviewed extensively at the Board of Inquiry, as you might expect. To the best of my recollection, I don't think there was any question that the foam was of poor quality. There is no doubt the fire took what seemed like forever to get under control as it was burning inside the bowser's tank and proved very difficult to smother from the outside.
That said, this made no difference to the casualties, all of whom had been severely burned at the outset, and were already being evacuated to SMC as the fire crews got to work. As I recall the total death toll was four, including a flight sergeant who succumbed after 2 weeks in Changi Hospital. One thing we did manage to achieve was to stop the fire spreading to nearby vehicles and the MU hangar - at one stage we were damping down blistering paint on the hangar door.
I think I grew up that day (I was a young flying officer at the time) and realised that we were doing a pretty serious job.
Last edited by Tankertrashnav; 11th Jan 2016 at 16:38.