At approximately 13:15hrs on Thursday afternoon a pumping appliance from Castletown Station was dispatched, by the Emergency Joint Control Room, to alarms operating at Ronaldsway Aircraft Company Ltd, Ballasalla.
 
Upon the arrival of the fire appliance, the crew  quickly identified that the alarm had been raised due to a fire in a Titanium Filter Bench which is used to deburr titanium components. The fire had been extinguished by a member of the onsite maintenance team who emptied 2 dry powder extinguishers on the fire before evacuating the building.
 
However, due to the fire, the factory rapidly filled with smoke and with the extensive shape and size of the building this became a major challenge for the fire fighting personnel to ventilate. Using its own positive pressure ventilation fans alongside two heavy duty electric fans the Castletown fire crew proceeded to ventilate the factory section by section. Full ventilation of the building was achieved within the hour and following repairs to broken fire alarm call points the fire alarm system was put back online.  
 
Station Officer Kirkham who was Duty Officer for the incident stated that ‘he was impressed by the evacuation procedures of the Ronaldsway Aircraft Company and would like to thank Andy Bain from the Ronaldsway Maintenance Team who was a valuable asset to the Fire personnel who attended the incident’.