Photo: Ian Milde

UPDATE 4:14 p.m.

Sean Parker, manager of airport emergency and operational readiness at YLW, tells Castanet that Wednesday's training was a Transport Canada requirement.

They have to test their equipment every year to ensure that it's serviceable. Today, they were testing a dry chemical compound used to suppress fuel and class B fires.

The photo sent to us by Ian Milde shows the airport's training area. "We have a Boeing 727 out there and a Fokker F27 turboprop plane. The test is not done on a plane, it is done on a series of wooden stands," he says. "Although it may actually look like it was done on an aircraft, it was done on a clean, dry surface."

The product is called Purple-K and is similar to what you would see come out of a fire extinguisher.

Parker says the drill was to test dispersal and streams. "The test went very well, and we have two new trucks."

Parker also wanted us to let everyone know they will be doing a tabletop exercise Nov. 1 in which key personnel are assigned emergency management roles and responses to simulated emergency situations.

ORIGINAL 12:50 p.m.

Castanet has received several tips and photos regarding an incident at Kelowna International Airport.

The photos appear to show smoke coming from a plane on the tarmac, which looks as if it has no landing gear.

We reached out to YLW spokesperson Jessica Hewitt, who says "our aircraft rescue firefighters are doing a training exercise today. What they're doing is putting out some mock fires."

Hewitt says the training exercises are part of a Transport Canada requirement and that no flights or passengers have been impacted by the exercise.