A local spokesman representing transportation employees is calling recent layoffs at the airport and St. John’s fire departments a double-whammy.

The St. John’s Regional Airport Authority has reduced the number of onsite firefighters available to respond to an incident at any given time to two.

That means response will be severely limited says the Atlantic Regional Vice-President for the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees.

Chris Bussey says Transport Canada regulations require airport firefighters to be ready at all times. Because firefighting services at the airport have been cut to the “bare bones,” that means that they will no longer be able to respond to medical emergencies on a flight.

The fire department at the airport is a separate entity from the St. John’s Regional Fire Department, but they do have a mutual aid agreement.

Bussey says now that the St. John’s Regional Fire Department has also seen reductions, which means service is further reduced.

He says their state of the art fuel tanker has been called out in the past to help with large fires in the capital city, but it won’t be possible to send that out under the current circumstances.