Airport Rescue and Firefighting Program

This program is the written, auditable system for a department that provides, or contracts to provide, aircraft rescue and firefighting (ARFF) at an aerodrome. An aircraft accident is a short, violent event: the people who survive the impact have minutes before fuel fire and smoke close the exits, so the whole regime is built around getting the right vehicles, the right agent and trained people to the aircraft fast, and around keeping those people safe among jet fuel, pressurized systems, composite dust and a moving airfield. When this program is working, the department knows exactly which vehicles, agents and people the aerodrome’s category requires; the response time test is passed and filed every year; every ARFF member has completed the recurrent training the aircraft fire-fighting standards require inside 12 months; every vehicle and agent system is checked daily and tested annually; crews approach every aircraft from upwind and uphill with the hazard card in mind; the foam the department uses is on a documented path away from fluorinated products with containment in place; nobody drives airside without the permit and the tower’s clearance; and every ARFF response and exercise is reviewed and fed back to the crews. The program is owned by a line officer through the ARFF Program Improvement Team, verified by the health and safety officer and consulted on by the JOHSC.

This is a conditional module. It is switched on when the department answers yes to Program Profile Worksheet Part B “Does the department serve a certified aerodrome?” and records module 29 in Part C as Required or Conditional (01 Program Profile Worksheet). It applies in full where the department is the ARFF provider named in the aerodrome’s certificate or emergency plan. It applies in part (elements 5.6 to 5.8, aircraft hazards and mutual aid) where the department only responds to the aerodrome under the aerodrome emergency plan as a mutual-aid partner, or responds to aircraft incidents off the airfield. A department that never responds to an aerodrome or an aircraft records Not applicable with the reason and keeps the aircraft hazard card in Hazardous Materials, CBRN and Energy Hazards Program for off-airfield crashes.

Consistent with 06 Glossary and Acronyms.

• Aerodrome emergency plan: the plan the airport operator must hold and review at least once a year for emergencies at the airport and in its vicinity, naming the organizations that can assist and how the plan is activated (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 302.202).
• ARFF: aircraft rescue and firefighting, the specialized service for aircraft emergencies at an aerodrome.
• AVOP: airside vehicle operator permit, the aerodrome operator’s authorization to drive on the movement area (Transport Canada, n.d.-b).
• Complementary agent: the extinguishing agent, commonly a dry chemical, carried in addition to the principal agent; both agents and the equipment that delivers them must meet the aircraft fire-fighting standards (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 303.08).
• Critical category: the airport’s firefighting category, determined from the movements of commercial passenger-carrying aircraft in the highest and next highest aircraft categories over a three-month period; each aircraft’s category comes from its overall length and fuselage width. The critical category fixes the quantities of water and complementary agent, the number of vehicles and the total discharge capacity (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 303.05, 303.07, 303.09).
• Designated airport and participating airport or aerodrome: the two classes of aerodrome to which CARs Subpart 303 applies. A designated airport handles more than 180,000 emplaned and deplaned passengers a year; a participating airport or aerodrome provides the service for the critical category published in the Canada Flight Supplement (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 303.02 to 303.03).
• Fluorine-free foam (F3): firefighting foam containing no per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), replacing legacy film-forming foams (Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, 2025 [CA], 2026).
• Principal agent: the main extinguishing agent, a foam meeting the performance level the aircraft fire-fighting standards set (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 303.08).
• Proximity ensemble: protective clothing with a reflective outer shell for work close to radiant heat from aircraft fires (NFPA 1970, 2025).
• Response time test: the timed demonstration, carried out by the airport operator, that vehicles able to apply the principal agent at half the required total discharge capacity reach the midpoint of the farthest commercial passenger runway within three minutes of the alarm, and the remaining required vehicles within four minutes (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 303.18).

Full citations are in 02 Standards and Law Master Map. CARs is federal and applies the same in every province and territory. The provincial or territorial OHS statute still governs the department as the employer unless the fire service is itself part of a federal undertaking, such as an airport authority’s own fire service, which falls under the Canada Labour Code instead (Canada Labour Code [CA], 1985, Part II). Record which applies in the compliance matrix, because the committee and reporting duties differ (J01 OHS Legislation, Regulator and Enforcement). The provincial and territorial requirements this program relies on are listed under Jurisdiction requirements.

R = responsible, A = accountable (one per row), C = consulted, I = informed. Generic roles are in 01 Roles and Responsibilities; the team roles in 06 Program Improvement Teams.

Each element states the requirement, the minimum method, the evidence or record, and the stage.

Requirement. The department must have this program in writing with a compliance matrix showing, for each aerodrome served, whether Subpart 303 applies and on what basis, the critical category, the required and actual vehicles, water and complementary agent quantities and total discharge capacity, personnel numbers, training status, hours of operation, and the date and result of the last response test (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 303.02 to 303.19). Any NOTAM of a reduced service, any corrective plan submitted to the Minister and any written authorization for a lower category is filed with the matrix (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 303.10 to 303.11). (S1)

Minimum method. Adopt this note; complete toolkit T1 with {{Airport Operator}}; review it annually with the appraisal and whenever the aircraft in regular use change; file the JOHSC consultation record.

Evidence. Signed program; completed T1; Transport Canada correspondence.

Requirement. The airport operator must carry out a response test of the service, and the department runs it with the operator. Within three minutes of the alarm, vehicles sufficient to apply the principal agent at 50 per cent of the required total discharge capacity are dispatched and reach the midpoint of the farthest runway serving commercial passenger aircraft (or a predetermined point of comparable distance and terrain) under optimum surface and visibility conditions, and every other required vehicle reaches it within four minutes; the operator gives the Minister at least four weeks’ written notice and sends the results within 14 days of the test (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 303.18). The regulation does not fix how often the test is repeated; this program runs it at least every 12 months. A failed test is a corrective action with an interim plan agreed with the airport operator and Transport Canada. (S1)

Minimum method. Toolkit T2 record; the test planned in the annual calendar (04 Annual Program Cycle and Calendar); vehicles, routes and staffing rehearsed in the preceding month.

Evidence. T2; notice and submission letters; any corrective action.

Requirement. During the hours of operation the department keeps trained personnel in response posture, in sufficient number to operate the required vehicles and apply the agents, with enough of them capable of immediate response to meet the response test (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 303.13, 303.17). Every member assigned to ARFF duties is trained to the aircraft fire-fighting standards, and nobody acts as an aircraft firefighter unless that training was completed within the previous 12 months; the department keeps a training record for each firefighter with the content the standards require, for at least three years after the firefighter leaves, and produces it to the Minister on request (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, ss. 303.14, 303.16). The aircraft fire-fighting standards are Transport Canada’s Standard 323 (Transport Canada, 2026); recurrent training includes live aircraft-fire training. ARFF firefighters and driver/operators hold the professional qualifications in NFPA 1010 (NFPA 1010, 2024, ARFF chapters) at Stage 2, and proficiency is kept under NFPA 460 (NFPA 460, 2024). Live-fire training uses a purpose-built aircraft prop or an approved external facility; fluorinated foam is never used for training. (S1 for CARs training; S2 for NFPA qualifications)

Minimum method. Toolkit T5 record per member; annual recurrency scheduled before the response time test so the same crews are current for both.

Evidence. T5; live-fire training records; certificates.

Requirement. ARFF vehicles meet NFPA 1900 at purchase (NFPA 1900, 2024) and are inspected and maintained under NFPA 1910, including the annual pump test, foam proportioner accuracy test and agent quality test (NFPA 1910, 2024). Each vehicle is checked at the start of every duty period for agent quantity, proportioner setting, turret and handline function, complementary agent pressure, SCBA, radios and tyres, and the check is recorded. Agent inventory is kept at or above the category requirement with a written reserve, and expiry and quality of stored foam concentrate are tracked. A vehicle below the category requirement is reported to the aerodrome operator at once so the service level can be declared. (S1)

Minimum method. Toolkit T3 daily sheet; fleet records for annual tests; the agent inventory in the compliance matrix.

Evidence. T3 sheets; annual test reports; agent inventory and quality tests.

Requirement. The department holds a written plan to replace fluorinated film-forming foams with a fluorine-free foam that meets the principal agent performance level required under Subpart 303 and the ICAO level the aerodrome adopts (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 303); (ICAO, n.d.-a, Doc 9137 Part 1); (Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, 2025 [CA], 2026). Until the transition is complete, legacy foam is used only for an actual aircraft fire, never for training or system testing except in a closed-loop test rig; foam discharges are contained and the run-off disposed of as hazardous waste; legacy concentrate is disposed of through a licensed contractor with records; and the training ground is assessed for legacy PFAS contamination. Members handling foam concentrate wear the PPE the safety data sheet requires. (S1 for the plan and the containment rule; S2 for completion)

Minimum method. Transition plan with dates and budget on the team’s five-year worksheet; a containment procedure for tests and discharges; disposal manifests filed.

Evidence. Plan; containment procedure; disposal records; training-ground assessment.

Requirement. Every member who may respond to an aircraft, on or off the airfield, knows the hazard card (toolkit T4): approach from upwind and uphill; mass application of agent on the fuselage to protect the escape routes before interior rescue; composite airframe materials that release fibres and dust when burned or broken (SCBA and skin protection, wet down before overhaul); fuel in wings and the fuselage; pressurized oxygen systems and cylinders; ballistic recovery parachute rockets on light aircraft (stay out of the cone); lithium and electric-aircraft batteries; cargo dangerous goods; engine inlet and exhaust danger zones and the auxiliary power unit; evacuation slides and emergency exits; military ordnance where military aircraft use the field (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-21). Interior work uses SCBA under Respiratory Protection Program; proximity ensembles are worn where the department has adopted them for radiant heat (NFPA 1970, 2025). (S1)

Minimum method. T4 card on every ARFF vehicle and first-due apparatus; the hazards taught in initial and recurrent training; the SOG written with the crews from work-as-done.

Evidence. SOG; training records; cards present at audit.

Requirement. Nobody drives on the movement area without the aerodrome operator’s airside vehicle operator permit and radio contact with the tower or ground control as the aerodrome requires (Transport Canada, n.d.-b); during an emergency, vehicles move on the tower’s clearance or, where the tower has declared the runway closed, on the aerodrome emergency plan’s rules. Vehicles carry the aerodrome’s airside radio and the department’s tactical channel. Mutual-aid vehicles arriving from off the airfield stage at the designated gate and are escorted. Helicopter safety rules apply around rotary aircraft (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-41). (S1)

Minimum method. Permit register; airside radio check in the daily sheet; staging gate and escort in the aerodrome emergency plan and in Contractor and Mutual Aid Safety Program.

Evidence. Permit register; emergency plan; exercise observations.

Requirement. The department’s role is written into the airport emergency plan, which the airport operator must hold, review at least once a year in consultation with the organizations named in it, and keep as a manual at the airport (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 302.202), with a written agreement with {{Airport Operator}} that sets command on the airfield (unified command with the aerodrome operator and police), the department’s resources and response times, notification, airside access, mutual aid from and to the municipality’s own stations, cost recovery and the exercise schedule. The department takes part in the full-scale exercise, which the airport operator must hold at intervals not exceeding two years at an airport designated for international service and four years at other airports, in the table top exercise held in each year without a full-scale exercise, in the debriefing after each exercise, and in the action plan that corrects any deficiency found (Canadian Aviation Regulations [CA], 2026, s. 302.208). (S1)

Minimum method. Agreement reviewed every three years; exercise after-action reviews filed with the team records.

Evidence. Agreement; emergency plan extract; exercise records.

Requirement. Rehabilitation applies at aircraft incidents and at live-fire training on the same triggers as structural fire (Firefighter Rehabilitation Program). Fuel, foam, composite fibre and smoke exposures are logged as exposures. Every aircraft response, every response time test, every exercise and every near miss (airside vehicle conflict, foam system failure, composite exposure without SCBA, runway incursion) is reported and triaged under Incident Investigation and Learning Program. (S1)

Minimum method. Rehab log; exposure report; the team reviews every ARFF report at its monthly meeting.

Evidence. Rehab logs; exposure reports; team minutes.

(a) Work-as-done. Before any ARFF procedure is written or changed, the ARFF team holds a learning-team session with the crews who staff the station (Conklin, 2012; Hollnagel, 2014): what the three-minute run really looks like in winter with a gate that sticks; how the daily check is done when one person holds the station; what crews actually do with composite dust after a small aircraft fire; how the tower’s clearance is heard over the siren; where foam run-off actually goes on the pad. The SOG and the daily sheet are written from that description, so they match the work the crews recognize.

(b) Capacity and margins. The service works because crews drill the run, the vehicles are checked every morning, the tower and the station know each other, and the hazard card is in everyone’s head (Hollnagel, 2014). The margin erodes with a single-staffed shift, a vehicle held in service with a known proportioner fault, a new member who has not seen the airfield at night, an exercise schedule that slips, and pressure to keep the category declared when the agent is short. The program protects the margin by the daily sheet, the written reserve of agent, the recurrency rule, the declared service-level rule when a vehicle drops out, and the response time rehearsal.

(c) Just culture. A crew that drove airside without clearance in an emergency, a daily sheet signed from memory, a composite overhaul done without SCBA: these are information about conditions first (Dekker, 2016). The learning firewall applies: what is said in learning teams, after-action reviews and near-miss reports is never used for discipline. Conduct concerns (operating impaired, falsifying a response time record, wilful disregard of a tower instruction) go to a separate process run by different people under Policy - Internal Responsibility and Accountability.

(d) Psychological safety. Any member may stop an airside movement, an interior entry or a foam discharge by saying so plainly: “Stop. We do not have the tower” or “Stop. That is composite and we are not on air.” The officer acknowledges, acts and asks what the member sees (Edmondson, 1999)DOI. The review happens later and the member hears what came of it. Leaders show reporting is safe by declaring a reduced service level themselves when the agent is short rather than hoping, by reporting their own near misses, and by telling the crews each quarter what was raised and what changed.

(e) Learning link. An aircraft accident response, a runway incursion by a department vehicle, a foam system failure during an actual fire, or a lost-time injury on the airfield is a Tier 2 Post-Incident Analysis; a death or critical injury is a Tier 3 Independent Learning Review; every aircraft response, every response time test and every exercise is a Tier 1 After-Action Review. The AAR questions: “Where did the minutes go?” “What did the aircraft do that the card did not say?” “What would have made it easier to say stop?” Method: Incident Investigation and Learning Program and, for the full tiers, Manual 02 - The Three Tiers and Event Triage.

• ARFF aircraft fire attack and rescue SOG (department-written from T4 and this program; not a package SWP shell)

Procedures this program depends on but does not own: SWP - SCBA Donning, Use and Air Management; SWP - Accountability and Personnel Accountability Reports; SWP - Rehabilitation at Incidents and Training; SWP - Hazmat Entry and Decontamination (cargo dangerous goods); SWP - Emergency Vehicle Response and Backing (airside driving rules added locally); SWP - Exposure Reporting.

Loop test. A driver/operator reports on Monday that the proportioner on the primary vehicle reads correct on the gauge but the foam blanket at the last training session broke down early. By end of day the vehicle is declared at reduced capability to the aerodrome operator, the reserve vehicle is in the primary bay and the crews are told. By Friday the item is in the register as a P2 (Serious) with the EVT as owner, the member has had a reply, and a proportioner accuracy test is booked. Within 30 days the fault is found and fixed, every ARFF vehicle has been tested the same way, the daily sheet has a foam-quality line added from the crews’ suggestion, a change notice has gone out, and the item is closed with evidence in the quarterly update.

Audit category: Checklist - RPAS, Marine and ARFF (Conditional Modules), ARFF section. The five questions an auditor asks first:

1. Show me the compliance matrix. What category is declared, and does the agent on the vehicles today meet it?
2. Show me the last response time test: the notice, the times, the submission and any corrective action.
3. Pick three ARFF members. Show me their recurrent and live-fire training inside 12 months.
4. Show me the last seven daily sheets for each required vehicle and the last proportioner test.
5. Show me the foam transition plan and the last disposal manifest. Where did the run-off from the last discharge go?

For an accredited or candidate agency, the checklist’s ARFF section also serves as the evidence file for Criterion 5I: the deployment objectives including extinguishing agent for aviation incidents (CC 5I.1), the annual program appraisal (CC 5I.2), risk management at the incident (11A.8), accountability at every risk event (11A.12) and the OHS training record (CC 11A.5) (CPSE, 2019). The compliance matrix (T1) and the team’s annual appraisal under 06 Program Improvement Teams section 10 are the documents CC 5I.1 and CC 5I.2 ask for.

The failure modes this program is built to answer are the ones the aircraft hazard guidance describes and ARFF crews report (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-21; NFPA 440, 2024). A vehicle that could not make the three-minute mark because a route, a gate or an agent shortfall was known and tolerated. A foam system that proportioned wrong and produced a blanket that would not hold. A department vehicle on an active runway without the tower’s clearance. Crews working composite wreckage without SCBA and taking the fibres home on their gear. Cargo dangerous goods discovered after the entry. Ballistic parachute rockets and oxygen cylinders treated as inert. Legacy fluorinated foam used for training for decades, leaving a contaminated training ground and a legal and health liability. Crews who had never seen a live aircraft fire before the real one. This program answers each: the matrix and the reserve, the annual proportioner and agent tests, the daily sheet, the tower-clearance rule, SCBA and wet-down for composites, the hazard card, the manifest check, the fluorine-free transition with containment, and annual live-fire recurrency.

Stage 1 (Foundation) minimum. This program adopted; compliance matrix completed and agreed with {{Airport Operator}}; response time test passed and filed; every ARFF member current in annual recurrent training with live fire; daily sheet in use on every required vehicle; annual pump, proportioner and agent tests done; agent reserve written and met; aircraft hazard card on every vehicle; AVOP for every driver; foam transition plan written with the containment rule in force; exposure and near-miss reporting live.

Cost (people). Recurrent training about three to five days per member per year including live fire; driver/operator route rehearsal monthly; team lead about half a day a month; EVT time for annual tests; exercise participation on the aerodrome’s cycle.

Cost (money, order of magnitude; confirm locally). Live-fire training at an aircraft prop facility per member; fluorine-free foam concentrate to the category quantity plus reserve; disposal of legacy concentrate through a licensed contractor; proportioner and agent laboratory tests; proximity ensembles where adopted; airside radios. The largest Stage 1 items are usually the foam transition and the vehicle replacement when a unit cannot meet the discharge rate; put both on the team’s five-year worksheet in year one with the aerodrome operator’s cost-recovery terms.

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.

One matrix per aerodrome; reviewed annually and on any change of aircraft in regular use.

One sheet per required vehicle per duty period; a “No” in any required line is reported to the station officer before the vehicle is accepted as in service.

Carried on every ARFF vehicle and first-due apparatus. Sources: (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-21; GN 6-41); (NFPA 440, 2024).

1. Approach from upwind and uphill; stop short; assess fuel, fire, occupants, exits.
2. Agent on the fuselage first to protect escape routes; then interior rescue.
3. Composites: fibres and dust in smoke and wreckage; SCBA on; wet down before overhaul; bag and decontaminate PPE; log the exposure.
4. Fuel: wings, centre tank, lines; pooling and vapour; ignition sources.
5. Oxygen: crew and passenger cylinders and lines; pressurized; keep fire and oil away.
6. Ballistic recovery parachute (light aircraft): rocket in the airframe; stay out of the deployment cone; disarm only by the manufacturer’s procedure.
7. Batteries: lithium in avionics and electric aircraft; thermal runaway, re-ignition, toxic gas; see Hazardous Materials, CBRN and Energy Hazards Program.
8. Cargo: dangerous goods manifest from the operator; TDG classes; see SWP - Hazmat Entry and Decontamination.
9. Engines: inlet and exhaust danger zones; auxiliary power unit; hot brakes and wheel fires (approach from the front or rear, never the side).
10. Slides and exits: slide deployment force; cut-in points on the fuselage; crash axe zones.
11. Military aircraft: ordnance, ejection seat and canopy charges, hazardous propellants and fuels on some types; stand off and wait for the military authority.
12. Helicopters: rotors, tail rotor, approach from the front in the pilot’s view, never uphill (MLITSD, n.d., GN 6-41).
13. Withdrawal: fuselage burn-through, fuel spread beyond agent capacity, battery re-ignition, loss of accountability.

Completed by the team lead within 15 days of quarter end; goes to the program manager, the senior leadership team, the JOHSC and {{Airport Operator}}.

Copy section 11 into the team’s terms of reference (06 Program Improvement Teams section 12) with the department’s titles from 01 Roles and Responsibilities section 6. The defaults in one line each:

• Owner: program manager, ARFF team (line district chief).
• Doer: driver/operators, ARFF firefighters, station officers, team lead, EVT, training division, the aerodrome operator for its parts.
• Verifier: station officer every duty period; team lead monthly; HSO quarterly sample and annual observation of the test and a live-fire session; JOHSC annual station and foam storage inspection; internal audit annually; independent review every three years; Transport Canada on its cycle.
• Feedback: quarterly update inside 15 days to the department and the aerodrome operator; reply to the member inside five working days; change notices with every change.
• Closure: Corrective Action Register inside five working days (a P1 the same day); rated P1 to P4, with the plan, closure, extension and escalation rules in section 11; evidence and verifier sign-off to close; the person who raised it told the outcome; monthly to the JOHSC, annually to the fire chief; same-day notice to the aerodrome operator for anything that affects the declared service.

International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO]. (n.d.-a). Airport services manual, Part 1: Rescue and firefighting (Doc 9137). https://www.icao.int/

International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO]. (n.d.-b). Annex 14 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation: Aerodromes, Volume I. https://www.icao.int/

Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development [MLITSD]. (n.d.). Firefighter guidance notes (Section 21 Advisory Committee; individual notes revised to 2026). https://www.ontario.ca/document/firefighter-guidance-notes

Transport Canada. (n.d.-a). Advisory Document 343: Complementing regulations and standards respecting aircraft fire fighting at airports and aerodromes. https://tc.canada.ca/en/corporate-services/acts-regulations/list-regulations/canadian-aviation-regulations-sor-96-433/standards/advisory-document-343-complementing-regulations-standards-respecting-aircraft-fire-fighting-airports-aerodromes-0

Transport Canada. (n.d.-b). Aerodrome standards and recommended practices (TP 312) and airside vehicle operator permit guidance. https://tc.canada.ca/