Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting Training

October 20-21, 2023

The Vermilion River Flying Club hosted an awareness course on Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting (ARFF) at YVG

Large passenger destination airports have extensive fire rescue training and equipment requirements, whereas fire regulations and training are not as rigorous for local airports like Vermilion’s.

The course served to fill in knowledge gaps for local firefighters teams.

Instructor Jim Bristowe is an experienced fire training instructor, a retired firefighter, commercial pilot, aircraft engineer, and the current president of the Vermilion River Flying Club.

In attendance at the Vermilion Airport terminal building were members of Town of Vermilion and the County of Vermilion River Fire Departments.

DAY 1 – Types of aircraft construction

Friday Evening Classroom Session

Light aircraft (eg. recreational)
Business aircraft
- single engine
- twin engine
- turbo prop engine
- turbofan and a turbojet engines
Types of aircraft fuselage construction , wings and empennage (tail structures)
Types of fuels, hydraulic fluids
Pressure vessels
Equipment carried on-board such as Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs)

DAY 2 – Hands-on with real aircraft.

Saturday morning session

Larry Bingham generously opened the hanger owned by him and Matt Jaremco for the Saturday class.

The eager students were able to explore three local aircraft with different construction characteristics.

Gorgeous 1956 Cessna 172 jointly owned by retired Lakeland College instructor Larry Bingham, and by local businessman and entrepreneur Matt Jaremco.
Photo: J. Bristowe

Aeronca Champ, a classic trainer owned and maintained by Geoff Hancock, owner of Hancraft Aero.
Photo: J. Bristowe

Bushmaster owned by Matt Jaremco
Photo: R.Salt

The Vermilion Fire Department brought two fire trucks with them, including their new ladder truck.
Photo: L. Bingham

The course was well received.

All in attendance said they learned things that were totally new to them.

The Vermilion Fire Chief expressed how well the instruction and the hands on activities went.

General consensus: more of this type of training should be held.

Just as there are motor vehicle collisions on our roads and highways,
an incident could easily happen involving an aircraft.
Our fire departments would have the advantage of prior knowledge and training.

Instructor Jim Bristowe has course materials for further modules.
He recommends that a mock aircraft incident at the airport be conducted.

That would be fun! Stay tuned…

Header image by pch.vector on Freepik