Promoted for skill, never trained to lead

ARFF company officers earned the job by being excellent firefighters. Few were ever given a leadership framework for running a crew inside an airport — stakeholder management, interagency politics, the regulatory architecture behind every staffing decision. This program closes that gap.

Built from the airport out

Part 139, Index-driven staffing, mutual aid, and the FAA relationship are the starting point here — not a footnote added to a municipal fire course. Every leadership lesson connects to a decision your officers actually face on the airfield.

Fits a working shift schedule

A short video, an audio companion, and a practice set per module — done on the officer's own time. Only the live facilitated session needs to be scheduled, and it fits inside a single shift block.

Every module is built the same way

The Fire & ARFF Leadership Series uses the same instructional model already proven in the ApexOS Leadership Excellence for Airport Police Executives program. Each module has four parts: a short video lesson built from the facilitator deck; an audio-only companion for the drive in; a live facilitated session — discussion, tabletop, or role-play, where real judgment gets built; and a practice set — an infographic, a flashcard deck, and a knowledge-check quiz. Officers move through the async pieces on their own time and come together only for the part that has to be live.

About Your Instructor

Chief Dustin Hughes is the ARFF Chief at Piedmont Triad International Airport, where he leads department operations, training, and FAA Part 139 compliance. Promoted through every rank in a ten-year climb from Firefighter to Chief, he brings hands-on command experience and a Fire Instructor II credential to every module he teaches in this series. "I've stood in every position in this department, from the rig to the chief's office. This series is built on what actually works at each rung of that ladder — not theory, but what I had to learn the hard way." — Chief Dustin Hughes

What Your Officers Walk Away With

A Working Map

A stakeholder and regulatory map of their own airport: who holds what authority, and where the pressure comes from.

Interagency Confidence

A clearer sense of how to work with municipal fire, airport operations, and the FAA before a crisis forces introductions.

A Completion Record

A certificate of completion issued on finished work, not an accreditation claim the program hasn't earned.

The Company Officer Foundations

1.  The ARFF Company Officer: Role, Identity & the Airport Environment. Why leading an ARFF crew is structurally different from a municipal engine company. The regulatory foundation every officer must know cold. Deliverable: ARFF Stakeholder & Regulatory Map.  2. The Regulatory & Standards Foundation: Part 139, NFPA & the Index System. Index determination, response-time standards, required training hours, and how Index changes reshape staffing and budget.  3. Command Presence & Crew Leadership on the Apparatus Floor. Live tabletop: leading a crew through a live-fire training day gone wrong. Deliverable: after-action report.  4. Interagency Collaboration: Mutual Aid, Airport Operations & the Municipal Fire Relationship. Turning the stakeholder map into working relationships. Deliverable: Mutual Aid Agreement Review Worksheet.  5. Training, Readiness & Crew Development Under Index-Driven Staffing. Sustaining readiness for events that almost never happen — without burning people out.  6. Crisis Leadership: Leading the First Five Minutes of an Aircraft Emergency. Decision-making under the 3-minute / 4-minute response clock; clean command transfer.  7. Communication Under Pressure: Radio Discipline & the Mock Incident Briefing. A joint fire / airline / airport-authority briefing under time and scrutiny. Deliverable: recorded mock briefing with critique.

Curriculum

8 Chapters · 112 Lessons

    1. (Included in full purchase)

      Module 1: The ARFF Company Officer: Role, Identity, and the Airport Environment

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      Lesson Sequence

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      Objectives

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      Module 1 Workbook

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      1.1 The ARFF Officer's Operating Reality

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      1.2 Force One — Regulatory Determinism

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      1.3 Force Two — The Compressed Clock

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      1.4 Force Three — The Layered Standards Stack

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      1.5 Force Four — Divided Authority

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      1.6 The Risk Inversion

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      1.7 Stakeholder Fluency

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      1.8 Reading the Map — Leverage and Tension

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      1.9 Using the Case Study as a Diagnostic

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      1.10 From This Reading to the Video

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      Knowledge Check

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      The Runway Extension An ARFF Stakeholder & Regulatory Map Case Study

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      The Runway Extension

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      Discuss Your Actions

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      Lesson Sequence

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      Objectives

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      2.1 The Index Rule, Precisely

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      2.2 The Vehicle and Agent Minimums — 14 CFR §139.317

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      2.3  The Clock, Extended — Training Minimums Under §139.319

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      2.4 NFPA 403 — Turning the Federal Floor Into a Real Program

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      2.5 NFPA 405 — The Proficiency Standard Behind Your Live-Fire Requirement

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      2.6 Reading the Warning Signs Early

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      2.7 Turning a Regulation Into a Budget Conversation

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      2.8 Working With Your Inspector

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      2.9 The Index Impact Worksheet — What It Actually Asks

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      2.10 From This Reading to the Video

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      Part 2 — Video Script

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      Part 3 — Audio-Only Companion Script

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      Part 4 — Live-Session Facilitator Guide

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      Part 5 — Visual Reference Guide

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      Knowledge Check

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      Part 7 — Graded Deliverable: ARFF Index Impact Worksheet

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      Objectives

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      Lesson Sequence

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      3.1 The Promotion Trap

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      3.2 What Command Presence Actually Is

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      3.3 What Crew Leadership Presence Actually Is

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      3.4  Why the Gap Goes Unnoticed Until It Doesn't

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      3.5 The Apparatus Floor Is Where Trust Is Actually Built

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      Knowledge Check

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      3.6 Reading the Room Before the Bell Rings

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      3.7 The Tabletop — What You're Walking Into

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      3.8 Debrief Is a Leadership Moment, Not a Formality

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      3.9 The After-Action Report — What It Actually Asks

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      3.10 From This Reading to the Video

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      Stage 3 — The Aftermath (read aloud)

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      Part 4 — The Debrief (read aloud)

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      Part 5 — Visual Reference Guide

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      Rapid Recall

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      Knowledge Check Quiz

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      Part 7 — Graded Deliverable: Tabletop After-Action Report

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      Part 8 — This Module's Pain-Point Contribution

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      Objectives

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      Lesson Sequence

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      Why This Module Exists

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      4.1 Why Mutual Aid Isn't Automatic

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      4.2 What's Actually Inside a Mutual Aid Agreement

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      4.3 The Municipal Fire Relationship Is a Relationship, Not a Contract

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      4.4 Where Airport Operations and Municipal Fire Actually Clash

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      4.5 Automatic Aid, Mutual Aid, and Mutual Understanding — Not the Same Thing

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      4.6 The Airport Director's Seat at This Table

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      4.7 Reading the Warning Signs of a Fraying Agreement

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      4.8 Renegotiating Without Burning the Relationship

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      4.9 The Mutual Aid Agreement Review Worksheet — What It Actually Asks

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      4.10 From This Reading to the Video

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      Part 7 — Graded Deliverable: Mutual Aid Agreement Review Worksheet

    15. (Included in full purchase)

      Part 2 — Video Script

    16. (Included in full purchase)

      Part 3 — Audio-Only Companion Script

    17. (Included in full purchase)

      Part 4 — Live-Session Facilitator Guide

    18. (Included in full purchase)

      Part 5 — Visual Reference Guide

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      Rapid Recall

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      Knowledge Check

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      Objectives

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      Lesson Sequence

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      Rapid Recall

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      5.1 The Readiness Paradox

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      5.2 The Complacency Problem, Named Directly

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      5.3 The Compliance Floor Is Not the Readiness Ceiling

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      5.4 Deliberate Practice — Making the Same Drill Build New Skill

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      5.5 Reading Readiness Drift Before It Becomes Burnout

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      5.6 The Individual Development Plan — Why Crew-Wide Tracking Isn't Enough

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      5.7 Succession Planning Starts Here, Not at a Vacancy

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      5.8 Building the Training Calendar Around the Index, Not Around Convenience

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      5.9 The Individual Development & Readiness Plan — What It Actually Asks

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      5.10 From This Reading to the Video

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      Knowledge Check

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      Lesson Sequence

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      Objectives

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      Rapid Recall

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      6.1 Why Everything in Tier 1 Has Been Building Toward This Module

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      6.2 The First Report Is Never Complete

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      6.3 Committing Under the Three-Minute Clock, Not After Certainty

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      6.4 Appropriately Sized Commitment: Avoiding Both Failure Modes

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      6.5 Command Transfer: Knowing It on Paper vs. Executing It Live

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      6.6 Communicating Upward While the Incident Is Still Active

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      6.7 The Decision-in-Advance Principle

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      6.8 Building the First-Five-Minutes Decision Checklist

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      6.9 Why the Checklist Gets Pressure-Tested in a Live Tabletop, Not Just Reviewed

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      6.10 From This Reading to the Video

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      Knowledge Check

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      Lesson Sequence

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      Objectives

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      7.1 The Tier 1 Capstone: Explaining Everything You've Built, Under Pressure

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      Knowledge Check

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      Rapid Recall

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      7.2 Two Audiences, Two Different Failure Modes

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      Congratulations

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      Student Feedback

DON’T JUST TRAIN FIREFIGHTERS. DEVELOP LEADERS.

Today’s fire and ARFF leaders must lead people, manage risk, navigate complexity, and make decisions that extend far beyond the incident. ApexLEAD™ Fire & ARFF Leadership Series develops the leadership skills today’s chiefs, officers, and emerging leaders need to lead with confidence—on the fireground, in the station, and at the executive table. Don’t just prepare your people to respond. Prepare them to lead. Enroll in ApexLEAD™ Fire & ARFF Leadership Series today.

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