That is a big deal, as ARFF equipment and trained firefighters are required by 14 CFR 139 for airports with scheduled and unscheduled pax carrying operations, of differing pax load sizes. ARFF is not a requirement at any other airports, though some airports have some capability. Most of these 139 airports, other than larger city airports, often have just enough ARFF trucks to meet their required FAA Index, and maybe a spare or maybe not. If one of their trucks either goes out of service, or responds to a dedicated call on field, a dedicated call off field, or a mutual aid call off field, air carrier operations must be reduced or curtailed to what Index is still available at the airport.
How individual airports with ARFF service employ their fire units by policy, can widely vary. Some airports reserve ARFF units for strictly on-airfield responses including areas immediately outside the perimeter of the field. Outside of the immediate airport grounds area, it is considered the responsibility of whichever off airport fire department’s response area that falls within. The off airport FD might not have any specific ARFF vehicles or trained personnel, but that’s the working agreement for that particular airport and surrounding area.
Getting back to something I mentioned above, how only 14 CFR 139 airports are required to have ARFF, is something many pilots aren’t aware of. Some of the busiest GA airports out there, have no actual ARFF trucks or trained personnel at the airport, as there’s no requirement to. Other GA airports may have an ARFF truck and personnel, but only due to the city associated with it having the money to do so. Other airports may happen to have a nearby regular fire station or possibly even one on-field, but with no specific ARFF vehicles/capabilities, or trained personnel. Generally, if there isn’t a requirement to have to have ARFF, many small municipalities or airport management entities won’t bother to have it, as it is a large expense both equipment and training wise, for something that would rarely be used and with what they consider the local regular FD personnel able to do a “good enough” job with. Even civil airports that have an ARFF truck or two, it might only be manned with one driver/operator, with follow-on responding units (ARFF or non-ARFF trained) expected to augment the one-man ARFF vehicle, all for funding issues. Bottom line is, ARFF availability, capabilities (beyond the minimum required), manning, and ops policies, all can vary widely at both 139 airports that have them, and non-139 airports that may possibly have them available.
The exception are military bases, which do not come under FAA jurisdiction and thus have no Index. These airfields are shown by the FAA to have the lowest possible Index, even though their capabilities far exceed what the FAA shows. Example is KNYL/Yuma, a joint civilian/USMC field. It’s listed as an Index A airport, the lowest ARFF index of the FAA ratings (E being the highest), even though the USMC provides all ARFF for the field and has about 10 trucks and far exceeds Index E capability with equipment and personnel. Same for KABQ, where the USAF provides the ARFF, Classed as Index C by the FAA, but also exceeds E capabilities at the military fire station. Similarly, KFFZ/Falcon Field, lists no ARFF capability at the field, even though City of Mesa fire station 208 on the field, has an ARFF truck and associated trained firefighters. But because that field has no scheduled/unscheduled pax air carrier service that falls under 14 CFR 139, they aren’t required to list any ARFF Index capability, nor does anything change ops-wise at the airport if Foam 208 goes out of service for any reason. I believe their actual formal ARFF capability is Index B with F208, but it’s not a rated airport.
There are airports like KCGZ/Casa Grande. The busiest uncontrolled GA training airport in the US I would suspect, but with no ARFF due to no requirement for it, no pax airline service, They happen to have a small regular fire station located near the airport perimeter due to growth of the town north towards the airport, but it has no ARFF trucks or specific trained personnel. The below accident happened about 12 years ago there with a King Air E90 that stalled on a go-around during pattern training. The fire started small, but spread quickly. With no ARFF based on field, it was a good number of minutes before the first arriving structural firefighting unit arrived, with the wreckage as seen in the below pic by that time.
Hope this gives more insight to how all of this works.
Photo credit: unknown
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