Every appliance checked, and the category you can actually declare
Item-by-item checks for the whole rescue and firefighting service, the agent on board, the crew on each appliance, foam stock and tests, incidents and drills, and a live category board that changes within minutes of something coming off line.
Watch the ARFF walkthrough: six films, chapter by chapterDaily to annual, for every appliance and every set
Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual checks, item by item. Pass, fail or not applicable, readings against the limits you set, a photo where one is needed, and a QR tag at the check point.
The checks start from the shared ARFF template library. Your service validates each template, changes it to its own procedure and its own wording, and publishes it. Until it is published, a template is a draft and cannot be used for a check.
What can be checked
- Major foam tenders
- Rapid intervention vehicles
- Command vehicles
- Water tankers
- Rescue vehicles
- Slip-on units
- Trailer units
- Breathing apparatus
- PPE
- Rescue tools
- Thermal cameras
- Extinguishers
- Inshore rescue boats
- The fire station
Agent on every daily check
Water and foam concentrate in litres and complementary agent in kilograms, recorded for each appliance on its daily check. The category board reads the latest figures.
Defects with photos
A failed item becomes a defect with its photo and a severity. A critical defect takes the appliance out of service and the category is worked out again on the spot.
Repair and close-out
The defect is assigned, repaired and closed with a before and after photo. When the appliance is back in service, the category board follows.
The category board
One board per station, worked out from the appliances, agent and crew actually available, not from a number written on a whiteboard at the start of the shift.
- Declared category
- Each station declares its rescue and firefighting category, from 1 to 10, and its foam performance level: A, B or C.
- Rules table
- Minimum water, discharge rate, complementary agent, number of appliances and reserves for each category. Rules tables for the ICAO default, Australia (the CASA Part 139H rules), New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The category figures in each start from the ICAO Annex 14 values, and you confirm them against your own procedures; the New Zealand and Papua New Guinea tables are marked to confirm. Other markets use the ICAO default. If your authority’s figures differ, we set up a table with them.
- What counts
- Each counted appliance that is serviceable, with the water, foam and complementary agent from its latest agent check and its discharge rate.
- Crew
- With the station’s crew rule on, an appliance counts only while every riding position it needs is filled by someone whose competencies are current.
- Agent used
- An appliance that used agent at an incident drops out of the count until its next agent check records what is on board.
- Available
- Everything the declared category needs is there.
- Reduced
- The board shows the highest category still met, and says why, for example “Crew: monitor operator not current”.
- Not available
- Not even the lowest category is met.
- Planned reductions
- A window entered in advance, for example low-traffic hours, with its planned category and NOTAM reference. During it the planned category is the one to meet and no new alert is raised.
Nobody has to notice. The board tells them.
A failed pump test at 06:40 becomes a reduced category within minutes of the check being sent, with the right people told and a clock running.
Alerts appear in the dashboard and escalate there. Push notifications, SMS and email are in development.
- 01
An event is opened
A reduction, change or restoration, with the time, the cause (the appliance, the defect, the agent or the crew position) and the category it moved to.
- 02
The supervisors are alerted
In the dashboard, as soon as the category is worked out again. If nobody acknowledges it, the alert escalates from supervisor to manager to administrator.
- 03
A timer runs
From the moment of the reduction, on the board, so everyone can see how long the station has been below its declared category.
- 04
The NOTAM reference is recorded
When your people raise the NOTAM through your usual process, its reference is entered against the event. Escudo Ready does not draft or send it.
- 05
Restoration closes it
When the repair is closed, the agent is back and the crew positions are filled, the category is restored and the event is closed with the time. The history stays on the board.
The right people on each appliance
Each appliance has its riding positions, and each position lists the competencies it needs.
- Officer in charge
- Driver
- Monitor operator
- Crew
A supervisor signs each person on to a position on the dashboard, and off again, and a person holds one position at a time. With the station’s crew rule on, an appliance counts towards the category only while every required position is filled by someone current, and the board says which position is short.
Competency currency
- Competencies with their validity periods, and validations with evidence
- A currency matrix for the station, with expiring and out-of-date competencies highlighted
- A default list to start from: the eleven core competencies at 90 days, a live hot fire exercise each year and the ARFF course every four years
- Every competency and period is editable, so the list follows your training procedure
Foam and agents
The agent on the appliances and in the store, its tests and where it went. Including the records a move to fluorine-free foam leaves behind: what was discharged, where it was captured, how it was disposed of and how each appliance was cleaned.
Products and lots
Foam products with their performance level and type, fluorine free or not. Agent lots of foam concentrate, dry chemical powder and CO2, each with its batch, expiry, laboratory due date, quantity on hand and every stock movement.
Reserves against the category
The reserve each station needs for its declared category is worked out from its rules table and shown against what it holds. A shortfall raises an alert, and so do lots near expiry and laboratory samples falling due.
Foam tests
Induction (proportioning) and acceptance tests on appliances, and laboratory results on lots. A failed appliance test raises a major defect, so the appliance is restricted until it is repaired and retested. A failed laboratory result quarantines the lot. An appliance whose induction test is more than a year old raises an alert.
Discharge register
Every foam discharge, for training, a test, an incident or by accident: the volume, the location, how it was captured and the disposal reference. Foam used at an incident is added from the incident report.
Decontamination
When an appliance’s foam system is cleaned, for example on a change to fluorine-free foam: the volume drained, the disposal, the method, the rinse cycles and samples before and after. The appliance stays out of service until a supervisor clears it with the after-cleaning result.
A report for every turnout
Times from the call to the stand-down, the aircraft, a narrative, casualties, mutual aid and the handover. Each appliance that attended is listed with the agent it used. An appliance that used agent leaves the category count until its next agent check, and foam used is added to the discharge register. Supervisors lodge the report on the dashboard and close it.
Incident reports and the discharge register are kept on the dashboard. The template library also has phone checks for replenishment and for a foam discharge.
Report types
- Aircraft accident
- Full emergency
- Local standby
- Building fire
- First aid
- Hazchem
- Fuel spill
Drills and response points
Log each drill and response-time test with the appliances, the crew and the times. Any result over the objective is flagged. The objective starts at three minutes to any point on each operational runway, with two minutes recommended, and you can change it to the figure your authority or procedure sets.
Set up your response-time test points, such as each runway end or the furthest point, each with how often it is tested. When a point falls due, an alert is raised.
The drill library adds ten preset ARFF drills, from the response time test to the locker drill, each with the interval its source states where there is one. Add one to your plans and the crew runs it on the phone, each person signing. See the drill library.
ARFF insights
For each station, over the period you choose:
- Time available at the required category
- Minutes reduced, by cause
- Reductions with a NOTAM reference recorded
- Time to acknowledge and time to restore
- Response-time results
- Appliances checked each day
- Crew currency
- Incidents and standbys
The ARFF readiness pack
For an audit or a review, print a date range, or download it as CSV files with a SHA-256 manifest:
- Category events and planned reductions, with their causes and NOTAM references
- Drills and response times
- Checks with the agent recorded
- Defects, repairs and close-out photos
- Credentials and competency validations
- Incident and standby reports
- Foam tests, discharges and decontaminations
- Agent stock and its movements
Sealed checks
Each submitted check is sealed about an hour after it arrives, with a SHA-256 hash chained to the one before it for that appliance. Change a sealed answer and the chain no longer matches. Incidents, foam tests, stock, drills, defects and category events are not sealed: every change to them is kept in the append-only audit log. On request, we correct a check as a new version and keep the original.
Defects on ARFF appliances carry before and after photos, and each appliance can have QR check-point tags.
37 templates in the ARFF library
A shared library to start from, for appliances, sets, the station and the tests and records around them. Limits are never set for you: your service enters its own.
- Major foam tender daily walkaround
- Major foam tender weekly pump and monitor test
- Major foam tender monthly test and certificate dates
- Rapid intervention vehicle daily walkaround
- Command and support vehicle daily walkaround
- Breathing apparatus set daily check
- Fire station daily check
- Fire station weekly check
- Aviation rescue equipment monthly check
- Foam proportioning (induction) test
- Foam acceptance test
- Foam concentrate sample to laboratory
- Foam delivery receipt
- Appliance decontamination (foam changeover)
- Foam discharge record
- Post-incident or post-drill replenishment
- Annual pump service test
- Annual vehicle performance test
- Response-time verification run
- New or returning vehicle acceptance
- Hose pressure test
- Ladder inspection and service test
- PPE advanced inspection and cleaning
- Breathing apparatus after-use check
- Breathing apparatus annual flow test
- Cylinder periodic test
- Breathing air quality test
- Compressor service
- Gas detector bump test
- Gas detector calibration
- AED and medical kit check
- Rescue tool annual service
- Generator and lighting tower run
- Watchroom and alerting test
- Hydrant and refill point flow test
- Test instrument check
- Inshore rescue boat and flotation check
An equipment register for the station
Each item has its own tests, services and moves between appliances and the store. The usual ARFF equipment types come with typical test intervals for you to confirm or change.
Equipment types
- Breathing apparatus sets
- Breathing apparatus cylinders
- Breathing air compressor
- Fire hose
- Ground ladders
- Structural and proximity PPE
- Hydraulic rescue tools
- Lifting bags
- Thermal imaging cameras
- Gas detectors
- Portable extinguishers
- AEDs
- Foam test instruments
Escudo Ready records and routes: it does not certify airworthiness, issue NOTAMs or replace your procedures.
The category shown is a calculation from the records your people enter and the rules table you choose and confirm. Declaring the category, raising a NOTAM and deciding what your procedures require stay with your service.
Put one station on the board
We load your appliances and the templates you choose, set the rules table with you, and your crews start their daily checks.