Frequently Asked Questions

As you already know, the fire service is based on credibility. The creators of this site, Paul Lepore and Chuck Fedak, are working chief officers in busy West Coast fire departments. Chief Lepore and Chief Fedak together have over 55 years of fire service experience and have risen through the ranks to their respective positions of Division and Battalion Chief. They are actively engaged in their departments and very familiar with contemporary issues facing the fire service. They have a great deal of experience in developing and rating promotional examinations. They both understand the dimensions and competencies that promotional exams are based on. They have coached and prepared hundreds of candidates to promotional success. Feel free to review their bios.

The Aspiring Fire Officers (AFO) website is organized into 5 separate sections. Members may purchase these sections a la carte or they can purchase a discounted Full Access membership to all five sections.

Emergency Scene Simulations

Employee Counseling 

Oral Interview

In-Basket Exercises

Writing Assignments

The Fire Captain/Lieutenant scenarios are based on typical incidents or situations that a company officer can expect to manage or respond to. BC training materials are more complex, involving assigning more resources to an incident or managing complex personnel scenarios involving other officers or multiple role players. Some AFO BC courses may include both BC and Fire Officer training material when appropriate.

Feel free to contact us and we will either email you or call you. We enjoy speaking to our members and are happy to speak with you.

While all fire departments are different, we are more alike than you think. All fire departments prioritize life safety, incident stabilization, and property conservation as their incident priorities. A primary search is the number one priority on every fire (after firefighter safety) whether you are in Los Angeles, Denver, Peoria, Lexington, Cape Cod, Trenton or Toronto. Managing a troubled firefighter following your agency’s progressive discipline policy is the same universally. While there may be variations on what your agency calls the first meeting you have with a firefighter who has strayed outside of the lines (corrective counseling, coaching, or notice of discussion), the promotional process will test your knowledge, skills and abilities to navigate through the disciplinary process. It’s up to you to become familiar with your agency’s progressive disciplinary process, and if applicable, the Firefighter Procedural Bill of Rights.

You will be expected to outline your ability to lead and manage a crew, including your leadership philosophies and how you will inspire those under your command to follow you. These principles apply to every fire department. The same applies to written documentation that you will be expected to complete in the form of a memo, essay, documented counseling session or administrative report. You will be expected to be able to determine priorities for the day and identify issues that must be handled in the proper order. Again, the same principles apply to every department and will be scored by raters using essentially the same grading sheets, regardless of your region of the country.

Yes, we are from California and our state has plenty of issues! Having said that, California is recognized as one of the leaders in the nation when it comes to the fire service. As you watch the national news you will see that many of the major incidents occur in California. Part of this is due to the population density, while others are due to environmental factors such as earthquakes, wildfires and floods.

The Incident Command System  (ICS) was developed by the California fire service in the 1970’s in response to the massive reoccurring brush fires. The federal government took ICS and put their spin on it, relabeling it as the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and requiring fire departments to use it if they are seeking federal reimbursement. Most California fire departments use ICS on every incident.

California is often considered to be a litigious state with a strong union presence. California is one of the few states that has adopted the Firefighter Procedural Bill of Rights.  This requires knowledge and skill when utilizing the progressive disciplinary system to manage a firefighter who has strayed outside the policies and procedures.

The challenges particular to California fire departments give the creators of AFO a level of real-life experience that benefits the members of this site. In addition, we have served as raters in promotional exams for many departments outside of California. We are very familiar with what is commonly tested during promotional exams and have taken this information and incorporated it into our programs.

To ensure our materials are current and relevant to the entire country, the Aspiring Fire Officers Advisory Board, (link to section in About Us drop down) which is made up of fire officers and chief officers from across the country, regularly reviews our materials and weighs in on our members’ questions. They are also actively engaged in writing and proctoring promotional exams.

We understand that your staffing may be different. The incident priorities are the same (Primary Search, confine and extinguish the fire) whatever your staffing may be. Incident Command (ICS) terminology is the same. Assigning divisions and groups to minimize the Incident Commander’s span of control and improve accountability is consistent throughout the country. Whatever your agency’s staffing model, the incident priorities are the same. When managing the incident, it is up to you to review the incidents and duplicate the way we assign resources to match your staffing model. We teach you the thought process so you may apply your own service delivery model to the scenarios.

We are so confident that our scenarios and information will meet your needs that we have presented free examples of each section on the site. Simply go to your area of interest and review the free examples. We believe that after reviewing them you will agree. The examples we provide are just the tip of the iceberg. Once you become a member, you will have unlimited access to hundreds of hours of content that you can access at any time on any two of your personal devices.

We cannot guarantee that our information will be the same as what you will experience on “test day.” Having said that, we have developed and served as outside raters on dozens of promotional examinations across the country. We are very familiar with what is commonly tested during promotional exams and have taken this information and developed laser-focused training. We constantly update our site after we develop an exam or serve as a rater to ensure that our site continues to be contemporary and relevant.

Each section includes a stand-alone video that introduces the section and explains how to practice using our material. A separate video explains what the raters are looking for and how exams are scored. We have created over 75 videos for our five sections to help you understand the key points that will likely be tested during your exam, and more importantly, will be invaluable once you get promoted. Becoming a full access member will give you access to all of the videos.

We believe that your best option would be to purchase the discounted complete package for full access to all sections. This will allow you to prepare for any type of exam that you will face. If this is not an option, we recommend that you research the components of the most recent exam. Promotional exams often mirror the previous exam, especially if there were no protests lodged against the exam.

Sooner is definitely better. We are confident that you will learn things on our site that you will want to incorporate into your routine, particularly with managing incidents, employee counseling and responding to interview questions. If you wait too long you will have already developed your routine and will have a much more difficult time relearning information.

In other words, joining early means that you will learn how to do things correctly the first time and not have to try to remember what you wanted to add to your delivery. The testing process is difficult enough without the additional stress of changing your established routine or trying to remember information that is new to you.

We understand that it’s difficult to time your study program with the projected date of the exam. For this reason, we offer to extend your unexpired membership for 60 days at a huge discount. This will allow you to continue uninterrupted service of your membership. Contact us for more information.

We try to present you with the most up-to-date practices. This may be too far out front for some departments, as they simply haven’t arrived there yet or may have a policy that is not necessarily practiced by current officers. A common example of this is the two-out policy, also known as IRIC. Every department has a policy that states two-out must be established before firefighters enter the IDLH unless there is an imminent rescue. We know your agency has a two-out policy because it’s the Federal OSHA law. While it may not be routinely practiced, it’s still the law. We believe in the policy and teach it on the website in every scenario where it is warranted.

We encourage you to absorb what the site has to offer, and then evaluate how this would apply to your department. It is important that you follow your agency’s policies and procedures. If you find any discrepancies between our site and your policies, defer to your agency’s policies and procedures. We recommend approaching your agency’s chief officers to vet the information you learn on the site and advise you on how to incorporate it into your routine.

In the end it is your decision on whether you will incorporate the contemporary information and practices you have learned into your exam.

We receive emails regularly from firefighters who have had success using our site. We post many of their testimonials and stories to encourage you and let you learn from their experiences. These are your peers from departments across the country. We find that successful candidates are our best source for referrals. We look forward to adding your testimonial to our site!

If a Department or organization is interested in a group rate, contact us for more information. Our fire department promotional training website can be used to prepare for a test or to maintain and upgrade knowledge and skills after promotion.

Becoming a member of AFO will give you an incredible foundation for all the components covered to prepare you for your upcoming promotional exam. The website provides you with high level insight to manage complex emergencies, multidimensional personnel scenarios and administrative components. You can work at your own speed and on your own schedule for a very reasonable investment. We are confident that the contents of the site will help you pull ahead of your competition.

Private coaching allows us to meet with you individually, identifying any areas of weakness and focusing our coaching on your specific needs. By building on your strengths, your customized training plan can help you achieve a higher level of performance. It also produces a different level of interaction that will help you prepare for success before your exam and after you are promoted.

That decision is up to you, since you are the only one who knows your current level of preparation and your potential competition.  Our recommendation is to start by becoming a member of AFO. Enjoy and soak up all the information available to our members. Spend a great deal of time on the site. Then, once you are comfortable with all of the concepts and ideas presented, decide if you need private coaching. Your private coaching sessions will build on the foundation created through your membership, taking your preparations to a new level and incorporating the things we discuss during our one-on-one sessions into your own assessment center.

No, your login is assigned to you may only be used by you. A single login shared by multiple people is not permitted. A single membership may not be used for teaching to a group. This includes sharing a screen during a presentation. No material from the website shall be printed and used for teaching to a group.