Costa Rican Firefighters Travel to FVTC for Airport Rescue and Firefighting Training

Fox Valley Technical College's Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting program at Appleton International Airport recently hosted a group of full-time firefighters from Costa Rica for specialized airport emergency response training, according to lead ARFF instructor Ben Sokol. The Costa Rican firefighters trained in Spanish with FVTC's Spanish-speaking instructors, and the country's fire chief has since expressed interest in returning with additional crews. Sokol said the group initially traveled to the region to inspect and demonstrate new ARFF vehicles purchased from Oshkosh Corp., whose manufacturing facility sits about 30 minutes from the airport, and took the opportunity to train at FVTC since Costa Rica has no dedicated ARFF training center of its own.

Sokol traced the program's international roots to a Jamaican group that first visited FVTC several years ago, a relationship that has since brought two or three Jamaican groups per year over the past three years. Opened in 2020 on 25 acres beside Appleton International Airport, the ATW ARFF Training Center features a Boeing 777 Specialized Aircraft Fire Trainer with five exterior and about a dozen interior fire scenarios, along with the industry's largest spill-fire area with 96 individually controlled fire zones, and a Cessna Skyhawk used for smaller general aviation fire training.

The center has also welcomed firefighters from Egypt, Canada, Jamaica, Suriname and Aruba, and during the 2025 season trained 168 students from 11 states and four countries. Sokol said the program has grown significantly over the past six years, though Wisconsin winters limit live training to roughly April through October, and the center is looking to expand into a year-round program with winter classroom-based tactics and strategy courses.