Fireside Partners

Fireside was founded in 2007 to fill what it describes as a gap in emergency response resources for the business aviation market, with a focus on how operators protect their people, represent their brands and take part in an accident investigation. It is based at 60 Starlifter Avenue in Dover, Delaware. Its field responders have worked alongside the NTSB on aviation accidents, and the team includes former pilots, dispatchers, mental-health specialists and FAA, law-enforcement and medicolegal staff. Carla Tirel is vice president of operations. Fireside works with Blake Emergency Services in the UK and is a member of the Global Aerospace SM4 safety program.

Its Emergency Response Program runs in four steps: a 24/7 Emergency Services Agreement, a Tactical Emergency Response Plan (TacERP) with training and tabletop exercises, alignment with business-continuity plans, then drills and ongoing plan maintenance. The TacERP is reserved for agreement clients, is updated quarterly and covers both aircraft and aviation-facility emergencies, with Part 91, 135 and 121 versions plus crisis communications and family assistance plans. Training options include notification and family-assistance workshops, crisis communications, ERP 101, accountable-team-member training, tabletop exercises and full-scale drills. Other services are personal-effects management, hazardous-event monitoring, the ORRA safety-culture assessment and Air-SOS medical and repatriation transport coordination.

Fireside's site is written for flight departments and other operators more than for FBOs, but its facility-emergency coverage, plans and drills apply to an FBO building or testing its own emergency response plan. Engagements start with the services agreement, and training can be requested on its own through the training page. The ORRA assessment is delivered as a workforce survey, analysis, leadership briefing and prioritized roadmap. Fireside does not publish pricing or name clients.