Frequently Asked Questions about RTG RT-130 for California
Who is this RT-130 for?
The 2025 RTG program is open to firefighters and fire departments statewide, not just in the Los Angeles area. RT-130 provides company and chief officers, both new and experienced, with the training and tools to protect their crews while effectively responding in various fire environments.
Does this RT-130 program follow the NWCG guidelines?
Yes. The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) sets the national standards for RT-130 training. Discussion must cover the core topic categories:
- Local Topics
- Incident Review and Lessons Learned
- Fire and Aviation Operational Safety
- Human Factors, Communication, and Decision Making
- Fire Shelters and Entrapment Avoidance
Within the required categories, there is a great deal of flexibility to address topics of regional and local interest, which is what we have done with this RT-130 program.
When will the course be available?
The course is available now.
How can I get access to the training?
The training is available now at https://learn.apsfire.org/. Sign in, or register as a new user, for free access to the full course.
What if I want my entire department to take the training. Can that be arranged?
Yes! We are happy to coordinate group sign-ups. For each person we need a first name, last name, and email address. If an authorized POC for your department — for example, your Fire Chief or designated Training Officer — sends us a list of who to enroll we can enroll your entire department. We can also send automated completion reports to your department’s designated POC at weekly or monthly intervals.
What is the RTG? Why are they putting together and sharing RT-130 training?
The Los Angeles Area Regional Training Group (LAARTG, or “RTG”) serves 29 professional fire departments across the County of Los Angeles, including over 9,000 firefighters. The mission of the RTG is to provide the highest quality, innovative education and training to the region‘s fire service members through safe, cooperative, sustainable, and equitable partnerships in a consistent, efficient and effective manner. Bringing together the region’s experts to address wildland fire safety in a unified RT-130 program is in line with that mission.
What is APS? Why are they involved with RT-130 training?
Advanced Problem Solving (APS) is an educational technology company with a special interest in quality training resources and intuitive software for firefighters and other first responders. We are proud to be a longtime vendor partner of the RTG.
What other topics or themes are featured in this year's RT-130?
A major focus of this year’s training is mutual aid and the importance of interoperability during large, dynamic, mutual aid fire response. There’s also content for company officers and crews on the ground: focusing on communication plans, understanding incident priorities, and taking appropriate independent action aligned with the leader’s intent.
Are there any lessons connected to the January 2025 LA fires?
Yes, this year’s curriculum includes discussion of the fire season in the Los Angeles region and across California. The January 2025 fires were especially devastating, with widespread impact on people and structures. This year’s lessons focus on many topics that have particular relevance to fighting wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI):
- Awareness about mutual aid resources during initial attack
- The importance of fire weather awareness for incident-, crew-, and individual-level decision-making and safety
- The ability for crews and firefighters to be proactive within the scope of their assignments and within leader’s intent
- The value of fire weather forecasts and fire weather resources as a part of ongoing situational awareness.
- Avoiding entrapment through agile tactics and contingency planning.
What does online, hands-on, and hybrid training entail?
The RTG and APS aim to deliver top-quality content by combining online learning with hands-on training for an effective RT-130 experience. The online portion includes roughly two hours of material, organized as 20-minute segments, featuring videos, interactive content, and printable materials for drills. The program can be done individually or as a group, in one day or across multiple shifts, offering flexibility to customize it for personal or departmental needs.
APS will provide a printable certificate for any individual who completes the online content stating that they have completed the online portion of the training.
Does APS issue other certificates?
We are only issuing the certificate for the online content, not supervising performance during drills. It will still be up to each department to oversee the required fire shelter and other drills and manage their own Red Cards or other qualifications for their personnel.
Contact us to learn how to bring this training to your department!
