To enhance the efficiency of air-ground coordinated emergency rescue in forest fires and identify the critical links in the rescue process, this study draws on the emergency rescue workflows for unconventional emergencies to design a forest fire air-ground coordination rescue process integrating both "aerial firefighting" and "ground firefighting". Taking the 2018 "4·6" forest fire rescue operation in Yiyuan County, Shandong Province as a case study, a simulation analysis of the efficiency and key links of the air-ground coordination rescue system was conducted based on the Stochastic Petri Net (SPN) model. The key issues constraining rescue efficiency are explored, their underlying causes are analyzed, and the interaction mechanisms among critical links in the rescue process are revealed in the study. The results indicate that fire mop-up, bucket operations for fire suppression, and the approval of rescue aircraft requests have high transition utilization rates, making them the key constraints on rescue efficiency. Bucket operations and fire mop-up exhibit greater sensitivity to overall rescue time, while the aircraft request approval process can further enhance the efficiency of these two links. The findings provide decision-making support for emergency management authorities in formulating air-ground coordinated rescue processes for forest fire response.