Monday, November, 7 2011

National Fire Academy Training Opportunties

Location: Emmitsburg, MD

Over the past weekend, six firefighters of the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company attended the National Fire Academy (NFA) to pursue additional curriculum for educational and training purposes.

The National Fire Academy (NFA) is one of two schools in the United States operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Operated and governed by the United States Fire Administration (USFA) as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the NFA is the country’s pre-eminent federal fire training and education institution. The original purpose of the NFA as detailed in a 1973 report to Congress was to “function as the core of the Nation’s efforts in fire service education—feeding out model programs, curricula, and information…”

The NFA shares its 107-acre Emmitsburg campus with the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) operated by the Directorate of Preparedness branch of FEMA. The campus also includes the Learning Resource Center (LRC) library, the National Fire Data Center, and the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial. The campus was the original site of Saint Joseph’s Academy, a Catholic school for girls from 1809 until 1973. It was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1979 for use as the NETC.

The NFA hosted the Delaware Weekend which commenced on Friday, November 4th through Sunday, November 6th. Numerous firefighters throughout the State attended the program to hone their respective knowledge, skills and abilities with the following curriculum:

• Politics and the White Helmet - Politics and the White Helmet is aimed at providing the chief officers in both the fire service and EMS agencies with an overview of the ways to succeed and work within the local, county and state level political system to achieve positive results for their department. It will give the officer an improved insight into better ways to relate and speak to citizens and others to gain support and understanding of their needs for bond issues, tax votes, and general elections. The course identifies successful tools needed to address the challenge necessary to bring about change, and how a department's culture of power, influence , negotiation, and coalition building is important to success.

• Decision Making for Initial Company Operations - Decision Making for Initial Company Operations is designed to develop the decision making skills needed by Company Officers (COs) to accomplish assigned tactics at structure fires. All activities and scenarios used in this course are based on structure fires. As a Company Officer (CO) with the real possibility of being the first to arrive at an incident, the CO's initial decisions will have an impact throughout the entire incident. It is vital that they be able to make good management decisions that have a favorable impact on the eventual outcome. In addition to a possible role as the initial Incident Commander (IC), the CO may well be assigned a subordinate position within the ICS organization. COs need to have a clear understanding of the system, the position they are assigned, and their role in the organization if they are to function effectively and help make the system work.

• Strategy and Tactics for Initial Company Operations (STICO) - STICO is designed to meet the needs of Company Officers responsible for managing the operations of one or more companies during structural firefighting operations. STICO is designed to develop the management skills needed by company officers to accomplish assigned tactics at structure fires.  

• Incident Safety Officer - This 2-day course examines the Safety Officer's role at emergency responses. A specific focus on operations within an Incident Command System (ICS) as a Safety Officer is a main theme. Response to all-hazards types of situations will be emphasized.

• Executive Skills Series: Managing and Leading Change - In this 2-day course, students will be introduced to a four-step model for managing change effectively. These activities include analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The same model will be used to examine the executive role of leading change. A variety of activities and simulations will apply theories to contemporary issues that executive officers experience daily. This course is for senior fire officers of both career and volunteer fire/emergency services organizations.

• NIMS - Incident Command System for the Fire Service - This course is designed to develop an understanding of the Incident Command System (ICS) and its application in both emergency and nonemergency situations. This course addresses the need for an ICS, an overview of the structure and flexibility of ICS, and an understanding of the command skills necessary to function effectively in an ICS structure.