Overview: Wildland Training for Structural Firefighters Skills Crosswalk

Adobe Acrobat (PDF)/Other Help

Download

Background

In June 2003, the National Association of State Foresters issued a report to the United States Congress titled The Changing Role and Needs of Local, Rural and Volunteer Fire Departments in the Wildland-Urban Interface. The report described the expansion of wildland fire responsibilities of America’s structural fire service, in particular the predominantly rural and volunteer organizations serving communities near the wildland-urban interface. Several important training-related recommendations were offered to boost safety and capacity in wildland fire suppression operations undertaken by these departments.

National Wildland Coordinating Group (NWCG) member organizations (Department of Interior/Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of Agriculture/Forest Service, U.S. Fire Administration, and the National Association of State Foresters) coordinated with subject matter experts from the North American State Fire Training Directors, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). As a result of this effort, training programs and policies conducive to accessible and efficient training and qualifications reciprocity systems were developed. The Skills Crosswalk is among these projects.

Purpose

The rapid expansion of human development into previously wildland areas has increased the need for and the complexity of rural fire protection. More and more, wildland fires threaten structures and other human development areas. Whether on public or privately owned lands, rural, volunteer and other local firefighters are often the first line of defense.

Local fire departments respond to approximately 1.6 million fires per year. Much of the nation’s fire protection is provided by the 658,000 volunteer firefighters and 27,000 career firefighters in rural communities (those with populations under 10,000). Comparatively, there are 16,000 permanent and seasonal wildland firefighters employed by federal agencies.

Safe and effective initial response to wildland fires requires basic training in wildland firefighting, such as wildland fire behavior, suppression methods, tools, safety and communications. Wildland firefighting skills training is managed by state and local agencies, which often use or adapt courses developed by the NWCG. The current wildland firefighting training standards do not adequately recognize the experience and qualifications of local, structural firefighters. Before the development of the Skills Crosswalk, no national system existed to help structural firefighters identify and target wildland fire training needs, while recognizing skills developed through structure fire training standards.

Skills Crosswalk, to be referred to as simply “Crosswalk”, identifies critical wildland firefighting skills that structural firefighters need to be safe and effective in an initial attack on a wildland fire in their jurisdiction or when working with state and federal wildland firefighters. Designed to reduce course content redundancies between wildland and structural fire suppression training, the Crosswalk details additional skills structural firefighters need to achieve equivalency in the NWCG wildland fire training system.

Crosswalk provides a performance-based methodology and a learning resource guide for qualified structural firefighters to develop wildland firefighting knowledge and skills in a focused and time-efficient format. Structural firefighters with wildland skills work more safely and effectively on initial and extended attack operations. Cooperative firefighting efforts with neighboring jurisdictions and with federal wildland firefighters are enhanced.

Crosswalk was developed by analyzing and comparing NFPA structural firefighting standards with NWCG wildland firefighting Position Task Books. The resulting Crosswalk identifies wildland skills and knowledge that qualified and experienced firefighters would not already have acquired through their structural firefighting training. By incorporating a structural firefighter’s existing fire suppression knowledge and skills, use of Crosswalk reduces required classroom hours, minimizes curriculum redundancies, and makes efficient use of limited training hours. Currently the Crosswalk is limited to Wildland Firefighter 2, Wildland Firefighter 1, Engine Boss and Strike Team Leader (Engines).

Next Phase

Phase III of this project is under way. The course materials are being developed in a modular format. These gap courses will be on CD-ROM and are expected to be available by October 2008. The USFA will utilize PREPnet via Web cast to provide information on the project, including the end products along with distribution and delivery methods. A USFA press release will announce availability of the gap courses.