2010 Wildfire Academy
New York Wildfire Incident Management Academy Concludes 10-day Run at Brookhaven National Lab
25 Courses Offered During Academy's 13th Year
UPTON, NY - The New York Wildfire and Incident Management Academy (NYWIMA), which ran from October 22 through October 31, 2010 at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and at Suffolk County's Fire Rescue and Emergency Services offices in Yaphank recently concluded its thirteenth year of operations and has now provided training to over 5,400 firefighters and emergency response personnel over its existence.
The Academy's goal is to provide for a safe learning environment for wildland firefighters and all-risk incident managers and to foster greater networking opportunities and partnerships between participants from federal, state, and local agencies.
To aid in achieving this objective, the NYWIMA is managed to mirror an actual incident utilizing the Incident Management System (ICS) under the direction of an Incident Management Team (IMT). The IMT reflects the interagency and cooperative nature of today's incident management philosophy with team members coming from federal, state, and local agencies.
In total approximately 400 personnel participated in the 2010 Academy. Participation included 45 overhead staff members, and 54 instructors from federal, state and local agencies. In total, 296 students representing 21 states and one Canadian province participated in the 2010 Academy.
This year the Academy offered 25 courses in a wide variety of areas resulting in the Red Card certification of wildland firefighters and the re-certification of firefighters. Additional training certification was completed in the following classes: Advanced Wildland Firefighter, Wildfire Powersaws, Ignition Operations and a Portable Pumps class.
This year's academy featured eight All Hazard Incident Command System classes which the Academy offered in conjunction with the New York State Emergency Management Office (SEMO). Course offerings were: (L-950) Incident Commander, (L-952) Public Information Officer, (L-954) Safety Officer, (L-958) Operations Section Chief, (L-962) Planning Section Chief, (L-967) Logistics Section Chief (L-973) Finance Section Chief and (L-956) Liaison Officer.
"The eight courses put on by the Academy and SEMO allowed individuals who have taken basic courses in incident management to begin to focus on what area of the Incident Command System they want to work in," Academy Coordinator Charles T. Hamilton said. "These courses are high level leadership classes that local incident management teams as well as national incident management teams team members take in order to develop the leadership skills that will enable these teams to respond to and manage disaster response efforts across the nation and in their counties and towns."
Participants in the joint Academy and SEMO program reviewed real life "all-risk, all-hazard" response efforts, and met with Incident Commanders from state and national Incident Management teams. Participants in this program were also formed into several incident management teams and were tasked with developing an Incident Action Plan for a potential large-scale "all-risk, all-hazard" event.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) conducted the Academy with a consortium of federal, state and county agencies including: (International) The Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact (Federal) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, United States Coast Guard, United States Forest Service, United States Fish and Wildlife Service (State) Central Pine Barrens Commission, Central Pine Barrens Wildfire Task Force, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, New York State Emergency Management Office, New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control (City, County and Other Organizations) Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Suffolk County Department of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services, Suffolk County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Conservation, the Colorado Wildfire Academy.
The Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact consists of the six New England states, New York and the provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Quebec as well as New England area national forests also provided support to the Academy. For the first time in Academy history two Canadian instructors from the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources helped academy staff put on advanced Incident Command System training classes.
The Academy was developed in response to the 1995 Long Island Pine Barrens wildland fires as well as to the increased overall frequency of wildland fires on Long Island. All courses were taught by certified wildland fire and incident command instructors, and meet all National Wildfire Coordination Group (NWCG) and SEMO standards.
"The courses were extremely successful and the New York Academy contributed to expanding the pool of certified resources that will be available for the 2011 wildland fire season, and to respond to other types of emergency incidents locally and nationally," Academy Coordinator Charles T. Hamilton said.
For further information regarding the Academy, please contact the Academy at (631) 444-0270, or visit the Academy's webpage.
More about 2010 Wildfire Academy:
- Wildfire Academy New Course Announcement - New York Wildfire and Incident Management Academy
