2007 Wildfire Academy
New York Wildfire & Incident Management Academy Concludes 10-day Run at Brookhaven National Lab
25 Courses Offered During Academy's 10th Anniversary Year
Upton, NY - The New York Wildfire and Incident Management Academy (NYWIMA), which ran from October 26, 2006 through November 4, 2007 at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and at Suffolk County's Fire Rescue and Emergency Services offices in Yaphank recently concluded its tenth year of operations and has now provided training to over 4,500 firefighters and emergency response personnel over its ten year 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, 571 personnel participated in the 2007 Academy. Participation included 64 overhead staff members, and 37 instructors from federal, state and local agencies. In total, 470 students representing 33 states and one Canadian province participated in the 2007 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: Crew Boss, Advanced Wildland Firefighter, Powersaws. The Academy also offered and Situation Unit Leader and as well as a Tactical Decision Games Workshop.
This year the Academy debuted a new five-day incident management team workshop. The workshop addresses the need for students (incident managers) to be able to apply the knowledge they gained from classroom exercises to real-life situations. To do this the Academy developed a unique program that is designed to replicate an incident which would utilize the incident command system in order to manage first responders efforts.
"The Incident Management Team Workshop was designed to give emergency response managers practical experience in handling large-scale emergency response efforts," Academy Coordinator Charles T. Hamilton said. "This program involved two full-day scenarios where building team cohesion, proper management principles and overall effectiveness was evaluated by some of the nation's top emergency response managers. The one-on-one coaching trainees in the workshop received from some of the nation's top incident managers will help workshop members develop skills in key foundation positions under the Incident Command System (ICS) organization."
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) conducted the 2006 Academy along with a consortium of federal, state and county agencies including: (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, and the Northeast Compact, an international organization focusing on wildland fire prevention, education and suppression activities. The Compact is composed of representatives from seven states and three Canadian provinces.
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) 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 2008 wildland fire season, and to respond to emergency incidents locally and nationally," Academy Coordinator Charles T. Hamilton said.
For further information regarding the Academy, please contact Charles Hamilton at (631) 444-0270, or visit the Academy's website
More about 2007 Wildfire Academy:
- Wildfire Academy New Course Announcement - New York Wildfire and Incident Management Academy
- Wildfire Academy Fact Sheet - New York Wildfire and Incident Management Academy
