Fire Fighter 1 and 2 (NFPA 1001)
Fire Fighter 1 & 2 is an online fire service training program designed to provide an engaging learning experience for incumbent firefighters who seek continuing education material at the Firefighter I and II level. The goal of this course is to give those firefighters a broader and deeper understanding of material that’s not possible in entry-level training programs that have NFPA Firefighter I and II certifications as their end goal.
The material contained in this course aligns with the Firefighter I and II professional qualifications levels as outlined in the 2013 edition of NFPA 1001, Standard for Firefighter Professional Qualifications. The material also covers the job performance requirements from the 2018 edition of NFPA 472, Standard for Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents, at both the Awareness and Operations levels.
Learners will benefit from a self-paced training environment as well as an easy-to-use interface to make the course flow smoothly.
Features and benefits of this Firefighter course include:
- A simple, user-friendly interface to ensure that students do not waste time learning how to navigate through material.
- A safe and self-paced training environment that allows students to learn at their own pace.
FireRescue1 Academy’s course include updates to:
- The “Everybody Goes Home” campaign and its 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives.
- Firefighter communication standards.
- Fire scene decontamination for structure fires.
- Fire extinguishment techniques and fire streams.
- Fire detection, protection, and suppression systems.
- Changes in the National Incident Management System and incident command.
| Course Name | Course Description | Length |
|---|---|---|
| FF: History and Orientation of the Fire Service | History informs us not only of the past but where we are today. This course highlights the historical development of the fire service from its rudimentary beginnings to current day. In addition, the standards to which all firefighters uphold will be explored. |
1h |
| FF: Firefighter Safety | Firefighters encounter dangerous situations and have many responsibilities. The responsibility of firefighter safety is imperative to remain successful on the job. This course sheds light on the safety measures firefighters are to implement for on-the-job safety. | 1h |
| FF: Firefighter Communications | Communications is a critical element in determining the successful outcome of any situation or emergency and is one of the first topics of any incident critique. It plays a significant role in handling fire alarms or any call for help needing first responders. Failure of firefighters to communicate effectively can lead to increased property destruction and tragic loss of life. For firefighters and their department, communications and their center systems provide a link to the public, all firefighters, and units on an emergency scene, as well as the various agencies involved in an incident evolution or any other situation requiring coordination. In this course, under NFPA 1001, Standards for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, firefighters must be familiar with the communication systems, equipment, and procedures used by their department. In this course, firefighters will examine the basic administrative requirements for an effective communications network. | 1h |
| FF: Fire Behavior | To be safe and effective in the tasks associated with fire suppression, firefighters must understand how fire behaves. While there is no NFPA standard detailing fire behavior, its principles are reflected in all actions that serve to put out fires. This course covers several facets of understanding and applying fire behavior concepts. | 1h |
| FF: Building Construction | Understanding building construction and its effects on fire spread allows firefighters to provide more effective and safer fire suppression tasks and tactics. In this course, learners will examine material characteristics, building forces and loads, and use of space, all of which contribute to how a structure will react to fire. Firefighters must learn the signs of fire spread and a building potential for structural collapse. What is learned will be utilized in the overall size-up of a structure fire. | 1h |
| FF: Fire Fighter Tools | When faced with a challenging task, having the correct tool to leverage your effectiveness and complete the task successfully is imperative. This course discusses and demonstrates the various tools accessible to firefighters along with the requirements for effective and safe tool use. | 1h |
| FF: Ropes and Knots | Ropes have been used in the fire service for over 150 years. Ropes are used to secure and hoist equipment, stabilize vehicles, serve as barriers, assist on medical calls, and aid in the rescue of firefighters and civilians from high and low angles, underground, on the ice, and in the water. Failure to learn and apply the appropriate ropes, knots and accessories to a required task will immediately place the incident response and first responders including firefighters in a dangerous if not life-threatening situation. | 1h |
| FF: Ladders | Ladders are one of the fire fighter’s basic tools, carried on nearly every piece of structural firefighting apparatus. This module will explore the basic skills of working with ladders and physical requirements of performing ladder evolutions. | 1h 30m |
| FF: Response and Size-Up | As with all firefighter knowledge and skills, it is required by NFPA 1001, Standards for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, that all firefighters are familiar with the proper procedures for initiating an incident response from initial alarm to incident resolution, understanding the determining factors in forming an appropriate on-scene action plan, and recognizing the structure by which such factors are evaluated and implemented. A firefighter is responsible for all actions relating to alarm response including dispatch information and maintaining and donning appropriate PPE including SCBA. This course is designed to prepare a firefighter for entering and riding in a fire apparatus, using the correct methods and arriving on scene ready to work. | 1h |
| FF: Forcible Entry | Fires cannot be extinguished and searches cannot begin until entry is made by firefighters. Forcible entry is a primary task and requires knowledge, skill, and experience. Practiced entry into a building is fast and efficient, minimizing damage and allowing for safe and secure entry by other firefighters. To effectively enter a structure, firefighters must understand building construction, lock assemblies, as well as the numerous techniques used in forcible entry. Firefighters need to recognize the leverage principles behind the tools and techniques used in forcible entry as well as their associated dangers. Proper procedures, maintenance, and carrying techniques of forcible entry tools promote their effective use and the safety of firefighters. |
1h |
| FF: Search and Rescue | A firefighter’s mission is to protect life and property. This places any search and rescue operations at the top of the response priorities when answering a call to a structure fire. With today’s lightweight construction techniques and synthetic building and content materials, an aggressive search is critical to civilian life safety. In this course, learners will examine how search and rescue operations require that a firefighter’s skillset reflect the ability to size-up and plan an appropriate search demonstrating practiced and drilled search and rescue techniques. | 1h |
| FF: Ventilation | Ventilation is an essential part of a coordinated fire attack that, when conducted properly, improves safety, visibility, and tenability for both firefighters and civilians. This course will review the basics of ventilation and how these operations are conducted on the fireground. Ventilation is the planned and systematic removal of heat, smoke, toxic gases and flame from a structure. When coordinated with fire attack, ventilation provides a safer environment for firefighters and occupants while limiting fire spread and its subsequent damage to property. | 1.25 |
| FF: Fire Streams | In the course of their duty to protect property and save lives, firefighters put out fires. Fires are normally extinguished by the application of water, but when water is deemed ineffective, a foam product is added to water to improve its extinguishment capability. The flow of water or foam directed toward a fire from a nozzle and effectively reaching its intended target is defined as a fire stream. Under NFPA 1001, Standards for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, firefighters are required to know the extinguishing properties of water and foam products, the various nozzles available and their characteristics, as well as how to select, operate, and maintain them. | 1h 15m |
| FF: Fire Fighter Survival | This course will discuss concepts and a common-sense approach towards firefighter survival. With the ever-evolving nature of firefighting and the hazards present on every fire scene, it is essential to understand the inherent risks and to build self-awareness for firefighter survival. Equally as important is the ability to prepare mentally and physically for survival when presented with a serious risk to life. | 1h |
| FF: Salvage and Overhaul | In this course, we will discuss firefighter exposures during fire overhaul and how firefighter work practices can contribute to unnecessary exposures. We will review the toxic gases that are present in overhaul, why monitoring for CO does not predict the presence or absence of other toxic gases and what can be done to protect the firefighter during overhaul in the form of better work practices. We will also discuss how residential fire sprinkler systems are having an impact on both overhaul and salvage operations for fire departments, as well as reducing firefighter exposure to toxic gases and carcinogens. | 1h |
| FF: Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) | It is everyone’s responsibility to have a voice in cancer prevention of firefighters, not just middle and senior level leaders. Firefighters at all levels of an organization must be on the front lines, hold themselves and their organization accountable, and eliminate the we’ve always done it methodology of thinking. In this course, we will discuss the paradigm shift of the importance of decontaminating personal protective equipment (PPE) after fire-related incidents, how unclean PPE is linked to types of cancer, simple yet essential methods to decon PPE, as well as managing a culture of change. | 1h |
| FF: Wildland and Ground Fires | This course provides an in-depth understanding of how to apply your knowledge of fuels and fire behavior to the wildland fire environment. We start with an overview of wildland fire behavior and the key factors influencing wildland and ground fires. The second part focuses on applying this knowledge to provide for your safety as well as that of your team. | 1h |
| FF: Fire Suppression | In this course, we will discuss two significant developments in fire suppression, compressed air foam (CAF) and ultra-high-pressure pumps (UHP). A growing body of research shows that both fire suppression technologies are superior to plain water fire streams generated from low-pressure pumps. Equally apparent is that both technologies need to be used by more fire departments on a daily basis. This expansion is dependent upon current and future fire officers and firefighters becoming educated about what makes CAF and UHP better fire suppression options. | 1h |
| FF: Fire and Emergency Medical Care | Opioid overdoses and EMS lift assists are rapidly growing in number. This course looks at the causes and provides recommendations for firefighters involved in these incidents. | 1h |
| FF: Vehicle Rescue and Extrication Techniques | Vehicle accidents are one of the most frequent calls for service fire departments responds to annually. Each of these incidents challenges our critical thinking and our technical skills with assorted sizes and types of vehicles to challenging terrain and access. In this course, we will focus on vehicle extrication scene considerations, accessing victims, and extrication and disentanglement techniques. Additionally, because of the increase in electric and alternative fuel vehicles, we will emphasize safety considerations, access, and successful tactics for extrication and incident stabilization. | 1h |
| FF: Assisting Special Rescue Teams | Assisting Special Rescue Teams is a multi-faceted operation that begins with quality information and decisions by the first responders. Many close calls and rescuer fatalities are attributed to a lack of understanding of the hazards present at fire events such as hazardous materials and technical rescue events. This course will walk you through the logical progression of an incident, starting with hazard identification, discuss initial action to be taken, and conclude with the supporting tasks needed for special teams. | 1h |
| FF: Properties and Effects | This course will discuss the basics of chemical properties and their effects on the environment, first responders, and their equipment. Having the requisite knowledge of chemical properties will help you be successful and safe on the job. In addition, the material presented in this course will enable you to learn about the correlation between a chemical, its properties, and potential hazards to first responders and the general public. The significance of understanding chemical properties will empower you in tactical decision making. | 1h |
| FF: Recognizing and Identifying the Hazards | Many times, change comes slowly in the fire service as long-held beliefs and traditions can impede the adoption of new things. This course is designed to inform and educate firefighters about the wide variety of hazards to their health and safety. | 1h |
| FF: Implementing a Response | This course looks at preparing a response to extreme and greater alarm events. We will review incident management concepts and terms. You will consider the insights from FDNY Chief of Counterterrorism and Emergency Preparedness, Joseph W. Pfeifer, when confronting crisis and catastrophic events. Chief Pfeifer has been researching these events since he was the first arriving battalion chief at the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 and is recognized as an international authority. We will also look at the tasks and expectations when responding to a greater alarm event and review how a regional urban coalition prepares a Level 2 Rapid Intervention Team. |
1h |
| FF: Response Priorities and Actions | This course looks at two high hazard situations that present serious safety issues to firefighters: civil disturbances and highway incidents. Both types of incidents require specific response priorities and actions different than responding to a structure fire. Learners will examine civil disturbances where there is gun violence aimed at firefighters as well as review civil unrest operational recommendations from the Urban Fire Forum. There is also the rising problem of distracted drivers striking people and fire apparatus. We will explore different approaches to firefighter safety on highway incidents and consider roadway operations best practices from the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. | 1h |
| FF: Decontamination Techniques | Decontamination must be considered at every fire incident. This course will detail hazardous materials response, the need for decontamination, and how firefighters trained at the operations level are used within incident command and operations structure. We will conclude with a focused discussion on the emergent need to decontaminate structural, personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as best practices to effectively accomplish this task on the scene and in the station. | 1h |
| FF: Terrorism Awareness | First-responders today face a variety of threats to their health and safety. One of the newer threats following the attacks of September 11 is terrorism. As first responders, especially those who also fulfill EMS roles, have a potential to find themselves at a terrorism-related emergency, be it from a domestic terrorist (a bad guy with a gun) or an international terrorist group. In this course, we will discuss two of the most common types of terrorism-related events that first-responders can encounter. | 1h |
| FF: Community Outreach | In this course, we discuss the topic of community outreach by the fire service to its citizens. Outreach is an essential part of the department’s service delivery and educating people of all ages about how to protect themselves from fire and other hazards, to which firefighters would otherwise be called to respond. The key aspects of outreach are answering; who, what, why, when, where, and how fire departments can connect with their citizens. | 1h |
| FF: Fire Detection, Protection, and Suppression Systems | Firefighters tactical priorities are always: life safety, incident stabilization, and property conservation. Fire protection, extinguishing, suppression, and alarm systems are installed in structures to meet these same objectives. All firefighters should have a basic understanding of the types of systems they may encounter, how they interact, and their basic operation. This course describes the different types of fire protection and detection systems and explains how their effectiveness is reliant on proper functioning and inter-connectivity. | 1h |
| FF: Fire Cause Determination | In your role as a fire first-responder, you are also a first-observer. You are the person who sees what the initial smoke conditions, who gets the first look at the interior fire scene during extinguishment and sees interior fire scene after extinguishment; that puts you in the best position to gather information on the point of origin, the cause of ignition, how the fire spread and more. Fire investigators, whether they arrive in one hour or one day, rely heavily on such initial observations. In this course, we will discuss what can make you a better first-observer and a firefighter or fire officer who can be a reliable source of assistance to the fire investigator. | 1h |
| FF: Incident Command | In this course, we discuss the use of the incident command system and the importance of establishing an incident command structure early. Topics will include general operating guidelines, organization structure, command responsibilities, command modes, and initial priorities for any Incident commander on some of the most common incidents. The course concludes with a discussion on the organization, and best practices for assignment and incident management of a fire in a single-family residence and a fire in a commercial occupancy. | 1h |