Title
Colorado Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy (CWFIMA)
Body
From:
Bret Waters, Deputy Chief of Staff/Emergency Management Director, Office of Emergency Management
Summary:
The CWFIMA group will brief City Council to introduce the Academy, what they offer, their history, and what is brought to the community during the week. The CWFIMA group will consist of the Incident Commander, Liaison Officer, Public Information Officer, and up to two trainees.
Previous Council Action:
N/A
Background:
In 1996, a group of emergency responders from varied response disciplines founded the Colorado Wildfire Academy and Great Plains Wildfire College, realizing the need to provide National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), Incident Command System (ICS), and other quality emergency management courses.
Since their inception, these colleges and academies have delivered training to over 15,000 students. After the events of September 11, 2001, the board has constantly modified the curriculum to meet the ever-changing requirements of fire, emergency medical, law enforcement, and other emergency management agencies and personnel. The value of incident management training has been reinforced numerous times with unprecedented fire seasons, the Columbia Shuttle Recovery and hurricanes Ivan, Katrina, and Rita.
In 2007, to address the future training needs of emergency management, the board voted to adopt a single moniker to express our long-term commitment to a diverse curriculum of quality training. Therefore, the official name was changed to the Colorado Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy (CWFIMA) and it became the “umbrella” over the Academy and College.
CWFIMA’s mission statement is to “Promote safety and integrate the efforts of local, State, Federal, Tribal, private-sector, and non-governmental emergency response organizations by utilizing the Incident Command System and facilitating a national approach to domestic incident management by providing both the cognitive and hands-on incident management knowledge, instructed by the nation’s brightest authorities.”
The 2016 Winter Academy is being held at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS) located at 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway in Colorado Springs from Jan 9-15, 2016.
The Academy expects between 800 and 1,000 participants at this winter’s event. The Academy provides valuable and federally-mandated training to firefighters, emergency service providers, and incident management personnel. Students are being called upon to respond to many different types of local, regional, and national emergencies (e.g., floods, hurricanes, wildfires, terrorist attacks, etc.).
Financial Implications:
N/A
Board/Commission Recommendation:
N/A
Stakeholder Process:
N/A
Alternatives:
N/A
Recommended Action
Proposed Motion:
N/A
Ordinance Language
N/A