WUI Fire Service Curriculum

SFPE Foundation Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Service Curriculum 

The Fifth Needs Assessment of the US Fire Service, published in December 2021, includes a section on Wildland & WUI Firefighting.  The Needs Assessment concluded that 78% of fire departments responsible for wildland and WUI fires have unmet training and resource needs; 50% of smaller departments cannot handle a WUI fire involving more than one structure.

Clearly, there is a critical need for more WUI training for the fire service. While the SFPE Foundation cannot address WUI operational training needs, it can help address WUI planning and preparedness training needs for the fire service.

The US Fire Administration defines the “5Es” of community risk reduction as: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Emergency response, and Economic incentive. Bringing together the first two E’s, education and engineering, the SFPE Foundation used Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency Fire Prevention & Safety Grants (Fiscal Years 2021 and 2023) to develop two WUI preparedness courses. The SFPE Foundation's WUI courses are designed to educate fire service members on fire engineering elements of the WUI fire challenge, thereby reducing community risk. 

The FY 2021 FEMA FP&S grant enabled the SFPE Foundation to develop its initial WUI Risk Assessment & Mitigation course for the Fire Service. During the course development, participants identified the need for an Advanced WUI Fire Engineering Curriculum, which led to the SFPE Foundation seeking a FY 2023 FEMA FP&S grant to develop a second WUI curriculum. The SFPE Foundation is pursuing additional funding opportunities to develop future WUI courses that will benefit the fire service and the communities they serve. 

SFPE Foundation's goal is to offer to fire departments around the United States the ability to mix and match various WUI fire engineering training curriculum delivered in-person, virtually, or on-demand.  

See below for more information about each WUI course.  If you are interested in learning more about SFPE Foundation's WUI curriculum and how the Foundation can bring one of the WUI courses described below to your jurisdiction, please contact Lisa VanBuskirk, WUI Program Manager at lvanbuskirk@sfpefoundation.org 

 

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Risk Assessment & Mitigation for the Fire Service  

Between 2025-2026, the SFPE Foundation held a contract with the National Fire Academy to deliver our introductory WUI Risk Assessment & Mitigation course in 1-day (F0663) and 2-day (F2292) versions in 12 locations across the United States. The 2-day version of the course includes everything in the 1-day version, a unit providing in introduction to WUI Fire Dynamics, WUI Fire Modeling, and Human Behavior in WUI Fires, plus unit on how to use the WUI Virtual Handbook for Fire Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition. 

See the course schedules for the 1-day and 2-day training to learn more about the course contents.  

Between 2026-2027, the SFPE Foundation used a Fiscal Year 2024 DHS FEMA FP&S grant to deliver the 1-day WUI Risk Assessment course virtually 4 times and at 8 locations in-person.   

Collage of signs at training locations.

 

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Advanced Fire Engineering Training for the Fire Service  

Completed in July 2026, the Advanced WUI Curriculum is made up of three 4-hour modules and three free on-demand webinars. The Advanced WUI curriculum expands the fire science/engineering unit from the 2-day WUI Risk Assessment curriculum to create 12 hours of curriculum covering:

  • WUI Fire Dynamics (Units include Fire and Energy, Heat Transfer, Ignition and Fire Spread)
  • WUI Fire Modeling (Units include Fire Modeling Fundamentals, Wildfire Spread Models, Plume Dispersion & Impacts of Fire Effluents) 
  • Human Behavior in WUI Fire (Units include Human Behavior Fundamentals, Fire Impacts on People, Pedestrian Evacuation Modeling, and Traffic Evacuation Modeling)

Three free, on-demand webinars compliment the 12 hours of curriculum by offering a deeper dive into specific topics of interest. The webinars are available through SFPE"s learning management system, offering 1-1.5 Professional Development Hours upon successful completion of a quiz. (You must create a free account to view the webinars):

The development of the Advanced WUI Curriculum took 18-months and was piloted virtually (twice) and at four locations across the U.S. to solicit feedback from nearly 100 students to improve the course content, group activities, delivery, and knowledge tests. 

Collage of students attending WUI Training.

FEMA Advisory Panel Members  

For every FEMA Fire Prevention & Safety Grant awarded, the SFPE Foundation has convened an Advisory Panel of subject matter experts to help oversee the technical aspects of the grant and to confirm that materials developed meets the needs of the fire service.

Members of the FEMA Advisory Panel include:

  • Dory Booth - Hawaii State Fire Marshal​
  • Kris Cooper - Fire Marshal, Colorado Springs (CO) Fire Department 
  • Brad Cronin, CFPS - Assistant Fire Chief Avon (MA) Fire Department and Chair, SFPE Fire Service Subcommittee​
  • Daniel Gorham, PE - Research Engineer, Fire Safety Research Institute, UL Research Institutes​
  • Justice Jones, CWMS - International Code Council​
  • Jerry McAdams, CWMS - Owner, MC Fire LLC and Retired Boise (ID) Fire Department​
  • Brian Meurer - Asst. Chief & Fire Marshal, Louisville (KY) Fire Department, and Member, SFPE Fire Service Subcommittee​
  • Steve Quarles, PhD - Retired, University of California Cooperative Extension Advisor Emeritus and Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)​
  • Peter Senez, PhD - Principal & President, Senez Consulting, and Chair, SFPE Foundation Board​
  • Ashley Whitworth - Program Administrator, Wildfire Mitigation Section, Colorado Springs (CO) Fire Department​